ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' baseball team beat Concordia-Chicago, 14-9, on Saturday at Hunter Field to take the series two games to one.

Concordia scored three runs in the first inning. HSU scored a run in the first on a double play, and the Cougars did the same in the third to push the lead to 4-1.

HSU exploded for six runs in the third inning to take the lead for good. Catcher Ridings had an RBI single and Justin Blancaflor followed with his sixth home run of the year, a three-run shot. Paul Samaripa had an RBI double.

Samaripa had a sacrifice fly in the fourth and Cannon Negron added a two-run single in the fourth to push the lead to 10-5. Blancaflor added an RBI single in the fifth, giving him 33 RBIs on the year.

Concordia narrowed the gap to 11-8 in the eighth inning but the Cowboys responded with three insurance runs. Hunter Trojacek had an RBI double and Ridings added a two-run double.

Jack Kimsey started for the Cowboys and went four and one-third innings, allowing five runs on six hits. Garrett Keller came in and worked two and two-third innings of relief allowing just one run on two hits to earn his first collegiate victory. Van Brady, Bradley Fletcher and Ethan Cloudt all worked in the eighth inning before Cloudt got out of a bases-loaded jam. He then worked the ninth for his second save of the year.

Jack Linko, the first of six Cougar pitchers, took the loss allowing six runs on seven hits in two-plus innings of work.  

Hollingsworth had three hits to pace the 15-hit attack for the Cowboys. Brandon Mahler had three of the 11 Concordia hits.
The game featured 12 pitchers and 371 combined pitchers and took 3:31 minutes. The teams combined to walk 18 batters and hit six more. Concordia left the bases loaded four times and left 15 men on base and the Cowboys left 11.

HSU is now 12-9 on the year and will travel to Arlington Baptist for a single game at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. CUC fell to 4-8 on the season.
 
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