ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' baseball team swept Howard Payne 5-4 and 13-6 on Friday afternoon at Hunter Field to take all three games of the American Southwest Conference series.
Game 1
Hardin-Simmons took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a
Karson Leatherwood RBI single and Howard Payne tied the game in the third on a Derek Gifford sacrifice fly. The game remained 1-1 until the fifth when
Jett Forrest gave the Cowboys a 3-1 lead with a two-run single.
Howard Payne then stung the Cowboys with a three-run home run in the sixth inning by Tanner Benson to take a 4-3 lead.
HSU responded right back and tied the game in the sixth with an RBI single by
Baylan Vaughan. In the ninth inning, the Cowboys loaded the bases and Leatherwood was hit by a pitch to drive in
Kyler Reed with the winning run.
Grant Mitzelfelt was again great for the Cowboys as he had allowed one run until the home run in the sixth. He was able to go the distance and earned the win to improve to 2-3 He allowed just four hits and struck out four. Nicholas Richards allowed two runs to take the loss.
Reed, Forrest, Leatherwood and
Sam Buchkowski each had two hits for the Cowboys in the game.
Game 2
The second game the Cowboys opened up the offense with 13 runs. They scored six times in the second inning to take a 6-1 lead.
Gannon Azios hit a tape=measure home run. Leatherwood had an RBI single, Hollingsworth had a three-run triple and
Nick Ellington had a RBI double.
HPU responded with five runs in the third inning to tie the game, William Burford had a two-run home run in the inning.
Cowboy ace
Caidon Livingston who had not started a game since the season opener lasted just three innings and he allowed six runs but
Brandon Girod came in on top of him in the fourth inning and was dominant. He allowed just one run over six innings and struck out six to improve to 2-2 on the year.
HSU took the lead in the bottom of the third inning on a Buchkowski RBI groundout. Azios added another home run a two-run shot in the fifth inning.
Luke Kirkbride had an RBI single, Reed walked with bases loaded and two more runs scored on an error for HSU.
Axios and Leatherwood had three hits each for the Cowboys.
The Cowboys were able to make some movement up the standings in the ASC. HSU is now 5-7 in league play and 10-15 overall. Howard Payne fell to 9-16 overall and 5-10 in conference action.
HSU returns to play next weekend at Mary Hardin-Baylor.
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