Box Score
ABILENE, Texas – Let the cheesy sports clichés that have to do with birds begin. In the first contest as the McMurry War Hawks, the newly-named university baseball team was clipped by Texas Lutheran 10-8 in 12 innings at Walt Driggers Field Friday night.
Just a few hours after the McMurry board of trustees approved McMurry's nickname as War Hawks after forgoing a nickname beginning in the fall of 2007, the baseball team was the first to adorn the name. However, the War Hawks lost their opening contest with the new name in the American Southwest Conference West Division opener.
TLU scored six runs in the top of the 12th inning while the War Hawks' four-run rally in the bottom half was cut short with a runner on third base as Kellen McGriff struck out
Brian Durst to end the game. McGriff moved to 3-0 with the victory and the Bulldogs improved to 10-8 overall and 1-0 in league play. McMurry's
Zach Matthys picked up the loss to move to 0-2 on the season while the War Hawks fell to 3-12 overall and 0-1 in conference play.
McMurry scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning when
Jake Mullin drove home a run and
Greg Guse later scored on a wild pitch as a pinch runner to knot the score at three. The teams countered runs in the 10th inning before a scoreless 11th left the game at 4-4.
However, TLU took advantage of two errors in the field for McMurry, pouring on six runs on five hits to take a six-run advantage.
Charlie Hejny's three-run homer in the bottom half of the 12th put the War Hawks within three runs of the lead and
Kory Moench scored on a wild pitch to cut the lead to two with two outs. However, McGriff finished the game off with a strikeout and the Bulldogs took the game.
TLU's Daniel Harvey and Kyle Eaves each had three hits and an RBI for the visitors while Hejney's three RBI and Mullin's three hits paced McMurry. Both teams got great outings from their starters as Brad Orosey allowed just one unearned run in seven innings while striking out eight and
Zack Hewitt allowed only two earned runs in six innings for McMurry.
The two teams square off in a doubleheader Saturday to decide the series beginning at 1 p.m.
