ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' baseball team dug itself into two big early deficits and could not overcome them in an American Southwest Conference doubleheader sweep against LeTourneau, falling 15-9 in game one and 10-6 in game two.
In the first game, LeTourneau jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the second inning. The big blow was a Dane Jones grand slam in the second inning.
The Cowboys started chipping away with a
Jake Trapani RBI double and RBI singles by
Luke Kirkbride and
Brock Calvillo in the second inning. LeTourneau pushed in to 10-3 with a pair of runs in the fourth.
HSU responded with a three-run fourth. Calvillo had a sacrifice fly,
Justin Blancaflor an RBI single and Trapani added another RBI double. Issac Price and Jones homered again in the sixth and the lead was pushed out to 15-7.
Baylan Vaughan had a bases-loaded walk in the sixth and Trapani an RBI single in the seventh.
Trapani and Kirkbride had three hits each for the Cowboys. Jones, Xander Nabors and Luke Land all had four hits for LeTourneau.
Zac Schneier earned the win for the Yellowjackets as the most effective reliever.
Alex Carte allowed eight runs in two innings of work to take the loss.
Game two had a similar start. Jones and Land each had two-run home runs in the first inning and LeTourneau made it 7-0 in the second inning with three more runs.
Brady Bennett got the start and fell to 1-3 after allowing seven runs over one-plus innings.
Jace Martinez came in and gave the Cowboys a chance to get back in the game as he worked eight innings of relief and allowed just three runs.
HSU scored a run in the second on an error and
Quincy McGraw hit his fourth home run of the year in the fifth, a two-run shot. Blancaflor had an RBI single in the seventh to cut it to 8-4. Each team scored a run in the eighth, the Cowboys came on a sacrifice fly by
Hunter Trojacek in his first career at-bat. Nabors had an RBI triple in the ninth to push it to 10-5.
The Cowboys had a chance in the bottom of the ninth when Trapani walked with the bases loaded. HSU still had them loaded with one out, but
Jacob Hollingsworth hit a rocket up the middle but LeTourneau was shaded up the middle and shortstop Austin Weiderhold snared the hard-hit ball stepped on the bag and flipped to first to end the game on a double play.
Five different Cowboys had two hits each. Jones and Nabors had three hits each. Jones has two home runs in all three games in the series.
HSU is now 7-19 on the year and 4-7 in ASC play, LeTourneau improved to 17-13 overall and 9-2 in conference action. The teams will concluded the series with a single game at noon on Saturday.
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