Brownwood, TX - The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team could not find enough offense to overcome sloppy defense and the Crusaders dropped both ends of a doubleheader to Howard Payne University Saturday afternoon in Brownwood. The two losses drop UMHB to 2-9 overall and 0-3 in American Southwest Conference play. The Yellow Jackets improve to 9-9 overall and 3-0 in the ASC with the two victories.
The Crusaders fell behind 11-0 in game one and could not dig out of the early hole in an 11-3 loss. HPU scored three in the first, one in the fourth and seven in the fifth to take control of the game. UMHB got on the board with Kyle Grimes' RBI double in the sixth and added two more runs on Adam Froeschl's two-run single in the seventh. T.J. McKnight took the loss for UMHB to drop to 0-3 on the season. Froeschl was 3-4 with two RBI for the Crusaders and Chase Beyrand added two hits. Doug Wren and Andrew Atwell both had three hits apiece for the Yellow Jackets.
The Crusaders then fell behind 9-0 in game two before a late comeback fell short in a 12-9 defeat. The Yellow Jackets scored four in the first, three in the second and two in the third before UMHB finally got on the board with three runs in the top of the fourth. Steven Reinlie and Mike McKillop both hit RBI singles and Aaron Breaux added a sacrifice fly. The Crusaders then added three more in the fifth on Brandon Williams' two-run double and a Grimes RBI single. HPU added a run in the bottom of the frame to make it 10-6, but the Cru cut it to 10-8 with two more runs in the top of the sixth. HPU then sandwiched single runs around a McKillop sacrifice fly in the seventh to provide the final margin of victory. Beyrand took the loss for UMHB to fall to 1-2 on the year. Dean Shirley was 3-4 for UMHB and Grimes, Froeschl, Reinlie and McKillop all had two hits apiece for the Crusaders. Kasey Black had three hits for Howard Payne.
The Crusaders will now return home to play six games in a span of five days. UMHB will host Franklin and Marshall for a 2:00 PM single game on Tuesday before hosting Wisconsin-Stout for a 1:00 PM doubleheader on Wednesday. The Crusaders will close out the week with a three-game home series against Sul Ross State. All of those games will be played at Red Murff Field on the UMHB campus.
