ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' baseball team scored 16 runs in the bottom of the first inning as the Cowboys rolled over the University of Dallas, 18-5, on Tuesday night at Hunter Field in non-conference action.

HSU exploded for a school-record 16 runs on 14 hits in the bottom of the first inning. Luke Kirkbride led off with a double, the first of three hits in the inning for him. Weston Hickman followed with a two-run home run. He later added a three-run home run in the inning. Corey Ballew had a two-run double and a pair of runs scored on an error. Ballew added another RBI single, Sam Buchkowski had a two-run single, Nick Ellington a two-run double and Kirkbride an RBI double.

Ryan Flores came on for the Crusaders and got out of the jam eventually. He then shut the Cowboys down for four innings.

Tyler Darnell put the Crusaders on the board in the third inning with an RBI single. Anthony Maldonado, and Andrew Womack each had RBI groundouts in the fourth and Tim Andre had an RBI single in the fourth to make it 16-4.

Azios had a solo home run in the fifth and Cody Harral added an RBI single in the sixth for HSU. Jon Talley added an RBI single in the seventh for UD.

Kirkbride had four of the 17 hits to pace the Cowboys. Darnell had three hits for the Crusaders.

Hayden Clark started and went two innings in a predetermined bullpen day for the Cowboys. He moved to 4-0 with the win. Caleb Smith, Orel Rhodes, Pato Wray, Kadin Croak, and Kolten Kitchens also worked out of the bullpen.

Croak was seeing his first action of the season after hip surgery. He was one of the top arms for the Cowboys a year ago and could bolster the bullpen down the stretch.

Colby Fuller (2-0) took the loss for UD allowing 14 runs on 12 hits in the first inning.

The Cowboys are now 18-15 on the year and have a huge three=game series at Concordia this weekend. Those teams are tied in the league standings with two weeks remaining.

Dallas fell to 9-21 and saw its losing streak extend to 12 games.  

--- www.hsuathletics.com ---