ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons' baseball team celebrated senior day with an 11-3 win over Mary Hardin-Baylor on Saturday in American Southwest Conference action at Hunter Field.

The win gave the Cowboys the series three games to one and secured the No. 2 seed in next week's American Southwest Conference Tournament at East Texas Baptist. HSU will play the Crusaders in the first round at 3 p.m. on Thursday.

HSU honored its eight seniors – Brock Calvillo, Dane DeLugo, Bradley Fletcher, Evan Giles, Karson Leatherwood, Jimmy Mathis and Knox Wilson – in a ceremony after the game.

HSU concluded the regular season with a record of 24-14 overall and 7-5 in conference play. The 24 wins are the most at HSU since the 2016 season. It is also an 11-game improvement over last season.

Fletcher got the start for the Cowboys and went two and one-third innings, allowing no runs on three hits. Freshman Jeron Flores came on for the Cowboys and he worked four and one-third innings to earn the win. He allowed three runs to improve to 5-3 on the year. Garrett Keller came on in a 4-2 game and worked the final two and one-third innings not allowing a run to earn his third save of the year.

Michael Doucet started for the Crusaders and went two innings Ryland Anders relieved him and took the loss. He was the second of seven pitchers for UMHB in the game.

Paul Samaripa had an RBI single to break up a scoreless game in the fourth inning and Cannon Negron added an RBI single to push the lead to 2-0. In the fifth inning, Justin Blancaflor hit his 10^th home run of the season for the Cowboys and drove in his 53^rd run. He is three RBIs away from tying the school single-season RBI record of Regan Dixon.

Riley Bender had an RBI single in the sixth inning and Jacob Hollingsworth came right back in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single to push the lead to 4-1. UMHB scored twice in the seventh inning on an RBI double by Landon Pyles and a Nolan Williams RBI single to make the score 4-3.

HSU put the game away with a seven-run seventh inning. Ty McCoy and Cannon Negron had RBI singles and Jacob Hollingsworth walked with the bases loaded. Catcher Ridings cleared the loaded bases with a double and Samaripa added an RBI single.

Negron, Samaripa and Blancaflor had two hits each for the Cowboys and Williams led the Crusaders with three hits.

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