ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' baseball team won a doubleheader to complete a series sweep against LeTourneau in American Southwest Conference action winning 9-3 in the first game and 2-0 in the nightcap on Saturday afternoon at Hunter Field. 

Game 1

Grant Mitzelfelt went the distance and scattered eight hits and allowed three runs while striking out five. He is now 3-3 on the year.

HSU scored first in the second inning when Gannon Azios scored on the back end of a double play to make it 1-0. Garrett Frazier hit his fourth home run of the season in the third a two-run shot to make it 3-0.

LeTourneau scored on a Dylan Cortes RBI single in the fourth and HSU responded with five runs in the fourth. Weston Hickman had a sacrifice fly, Luke Kirkbride had an RBI single and Frazier added a three-run double.

Jett Forrest made it 9-1 in the sixth with a sacrifice fly. LeTourneau scored a run on a double play in the seventh and Cameron Pfafman added an RBI single.

Raul Martinez fell to 0-4 with the loss allowing eight earned runs over three and two-third innings.

Frazier had three hits and drove in five runs for HSU.  Pfafman, Carter Amarantos and Devin Greaff each had two hits for LeTourneau.

Game 2

Brandon Girod (1-2) was superb in a pitching duel with Aman Patel. Girod allowed just three hits and struck out in the Cowboys' first shutout on the mound since the season opener in 2019 when Ty Engelhardt shut out Hendrix. Patel allowed just three hits and struck out 10 for LeTourneau and fell to 1-2 with the loss.

The game was scoreless until the sixth inning when Luke Kirkbride walked and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and to third on a wild pitch. He alertly scored when Frazier struck out on a pitch in the dirt. Pfafman had to scramble to get the ball and throw it to first to complete the strike out Kirkbride got a good read and took off and scored uncontested on a dive at home.

Sam Buchkowski then hit a long home run to right center in the seventh to make it 2-0.

Frazier, Forrest and Buchkowski had one hit each for the Cowboys. Three different LeTourneau hitters had one hit each.

HSU is now 10-9 on the year and 8-7 in league play. It marks the latest the Cowboys have had a winning record in a season since 2016, LeTourneau fell to 6-16 overall and 3-12 in league play. HSU will hit the road for six straight games starting Tuesday at Schreiner.

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