ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' baseball team defeated Mary Hardin-Baylor 7-6 on Thursday night at Hunter Field in the first game of a four-game American Southwest Conference series.
The game started out as a pitcher's duel between
Jack Kimsey and Alex Hill. Neither team scored until the Cowboys struck for some two-out magic in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Justin Blancaflor had an RBI double and freshman
Ty McCoy followed with a two-run home run, the first of his career.
UMHB came right back in the top of the fifth with a pair of runs, one scoring on an error on a bunt play and the other on an Easton Cline sacrifice fly.
Catcher Ridings hit a long home run in the bottom of the fifth to give the Cowboys a 4-2 lead.
The Crusaders struck for three runs in the sixth inning. Nolan Willims homered, Jacob Newland had an RBI single. Kimsey left with the bases loaded for freshman reliever
Garrett Keller who walked in a run before getting out of the jam with UMHB leading 6-5.
The Cowboys answered right back with a two-run two-out single by
Cannon Negron. HSU added a run in the seventh inning thanks to the speed of
Jacob Hollingsworth. He singled and then aggressively took third base on a Ridings single to shallow left. He later scored on a wild pitch.
Keller worked 1-2-3 innings in the seventh and eighth innings. The Crusaders got a walk and a pair of one-out singles to narrow the gap to 7-6. HSU went to its closer
Ethan Cloudt, who induced a game-ending double play by Landon Pyles.
Keller earned the win to move to 3-2 on the year and it was the third save of the year for Cloudt.
McCoy and Ridings each had two hits for the Cowboys. HSU also had three stolen bases and now have 63 on the year, surpassing the record of 61 set last year.
Taylor McDaniel and Tyler Martin each had three hits to pace UMHB. Hill took the loss allowing six runs in five and two-thirds innings to fall to 6-3 on the year.
HSU improved to 22-13 on the year and 5-4 in ASC play. Mary Hardin-Baylor fell to 23-14 overall and 4-5 in conference play.
The two teams will play a doubleheader on Friday, beginning at 4 p.m.
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