GEORGETOWN, TEXAS — Southwestern baseball got dominant performances from pitchers Travis Harvey and J.J. Slack, and the Pirates defeated the Dallas Crusader 11-2 to open the three-game conference series. 

Harvey and the Pirate defense set the tone with a three-up, three-down first inning, and Southwestern's senior pitcher struck out three of the first six hitters he faced. 

With two outs in the bottom of the second, Christian Melillo put Southwestern on the scoreboard, taking a 2-2 pitch for a ride over the fence in left-center for his fifth home run of the season to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. 

In the third inning, Harvey struggled with his control, hitting leadoff hitter David Saldana. Then, after striking out Anthony Maldonado, Harvey walked Tyler Darnell. Then, Anderson ripped a line drive up the middle, but shortstop Alexander Cannata showcased his range, making the beautiful diving catch right behind second base for the out. 

Then, Jon Talley tied the game with a rip through the right side, scoring Saldana from second. Harvey recovered to strike out Andrew Womack to leave runners stranded on second and third. 

Cannata opened the bottom of the inning with an infield single, then advanced on a wild pitch. Next, Ted Lobkowicz moved him to third with a sacrifice bunt. Then, after Maxwell Mims went down swinging, Trent Raschke drew a walk, and the Pirates successfully executed a double steal, scoring Cannata. 

Preston Witt hit a leadoff double to left-center in the bottom of the fifth inning, and Cannata singled on a high pop fly to shallow right that caught the wind, landing safely. The runners advanced to second and third on an errant throw on a pickoff attempt, and Lobkowicz scored Witt on a groundout to second. Mims followed with an RBI single to center. 

After Talley went down swinging for Dallas in the top of the sixth, Womack walked, then advanced two bases on one wild pitch. Pearce Coleman drove him in with a sacrifice fly to left field. 

Southwestern plated four runs in the bottom of the sixth, opening the inning with a James Vaquero single and back-to-back walks by Melillo and Henry Fisher. The Pirates scored two runs on wild pitches, then on an RBI single by Lobkowicz. Then, Mims hit a shallow pop fly to center field with the outfielders playing back. The ball dropped in front of Maldonado in centerfield, who misplayed the ball off the hop to allow Lobkowicz to advance another base and score. 

The Pirates added three more runs in the seventh, scoring on a wild pitch and a two-RBI single by Lobkowicz. 

Slack replaced Harvey to start the eighth inning. Harvey finished with eight strikeouts and two runs on four hits and three walks. Slack was even more dominant, striking out six of the seven hitters he faced to end the game. 

Southwestern improves to 18-18 with an 8-11 conference record. The Pirates will wrap up the regular season on Saturday with a doubleheader that starts at 1:00 p.m.