ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' baseball team split an American Southwest Conference doubleheader, winning 9-1 and falling 9-5, on Friday at Hunter Field.
In the first game,
Caleb Reynolds was sensational on the mound. He allowed four hits over the first two innings and Jacob Newland had an RBI double in the second inning. He allowed one hit the rest of the way and that man was immediately erased on a double play on the next pitch. He retired the last 11 in a row. He improved to 7-2 on the year and moved to 74 strikeouts on the season, five off the school single-season record.
The offense exploded for eight runs in the second inning.
Hunter Trojacek had an RBI single,
Jacob Hollingsworth had an RBI on a grounder and
Catcher Ridings hit a three-run home run to chase starter Cole Morkovsky.
Ty McCoy added a two-run home run.
Trojacek added an RBI single in the sixth inning for the Cowboys.
Trojacek, McCoy and
Cannon Negron had two hits each for the Cowboys. Riley Bender had two of the five UMHB hits.
In the second game, both starters were effective with the Cowboys leading 4-2 through six innings but the Crusaders erupted for five runs in the seventh inning to take the lead.
Luke Najera and Negron had RBI singles in the second innings. Bender hit a home run for UMHB in the fourth inning and tied the game in the sixth with a double on the first pitch he saw from reliever
Ethan Cloudt, who had replaced starter
Jace Martinez. Martinez went five and two-third innings and allowed just two runs, while not walking a batter and striking out four.
Gavin Bruning gave the Cowboys the lead back in the sixth with a home run and Najera hit his first home run of his career later in the inning to make it 4-2.
Cameron Talburt was hit by a pitch in the seventh with the bases loaded and Easton Cline followed with a sacrifice fly to tie the game. Taylor McDaniel had a two-run double and Nolan Williams added an RBI single.
Justin Blancaflor cut the deficit to 7-5 in the seventh inning with an RBI single, his 52
nd RBI of the year. Cline had a two-run single in the eighth inning to give the Crusaders insurance.
Cloudt fell to 0-4 with the loss.
Kannon Baird worked two and two-third innings of relief. Reid Davis went five and two-thirds innings allowing four runs for UMHB. Carter Kammlah earned the win out of the bullpen to improve to 2-0. Mason Semmelmann held the Cowboys scoreless for two and one-third innings for his first save.
Bruning, Blancaflor Najera, Fielder and Negron each had two hits for the Cowboys. Bender and Cline each had three hits for UMHB. Both teams finished with 13 hits in the game.
HSU is now 25-14 on the year and 6-5 in conference play. UMHB is now 24-15 overall and 5-6 in league play.
The teams will close the series at noon on Saturday. HSU will celebrate its eight seniors before the game.
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