University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Athletics

Box Score

Abilene, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team could not overcome sloppy fielding and solid Marietta College pitching as the Cru lost to the Pioneers 10-2 in a non-conference game Wednesday afternoon in Abilene. The loss evens UMHB’s record at 8-8 on the season. Marietta, ranked 15^th in the country, improves to 5-2 on the year with the victory.

            
            The Pioneers grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning and stretched it to 2-0 on Jordan Grilliot’s RBI single in the bottom of the third. The Cru would cut it to 2-1 when Seth Lynn scored when Josh Fredrick singled and was caught in a run-down to end the top of the fourth inning. But that’s as close as UMHB could get. Three UMHB errors leading off the bottom of the fourth set the stage for the Pioneers to take a 3-1 lead. Marietta used one hit, another Cru error and an RBI groundout to take a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth. Tim Saunders led off the bottom of the seventh with a triple and scored on a groundout to make it 6-1 and the Pioneers took advantage of two more UMHB errors to score four more runs in the bottom of the eighth to push the lead to 10-1. Chris Joshlin doubled home Joseph Villegas in the top of the ninth to provide the final run for UMHB.

            The Cru had seven errors in the game and UMHB managed just five hits. Andy Evans took the loss for UMHB to drop to 0-1 on the season. Evans threw a career-high seven innings, scattering six hits, striking out two and allowing just three earned runs. Villegas had two of the Cru's five hits in the game. He also broke the UMHB career record for doubles when he hit his 43rd in the top of the ninth inning. Villegas had shared the previous mark of 42 with Matt Pullen. Austin Blaski earned the win for Marietta with seven innings of three-hit pitching. He struck out 10 and walked just one. Saunders had three hits for Marietta and Chris Beatty drove in four runs for the Pioneers and also had two hits.

            The Cru will now return to Abilene to open American Southwest Conference West Division play this weekend. UMHB will take on Hardin-Simmons in a three-game series to open ASC West play for both teams. The Cru and Cowboys will open the series with a 7:00 PM single game Friday night before closing out the weekend with a 1:00 PM doubleheader on Saturday.