McMurry took sole possession of first place in the American Southwest Conference West Division by completing the sweep over Howard Payne Saturday with 6-3 and 16-5 wins at Driggers Field. Cody Curry and Dakota Smith each picked up wins on the mound, Stephen Derrick drove in five runs and Derek David hit his 20th home run of the season in Saturday's doubleheader sweep.
McMurry entered the series a game behind Mary Hardin-Baylor in the west division. However, the nationally-ranked Crusaders fell on hard times and were swept by Concordia-Texas while McMurry moved into first place and has a two-game lead on the competition.
McMurry plays a non-conference game Tuesday against UT-Dallas, but its final regular season series will be in Alpine Friday and Saturday. All McMurry has to do is win one game to guarantee at least a share of the ASC West title and all McM will need to clinch the west division title is two wins over Sul Ross State. The Lobos are 1-17 in league play after Hardin-Simmons swept them.
McMurry has won its last 15 games over Sul Ross and carries a 32-6 all-time record over the Lobos. McMurry hasn't won the ASC West since 2004.
Below is a summary of each of McMurry's wins over Howard Payne Saturday.
Game 1 (McM 6 HPU 3) | Box Score
Cody Curry moved to 8-0 on the year and tossed a 4-hitter as McMurry beat the Yellow Jackets 6-3 in game one of the Saturday doubleheader. Thomas Beckham and Stephen Derrick each drove in two runs and Lance Jones collected three hits in the victory.
Curry tossed all seven innings, allowed only one earned run of HPU's three, walked five and struck out seven. It was Curry's fifth complete game of the season and he lowered his ERA to 2.51 for the year.
HPU scored a run in the first, fourth and seventh innings but McMurry jumped out to an early 5-1 lead through three innings and the Yellow Jackets couldn't overcome the deficit.
Game 2 (McM 16 HPU 5) | Box Score
After struggling to put up runs the first two games against Howard Payne, McMurry exploded for 10 runs in the first inning and went on to win 16-5 and took sole possession of first place in the American Southwest Conference West Division.
Derek David hit his league-leading 20th homer and four RBI, Stephen Derrick added his eighth home run of the year and drove in three runs and Lance Jones had three doubles to give him six hits for the day.
Dakota Smith picked up the win on the mound for McMurry to move to 3-0 on the year. He scattered nine hits, allowed five runs, walked none and struck out six. Adrian Gaona threw two innings of scoreless relief to finish the game for McMurry.
McMurry improved to 23-13 overall and 13-5 in league play while HPU fell to 14-22 overall and 8-10 in conference.
