MARSHALL, Texas – Mary Hardin-Baylor rallied late to beat Hardin-Simmons 10-5 in the first round of the American Southwest Conference Championship on Thursday in Marshall.
Senior
Caleb Reynolds struck out five batters over five and one-third innings and tied Kyle Barton's school record of 79 strikeouts in a season. He did not factor in the decision.
Ethan Cloudt,
Garrett Keller and
Guy George worked out of the bullpen Keller took the loss after allowing six runs (only one earned) over two innings of work to fall to 3-3.
Each team scored a run in the first inning. UMHB scored on an Easton Cline RBI single in the top of the inning and
Catcher Ridings had an RBI groundout for the Cowboys in the bottom of the inning.
HSU scored four times in the third inning to take a 5-1 lead.
Paul Samaripa had an RBI on a ground ball,
Ty McCoy had a sacrifice fly and
Gavin Bruning and
Benji Fielder had RBI singles.
UMHB scored a pair of runs in the sixth inning to narrow the deficit to 5-3. Cline had a sacrifice fly and Austin Birkhoff an RBI single. Nolan Williams tied the game in the eighth inning with an RBI double.
HSU's defense fell apart in the ninth inning. The Cowboys had a double play ball and the throw got away and down the left field line allowing a run to score.
UMHB's Chris Perez then had a squeeze bunt to add another run, a throwing error with two out allowed a third run to score and Nolan Williams put in the final nail with a two-run single to center to push the lead to 10-5.
Zach Hampton went six innings for the Crusaders allowing just two runs, Mason Semmelmann came on and worked the final three innings and did not allow a run to earn the win. The Cowboys did not have two runners on at the same time the final six innings.
Bruning,
Hunter Trojacek and Fielder each had two hits for the Cowboys. Cameron Talburt and Cline had three hits each for UMHB
The Cowboys are now 24-15 on the year and will play the loser of the Howard Payne-East Texas Baptist game, which was being played this evening. That game is slated for 11 a.m. on Friday weather permitting and will be an elimination game. UMHB is now 25-16 on the year.
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