BELTON (April 19, 2009) - The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team used solid pitching and timely hitting to take control of both games as the Cru posted a doubleheader sweep of Howard Payne University Sunday afternoon in Belton. UMHB won game one 7-1 and took game two by a 15-5 score. The Cru improves to 21-15 overall and 11-9 in American Southwest Conference play with the two victories. HPU falls to 13-22 overall and 6-14 in the ASC with the two losses.

The Cru scored three in the third inning and added two more in the fourth and that was more than enough offense for Jared Hopper as UMHB posted a 7-1 game one victory. The Cru manufactured a run in the bottom of the first when Marcus Volz walked, moved up on a groundout and scored on back-to-back balks. UMHB pushed it to 4-0 with three runs in the third. Andrew White doubled home the first run and scored on Josh Fredrick’s sacrifice fly. R.B. Garza added an RBI single for the final run of the inning. The Cru pushed it to 6-0 on Volz’s two-run single in the bottom of the fourth. An RBI groundout cut it to 6-1 in the top of the fifth, but UMHB added an insurance run on Ryan Moreau’s RBI single in the top of the fifth. Hopper went the distance, scattering eight hits, allowing just one run and striking out five to raise his record to 6-3. Dustin Climer took the loss for HPU to drop to 1-7. Garza and Moreau had two hits apiece for UMHB. Royce Rodriguez had three of the Yellow Jackets’ eight hits in the game.

The Cru used an eight-run fifth inning to break open a close game on the way to a 15-5 game two victory. UMHB took a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on RBI singles from Fredrick, Alfredo Melendez and Moreau and a run-scoring wild pitch. Fredrick’s RBI double made it 5-0 Cru in the bottom of the second. HPU’s Blake Shaffer ripped a two-run homer in the top of the fourth to cut it to 5-2 UMHB before the Cru erupted for eight runs in the fifth. Seth Lynn and Kyle Flynn opened the scoring with RBI singles, Volz singled home two more, Joseph Villegas added a sacrifice fly, Fredrick followed with a two-run triple and Garza doubled home the final run of the frame. HPU added a run on an error in the top of the seventh. UMHB added insurance runs on RBI singles from Moreau and Flynn in the bottom of the eighth and HPU scored a pair in the top of the ninth for the final runs of the game. Garza went eight strong innings, scattering eight hits, allowing just two earned runs and striking out six to improve to 5-3 on the year. Will Hood took the loss for HPU to drop to 2-4 on the season. Fredrick was 3-5 with four RBI for UMHB and finished a home run short of the cycle. Flynn also had three hits, while Moreau, Villegas and Garza had two hits apiece. Shaffer had three of HPU’s 10 hits in the game.

The two teams will now close out the regular season with a 2:00 PM single game tomorrow in Belton. UMHB must win that game to clinch a third straight American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament berth. A Cru loss would drop UMHB into a tie for fourth place with Concordia Texas and the Tornados would clinch the final postseason berth from the ASC West by virtue of last weekend’s sweep of the Cru in Austin.