GEORGETOWN, Texas - The Pirates lost to Howard Payne 7-5 in 10 innings on Tuesday evening.
Howard Payne's Sam Dollahite singled and scored on a Carlton Brown double to left field. Brown advanced to third on a ground out, then scored on a passed ball to put the Yellow Jackets up 2-0.
In the bottom of the first, the Pirates' Jeff Glasgow singled to left center with one out. He advanced to second on a single to right center by Zachary Lynch, and scored on a single to left by Cruz Luna to cut it to 2-1.
The Pirates rallied with two outs in the bottom of the 5th. A pair of singles by Charlie Garrett and Colton Shea gave Southwestern runners on first and third. In a failed pickoff attempt, the pitcher sailed the ball over the first baseman's head, allowing Garrett to score and Shea to move to third. Shea then crossed the plate on a wild pitch to give the Pirates the 3-2 lead.
Howard Payne scored two runs in the top of the 6th to retake control of the game. It was short lived as Southwestern tied it in the bottom half of the frame after Luna singled and scored.
Each team added a run in the 8th to keep the game knotted at 5-5. Both squads went down in order in the 9th to send the game into extra innings.
HPU's Brown reached on an error by the third baseman and later stole second base in the top of the 10th. Then Dillon McDugle was issued a walk with first base open. Both runners advanced a bag after a wild pitch and then scored on a Connor Roberts single to center field to give the visitors the 7-5 lead.
Try as they might, the Pirates went down in order in their last at-bats and lost the game 7-5. The loss dropped Southwestern to 2-20 on the season and Howard Payne improved to 13-10. SU was led offensively by Cruz Luna who went 2-3, drew two walks, drove in a run, and scored.
Southwestern will be home again playing a doubleheader against Sul Ross State this Saturday, March 16th at 1:00PM.