ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' baseball team won its fourth straight game with a 9-4 win over Howard Payne on Tuesday night at Hunter Field in Abilene.

Hayden Clark pitched five strong innings and improved to 3-0 on the year. He scattered five hits and one run, while striking out four. Corey Ballew tossed two scoreless innings. Jaydon Stephens tossed a scoreless eighth and Alex Carte worked the ninth.

Ricky Mays took the loss to fall to 0-5 for HPU. He allowed five runs in three and two-third innings. He was the first of six pitchers for the Yellow Jackets.

Derek Gifford put HPU on the board in the first inning with a solo home run. It was all the scoring for the Jackets until they scored three runs in the ninth. Anthony Cook had three hits to pace HPU.

Brayden Martin tied the game in the third inning with an RBI single. HSU exploded for five runs in the fourth inning. Ballew had an RBI double, Gannon Azios had a two-run home run, Luke Kirkbride had an RBI double and Garrett Frazier an RBI single.

Kirkbride added an RBI groundout in the sixth and Frazier had another RBI single in the eighth. Martin stole home as part of a double steal in the eighth as well.

Jett Forrest led the HSU offense with four hits in the game, including a pair of doubles.

HSU has won 9-of-11 games and is a season-best four games over .500. The Cowboys are 15-11 on the year. Howard Payne fell to 8-19 on the year.

The Cowboys open a crucial three-game American Southwest Conference series at McMurry on Friday night.

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