BROWNWOOD, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' baseball team opened its American Southwest Conference series at Howard Payne with a 16-4 win on Friday afternoon at Don Shepard Park in Brownwood.

The Cowboys had 18 hits in the game and had two five-run innings and a four-run inning.

HSU opened the scoring in the second on a Karson Leatherwood RBI single in the second inning. In the third inning, HSU scored five times. Gannon Azios had an RBI single, a run scored on a passed ball, Jett Forrest had a two-run single and Kyler Reed had an RBI single. Azios added an RBI single in the fourth.

In the fifth inning, Luke Kirkbride had an RBI fielder's choice, Colby Seltzer walked with the bases loaded and Azios had a two-run single. Kayden Kelley put the Yellow Jackets on the board with a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning.

HSU scored five more times in the seventh inning. Leatherwood and Sam Buchkowski each had two-run RBI singles and Reed added an RBI single. HPU scored two runs in the seventh and one more in the eighth to set up the final score.

Azios had a big day for the Cowboys. He went 4-for-4 with four RBIs and three runs scored. He also walked two times, reaching base in all six plate appearances. Seltzer and Buchkowski each had three hits for HSU.

Caidon Livingston was solid on the mound, going six innings allowing just one run on four hits. He improved to 6-2 on the year. Jacob Posey worked two innings and Brandon Girod tossed a 1-2-3 ninth.

Seth Bowman led the Jackets with three hits. Brendan Reed, the first of five HPU pitchers, took the loss. He allowed seven runs on 11 hits in four innings to fall to 1-4 on the year.

HSU is now 11-14 overall and 7-6 in ASC play. Howard Payne fell to 11-13 overall and 5-8 in conference play. The teams will play a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday.

--- www.hsuathletics.com ---