BELTON, Texas — The Southwestern University Pirates baseball team swept the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (UMHB) Crusaders in a four-game series, taking the second game of today's doubleheader with a 9-1 victory.
The Pirates got a strong performance from their pitching staff and Daniel Montgomery Jr. finished off his weekend tear with another strong performance in the nine-inning game.
UMHB scored first in the bottom of the first with a RBI-single through the left side of the infield from Jason Samuel, scoring Hunter McQuary.
Southwestern answered in the top of the third inning with Montgomery's RBI single through the right side, scoring Chase Thinger. Seth Sparks added another run in the top of the fourth with a single to right center, scoring Colby Schmidt.
The Pirates broke the game open with a four-run sixth inning with four hits. Hayden Craig singled to third base, scoring Ethan Hallmark. Thinger scored on a passed ball and Cole Kelly singled to left field, scoring Montgomery.
Southwestern added two more in the seventh with a RBI-single from Sparks and another from Thinger for the 8-1 lead. The Pirates added one more run in the eighth on a Kelly sacrifice fly to score Montgomery, who tripled to left center.
William Harp got the start for the Pirates and pitched 3.1 innings, giving up four hits with an earned run and a strikeout. Macho Horne took over in the fourth inning after Harp surrendered a double, pitching 3.2 shutout innings. Aaron Clark finished the final two innings, giving up no hits and two walks with two strikeouts.
Montgomery hit 2-for-4 with a RBI and two runs scored. He finished the weekend 8-for-12 with three home runs, 11 RBI, and five runs scored.
In today's first game, the Southwestern University Pirates baseball team put together its best offensive performance of the season, scoring 13 runs off 12 hits to defeat the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (UMHB) Crusaders 13-7 on the road.
Daniel Montgomery Jr. was perfect at the plate, hitting 4-for-4 with seven RBI and two runs scored, blasting his second and third home runs of the series (and fourth of the season) after going yard in Game 1 on Friday night.
The Pirates hit 12-for-31 as a team with 11 RBI and five walks.
Southwestern struck early with a five-run top of the second inning, putting two on with a hit batter and walk and stringing together three hits, starting with a single from Chase Thinger to load the bases. A balk scored Colby Schmidt and Hayden Craig singled through the left side, scoring Ethan Hallmark. Montgomery then cleared the bases with a three-run blast to deep left-center.
The Crusaders responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning, leading off with a Matt Bolin walk followed by three consecutive hits, getting a double from Hunter McQuary, RBI-single from Mitch Patterson, and two-RBI double from Jacob Dellipoali to right-center to score Patterson and McQuary to cut their deficit to 5-3.
Southwestern added four more runs in the fourth. Craig hit a RBI-single through the left side of the infield, scoring Hallmark, who reached on an error. A double steal with runners on the corners advanced Craig to second and scored Seth Sparks.
Montgomery cleared the bases again with his second home run of the day, knocking it over the center field fence for a 9-3 lead.
Mary Hardin-Baylor managed a single run in the bottom of the inning, getting a two-out double from Jack Herbert followed by a Garrett Gonzales RBI-triple to right field.
Southwestern added another four-run inning in the bottom of the fifth, scoring Schmidt on a Cole Kelly RBI-double to left center after Schmidt reached on an error. The Crusaders brought in relief pitcher Dalton Harned, who started his afternoon with a hit batter and walk to load the bases, then walked Thinger for the second run of the inning.
Montgomery capped things off with a two-RBI double to center field, scoring Sparks and Hallmark.
The Crusaders added two runs in the fifth on two hits, scoring on back-to-back sacrifice flies. They added another urn in the bottom of the seventh, getting a RBI from Dellipoal on a fielder's choice and leaving three runners stranded to end the game.
Travis Harvey got the start for the Pirates, pitching five innings and giving up six runs (five earned) on eight hits with a walk and a strikeout. Kole Kimberlin finished the game, going two innings with three hits and a run given up with two strikeouts and a walk.
Southwestern improved to 8-2 with the wins. The Pirates will travel on Tuesday, March 12 for a road game against Texas-Tyler at 6:00 p.m.