The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team used dominant pitching to win game one and power hitting to claim game two as the Cru swept a non-conference doubleheader from McMurry Saturday in Belton. UMHB won game one 2-0 and took game two 8-6 to improve to 10-11 on the season. The War Hawks drop to 9-15 with the two losses.
The Cru limited McMurry to just four hits and scratched out two late runs in a 2-0 game one victory. Casey Frazier struck out six batters and allowed just two hits in four innings in his first start of the season. UMHB picked up the only run it needed on Kenny Foster's bases loaded walk in the bottom of the fourth. The Cru added an insurance run on Ty Johnson's RBI double in the bottom of the fifth. Aaron Barteau struck out four batters in two innings of one-hit relief to earn his fifth save of the season. Frazier earned the win to move to 1-0 while Jack Poe (3-2) took the loss for the War Hawks. Mitch Patterson had two of UMHB's five hits in the game.
The Cru blasted three home runs to erase multiple deficits and won game two 8-6 on a walk-off homer. McMurry grabbed a 3-0 lead with three unearned runs in the top of the first inning. Jackson Godoy ripped a solo homer in the bottom of the first and Johnson added a two-run blast to tie the game. Both teams put up single runs in the fourth, with the Cru's coming on Foster's sacrifice fly. The War Hawks took a 6-4 lead in the top of the fifth, but Patterson's two-run single in the bottom of that frame would even the score at 6-6. UMHB used a double play to end a threat in the top of the seventh and after Landon Dieterich led off the bottom of the seventh with a ringing double, Johnson crushed his second homer of the game over the wall in right center to walk off the victory for the Cru. Johnson had two hits and four RBI and Godoy added three hits for UMHB. Tyler Nelson got the win with two and a third innings of hitless relief. Garrett Scudder took the loss for McMurry. Payton Stokes and Blaine McRay had two hits apiece for the War Hawks in the loss.
The Cru will play a non-conference game at Southwestern University on Tuesday. UMHB will then host Belhaven University for a three-game American Southwest Conference series next weekend at Red Murff Field.
