UMHB tops McMurry, 3-1

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ABILENE -- Mary Hardin-Baylor pitcher Jared Hopper worked seven and one third innings and struck out eight batters en route to leading the Cru to a 3-1 victory over McMurry in an American Southwest Conference West Division game Friday night at Walt Driggers Field.

The loss drops McMurry to 10-11 on the year and 3-4 in ASC West play. McMurry will attempt to end its current three-game losing streak on Saturday when they finish out their three-game set against UMHB with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. The doubleheader will be streamed for free over the Internet at McMurry's athletic Web site: athletics.mcm.edu. Kit and Leon will provide the play-by-play and color commentary for the games.

Hopper and McMurry pitcher Kyle Martin held their opposing batters relatively in check for most of the game. Hopper improved to 4-1 as he only surrendered seven hits and three walks with McMurry only mustering one run off of him. Meanwhile, Martin pitched eight solid innings for McMurry and only gave up three runs off of seven hits. Martin also struck out three and walked three as he fell to 1-3 on the short season.

UMHB scored all three of its runs in the top of the fourth when they loaded the bases with no outs. Back-to-back RBI singles by Josh Fredrick and Seth Lynn made it a 2-0 with no outs in the inning. The Cru would score its third and final run off Martin off a double-play with the bases loaded.

McMurry had a similar situation brewing in the bottom of the eighth inning as they had the bases loaded with no outs and the heavy part of their lineup coming to the plate (three, four and five spot hitters). Weston Franco helped plate Nathan Love from third base as Franco hit an RBI sacrifice fly to center field. But UMHB reliever Sam VanHoozer made sure that was the only damage McMurry would do as he got Stephen Derrick and Jake Mullin out to end the inning relatively unscathed.

VanHoozer would finish out the game to get his sixth save on the year. The win improves UMHB to 13-8 and 5-2.

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