BROWNWOOD, Texas — Southwestern baseball used discerning eyes, bat speed and capitalized on a few Howard Payne mistakes to defeat the Yellowjackets 14-1 for its largest margin of victory this season.
The Pirates strung together 13 hits, led by freshman Christian Melillo's 3-for-6 performance at the plate, and drew 12 walks while taking advantage of three errors to reach double-digit scoring for the seventh time this season.
Howard Payne's pitching staff struggled from the start. Yellowjackets starter Rick Mays loaded the bases by walking Southwestern's first two batters and hitting Preston Witt. James Vaquero followed with an RBI infield single, scoring Ted Lobkowicz. Then, after Jacob Tanner went down swinging, Henry Fisher drew a walk with bases loaded to give Southwestern a 2-0 lead.
Southwestern added two more runs the next inning on a two-RBI single by Witt up the middle, scoring Lobkowicz and Maxwell Mims, who reached on a fielder's choice and walk.
Adam Werchan reached safely on a fielder's choice in the third inning, stealing second, then third, scoring on an error by the catcher.
Carson Brown started on the mound for Southwestern, retiring the first seven hitters in order before allowing a Yellowjacket to reach on a walk. Brown pitched seven innings, allowing four hits with just one walk and one run to earn his second win of the season.
Melillo and Mathew Escamilla added back-to-back RBIs in the top of the fourth. Howard Payne finally broke through in the bottom of the inning with an RBI double to left field by RJ Roberts.
Southwestern drew two more walks to start the sixth inning, setting up Tanner's RBI double down the right-field line. Then, Vaquero scored on a passed ball. Tanner later scored on a wild pitch.
Mims led off the seventh with a single, advancing to second on a groundout, then to third on a wild pitch before scoring on Vaquero's groundout to second.
Werchan drove in Fisher on a sacrifice fly to center field in the eighth, and Mims added another run on an RBI single.
Bryan Meissner took the mound for Southwestern to start the eighth, retiring the side in order with two strikeouts. After Southwestern scored in the ninth on an error, Cole Johnson took the mound to start the inning for Southwestern, surrendering one single with two strikeouts and inducing a fielder's choice to end the game.
Southwestern improves to 8-8 and will host Texas Lutheran this weekend, starting Friday with the doubleheader on Saturday.