The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team closed out the home portion of its regular season schedule by splitting a doubleheader with McMurry University Friday in Belton. The Cru won game one 4-1 before falling 14-5 in game two. UMHB is now 10-26 overall and 6-15 in American Southwest Conference play. McMurry is 11-23 overall and 6-15 in the ASC on the season.
Casey Frazier's outstanding pitching performance and some timely hitting led the Cru to a 4-1 game one victory. UMHB put three runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Austin Blanford tripled home the first run and scored the second on Caleb Davis' RBI single. Sam Wheatley's RBI single plated the final run. Jordan Speck's solo homer in the top of the fifth cut the lead to 3-1, but Blanford answered with his first collegiate home run in the bottom of that inning to provide some insurance. Frazier threw a complete-game six-hitter to move to 2-2 on the season. He struck out eight and did not walk a batter. Blanford had two of the Cru's five hits in the victory. Stephen Norrell took the loss for McMurry to drop to 0-4. Matt Chalk had two hits for the War Hawks in the game.
McMurry grabbed an early lead and never looked back in the 14-5 game two victory. The War Hawks put up three runs in the top of the second inning before Dawson Shibley's two-run double cut it to 3-2 in the bottom of that inning. McMurry exploded for six runs in the top of the third to make it 9-2. The Cru used RBI singles from Davis and Garrett Gonzales to close the gap to 9-4 in the bottom of the fourth inning. McMurry tacked on a single run in the seventh, three in the eighth and one more in the ninth. Malek Bolin ripped a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth for UMHB to cut it to the final margin. Bolin, Blanford and Braden Letney had two hits apiece for the Cru. Andrew Hutchings took the loss on the mound. Jack Poe earned the victory for McMurry and three different players led the War Hawks with three hits in the contest.
Friday's games were the final home games for UMHB seniors Davis, Frazier, Trevis Green and Jacob Krzemien, as well as student assistant coach Stuart Hennigar. The Cru will close out the regular season with a three-game conference series at Sul Ross State next weekend. UMHB will take on the Lobos in a 7 pm single game Friday night. The two teams will close out the series with a 1 pm doubleheader on Saturday.
