BROWNWOOD, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' baseball team completed a four-game American Southwest Conference sweep of Howard Payne with a 12-8 win on Sunday at Don Shepard Park.
 
Colby Chapman had a two-run single in the first to give the Yellow Jackets an early lead.
 
Benji Fielder had an RBI single in the second and Catcher Ridings a two-run double and Justin Blancaflor a sacrifice fly, a run scored on a wild pitch and Cannon Negron had a RBI fielder's choice to push the lead to 6-2 in the third
 
HPU tied the game with a single run in the third and three runs in the fifth and two more in the fifth to take the lead.
 
HSU exploded with six runs in the sixth inning. Gavin Bruning had an RBI single and Justin Blancaflor had a three-run double to give him 50 RBIs on the season. 
 
The Cowboys used five different pitchers in the game. Kannon Baird started and Bradley Fletcher came on and got a double play to get out of the first inning and worked two more innings. Guy George and Bo Bolton split the fourth inning. HSU picked up a run on a balk and a Negron RBI single.
 
Garrett Keller came on to start the fifth inning and went the rest of the way. He allowed just one unearned run and struck out five to move to 2-2 on the year.
 
Hollingsworth, Ridings and Bruning had two hits each for the Cowboys. Nader Gulamhusein had three hits for HPU. 
 
HSU is now 21-13 on the year and 4-4 in ASC play. Howard Payne fell to 13-21 overall and 0-4 in league play. The Cowboys will conclude their regular season with a four-game set at home next weekend against Mary Hardin-Baylor, beginning with a 6 p.m. game on Thursday. 
 
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