UMHB Takes Three from 'Roos to Open Season

SHERMAN, Texas - The Austin College baseball team dropped its first three games of the season against visiting Mary Hardin-Baylor, as the 'Roos and Cru packed in 22 innings on Saturday to complete a series that began on Friday evening, but saw game one delayed overnight due to heavy fog at Baker Field. UMHB took game one 4-2 before handing the 'Roos losses by scores of 14-7 and 13-8 to wrap up the day.

The opening game of the series was scoreless through the first inning before the fog hit, with the teams picking things up in the top of the fourth on Saturday morning. Austin College was the first to break through on the scoreboard, with a throwing error by the Cru enabling Kaden Stegent to come home and make it 1-0 after five innings of work. Alejandro Sanchez homered in the top of the sixth to even things up, and UMHB tacked on two runs in the seventh to go ahead 3-1.

The Cru took advantage of a throwing error in the eighth to plate another and make it 4-1, and Austin College got one run back in the bottom half of the inning when Jack Wilhelm drew a walk with the bases full, but that's as close as the 'Roos would get. Zach Andrews got the loss in relief, surrendering three runs on five hits with six strikeouts in 4.0 innings of work, and Tino Ramirez led the 'Roos at the plate with a 2-for-5 performance and a stolen base.

Game two saw the Crusaders jump out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first after belting a pair of two-run homers, first from Sanchez and then from Riley Bender, and after Austin College got two runs back in the bottom half of the inning when Isaac Villa scored on an error and Ramirez came home on a sacrifice fly by Desmond Squalls to make it 4-2, Cameron Talburt hit a solo homer in the second to put UMHB on top 5-2. 

Another error led to a Ramirez run to cut it to 5-3, but UMHB plated four runs in the fourth to make it a 9-3 game. RayShawn Riley singled home Villa in the bottom of the fifth to cut it to 9-4, but the Crusaders responded with three runs in the sixth to make it 12-4. Austin College got all three runs back in the bottom half of the inning, with Mason Woodhouse coming around on an error and Tripp Thoms singling home a run, and Ramirez knocked in the third run of the inning to make it a 12-7 game. Those would be the final runs of the game for the 'Roos, however, while UMHB added two more in the seventh to make it a 14-7 final.

Blake Goodridge absorbed the loss for the 'Roos, giving up seven runs on six hits in 3.1 innings of action, while Villa, Ramirez, and Jayden Ayala-Hinojosa each had a pair of hits to lead Austin College at the dish. Sanchez paced UMHB with a 2-for-4 performance with four RBI.

The final game of the series saw UMHB once again jump out to a big lead, plating five runs in the top of the first before Austin College got three back in the bottom half of the inning, as Riley, Squalls, and Ayala-Hinojosa each drove in a run, but the Cru scored four more in the second to make it a 9-3 game. Ramirez knocked in a run in the bottom of the second, and after UMHB scored once in the third, the 'Roos once again countered with a run of their own, this time on an RBI single by Woodhouse.

UMHB got a pair of unearned runs in the fifth to make it a 12-5 game, but Asher Thompson hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the inning to cut it to 12-8. That was the score until the ninth, when Bender doubled home a run for UMHB to make it 13-8, and Austin College couldn't mount a comeback in the bottom of the ninth. Gavin Brady took the loss for the 'Roos, giving up five runs, four earned, on five hits with three walks in 0.2 innings of action, and Thompson finished 2-for-3 with three RBI. Bender was 3-for-6 with four RBI to lead UMHB.