Cowboys Sweep Howard Payne To Keep Season Alive
By: Hardin-Simmons Press Release
Updated: April 21, 2012
ABILENE, Texas -- Hardin-Simmons'
baseball team swept Howard Payne in American Southwest Conference
action on Saturday, 5-4 and 2-0, to claim third place and
advance to the American Southwest Conference Championship Series next
weekend.
The
Cowboys had not won three games in a row all season long until this
weekend and they needed every one of them to continue their season. HSU
is now 19-18 on the
year and finished the year at 12-9 in ASC West action. They finished
tied with McMurry in the West standings but earned the three seed by
virtue of a series win over the War Hawks.
HSU
needed some late game heroics in the first game. The Cowboys trailed
4-1 heading to the bottom of the sixth inning. Jon Finney had an RBI
double in the inning
but the Cowboys left the bases loaded in the inning.
In
the seventh inning, HSU scored two runs to tie the game and send the
scheduled seven-inning game to an eighth inning. Seniors Bryan Blare and
Andrew Rehling had
RBI singles.
Blake
Sieck was perfect through three innings, but an infield bunt single by
Ryan Abbott and a walk by Dustin Cole led off the fourth. After two
popouts, Carlton Brown
had a two-run double for HPU. Abbott added an RBI single in the fifth to
make it 3-0 and Tyrone Ahin had an RBI single in the fifth to make it
4-1. Joey Dearing had an RBI single for the Cowboys in the fifth.
Dearing
was in the middle of the weird inning to the game. He doubled with one
out in the eighth and then on a pickoff Ben Butler threw into
centerfield and the ball
went through the legs of centerfielder Kris Kloc to allow Dearing to
score the winning run.
Sieck
went four and one-third innings and allowed three runs on five hits.
Tyler Brunnemann, Parker Robinson, Jordan Dotson and Alex Bradley work
three and two-third
innings and did not allow an earned run. Bradley, a freshman, earned his
first collegiate win in relief.
Gilbert
Barrerra allowed just two runs in five and two-third innings for HPU.
Ben Butler took the loss in relief allowing three runs in an inning and
two-thirds.
Abbott, Brown and Ahin had two hits each for HPU. Troy Tarrant, Rehling and Dearing had two hits each for HSU.
In
the second game, which by league rule is shortened to seven innings if
the originally scheduled seven-inning game goes to extra innings,
Stewart Person and James
Simmons combined on a two-hit shutout. Person (4-2) went four and one
third innings to earn the win, allowing two runs on two hits. Simmons
retired all eight batters he faced to earn his first save of the year.
Troy
Tarrant had an RBI double in the third inning and Troy Nicholson added
an insurance run with an RBI single in the sixth inning.
Abin
and John Elmore had the two HPU hits and Nicholson led HSU with two
hits in a six-hit attack. Jonathan Morris went the distance for HPU
allowing six hits and
two runs to fall to 4-5.
The
Cowboys' opponent and location for next weekend have not be determined
as the games in the ASC East were pushed back a day by weather. Howard
Payne finished the
year at 14-24.
