Pirates Baseball Drops Series Against ETBU Two Games to One

Pirates Baseball Drops Series Against ETBU Two Games to One

MARSHALL, Texas – The Southwestern University Pirates baseball team was defeated 12-1 in seven innings, dropping the final two games of its series against East Texas Baptist University (ETBU) to lose it two games to one.

Southwestern gave up eight runs in the second inning on just two hits with two errors. Starting pitcher Benjamin Ludwig struggled with his control, giving up a leadoff single to Landen Barns and inducing a groundout from Brady Faulkner before walking three consecutive batters to score ETBU's first run.

Relief pitcher Machi Horne took the mound with bases loaded, walking the first batter he faced to score another ETBU run. The Pirates' defense followed with back-to-back errors, scoring three runs. East Texas then got a RBI-single from Seth Mikeska, RBI sacrifice fly from Barns, and RBI-double from Faulkner to take the 8-0 lead.

Cole Kelly put the Pirates on the board with a solo blast in the top of the fourth for his third homerun of the series.

ETBU scored another run in the bottom of the fifth on an infield groundout by Ford Spigener, scoring Faulkner. Travis Harvey took the mound for Horne in the bottom of the sixth, giving up three runs on two homeruns.

The Pirates struggled to generate anything offensively with ETBU starting pitcher Adrian Stover going all seven innings, giving up just two hits and one run with one strikeout.

With the loss, the Pirates drop to 15-8 this season. Southwestern will return home to play Howard Payne University on Tuesday, April 2 at 6:00 p.m. and resume conference play next weekend with a three-game road series against Texas Lutheran on April 5 and 6 with the doubleheader on the second day.