The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team rallied in the bottom of the eighth only to see LeTourneau push the game-winning run across the plate in the top of the ninth as the Yellowjackets took a 6-5 victory over the Cru Friday night in Belton. UMHB drops to 6-12 overall and 3-4 in American Southwest Conference play with the loss. LeTourneau improves to 12-8 overall and 5-2 in the ASC with the victory.
Noah Mahoney's RBI double gave LeTourneau a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Mark Frankhouser launched a two-run homer deep over the left-center field fence in the bottom of the third to give UMHB a 2-1 lead. Lee Hosie tripled home a run and scored on a Bubba Valdez single to put the Yellowjackets on top 3-2 in the top of the fifth. Eli Birriel's RBI single stretched that lead to 4-2 in the top of the sixth. Carson Dickey's RBI single in the top of the eighth made it 5-2 LeTourneau. UMHB tied it up with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Dakota Best's squeeze bunt scored the first run and Mitch Patterson and Max Conway followed with RBI doubles to even it up 5-5. Gonzalo Sosa's RBI double off the left field wall put LeTourneau on top 6-5 in the top of the ninth inning. Austin Blanford led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt, but the Cru was unable to push across the tying run.
Conway, Frankhouser and Sam Wheatley had two hits apiece for UMHB. Harrison Sims took the loss to drop to 0-1 after giving up the run in the top of the ninth. Bryce Brueggmeyer picked up the win for the Yellowjackets to even his record at 2-2 and Bubba Valdez recorded the final three outs for his first save of the year. Dickey had four hits for LeTourneau and Valdez and Brandon Ramirez added three hits apiece.
The two teams will close out the series with a doubleheader on Saturday. The start time for that doubleheader has been moved up to 11:00 AM instead of 1:00 PM due to the forecast for rain in Central Texas.
