The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team put five runs on the board in the bottom of the eighth inning as the Cru came from behind to post a 6-5 victory over 12th-ranked Texas Lutheran Wednesday night in Belton. UMHB improves to 9-16 on the season with the win. The loss drops the Bulldogs to 21-7 on the year.
UMHB opened the scoring on Max Conway's RBI single in the bottom of the first inning. TLU tied the game on Tyler Cauley's solo home run in the top of the second. The Bulldogs then added three runs in the top of the fifth to grab a 4-1 lead. Riley Schaefer's RBI single drove in the first run, Ben Marvin followed with an RBI double and Matthew Lemon closed it out with a sacrifice fly. Schaefer's RBI groundout stretched the lead to 5-1 in the top of the seventh. The Cru then erupted for five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Dawson Shibley singled home Mitch Patterson after Patterson led off the frame with a triple to close the gap to 5-2. Landon Dieterich's run-scoring double cut the lead to 5-3 and Malek Bolin's run-scoring fielder's choice pulled UMHB to within 5-4. Mason Schuh followed with an RBI single to left field and Austin Blanford came around to score the go-ahead run on a Bulldog fielding error on that play. TLU would put the tying run on third base in the top of the ninth, but Jackson Godoy ended the threat with a strikeout to preserve the win for the Cru.
Godoy earned his second save on the season with his scoreless ninth inning. Andrew Hutchings earned the win for UMHB to even his record at 2-2 on the year with two innings of scoreless relief work. Conway had two of the Cru's seven hits in the win. Drew Waller took the loss for Texas Lutheran to drop to 3-2. Schaefer had three hits and Marvin and Cauley added two hits apiece as the Bulldogs finished with ten hits as a team.
The Cru will continue its home stand with a three-game American Southwest Conference series against U.T.-Tyler this weekend. The two teams are scheduled to open the series with a 7 pm single game on Friday before closing out the weekend with a 1 pm doubleheader on Saturday.
