MARSHALL, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' baseball rallied to tie its game at 4-4 in the eighth inning, but fell late to East Texas Baptist, 6-4, on Friday night at Woods Field in Marshall.
ETBU took an early 3-0 lead with a pair of home runs in the third inning. Connor Massimini had a two-run home run and Dylan Burnaman added a solo shot.
The Tigers' starter Matthew Irwin was perfect through five innings, but
Karson Leatherwood broke up the perfect game with a long solo home run to lead off the sixth inning. The Cowboys had a chance to tie the game later in the inning but left the bases loaded.
Jake Trapani had an RBI groundout in the seventh inning to narrow the deficit to 3-2. Carson Liversay had an RBI fielder's choice in the seventh inning to make the score 4-2.
HSU tied the game in the eighth inning on a two-run home run by
Jacob Hollingsworth.
Jace Martinez came into the game to start the third inning and worked four scoreless innings to let the Cowboys battle back in the game. He ran into trouble in the seventh with one out when he hit Luke Bumpus and walked Ben Lea. He was relieved by
Johnny Follett who hit Hunter Rumachik to load the bases. Livesay brought home a run on an RBI groundout and Follett struck out Massimini to end the inning.
In the eighth, Nicolas Chavez walked, Burnaman reached on a bunt single and Luke Finn was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Brady Bennett came on and got an out when Jacob Hollinsworth dove and got a ball and stepped on third to get the out as a run scored. Bumpus then walked to reload the bases and Ben Lea walked with the bases loaded to push the lead to 6-4.
Caleb Smith came on and got a double play on the first pitch he threw to get out of the inning.
Carson Speegle, who had come on in the seventh inning and had allowed two runs, worked a scoreless ninth to earn the win. Burnaman and Finn had two hits each for ETBU.
Hollingsworth led the Cowboys with two hits.
HSU is now 12-25 on the year and its season will be on the line at 11 a.m. on Friday when it plays Mary Hardin-Baylor in an elimination game.
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