Box Score LAREDO, Texas – The McM baseball team held off a furious comeback by Texas A&M – International and managed to take game three of the three-game series by a score of 7-6 on Saturday afternoon. Casey Berryman and Alex Hajduk each drove in a pair of runs, and Aaron Burns picked up his sixth win of the season in the game.
 
McM got on the board first in the top of the first inning when Berryman singled in Cody Howard for the game's first run. Nick Marsh quickly followed that with a RBI of his own, allowing Jordan Kennedy to cross the plate to make the advantage 2-0 in favor of the War Hawks.
 
After Burns kept the Dustdevils off the board in the first and second innings, Berryman struck again for his second RBI, doubling to right-center which scored Howard for the second time to make the score 3-0.
 
The Dustdevils eventually cut the lead to 3-2 by scoring single runs in both the bottom of the third and the bottom of the fifth innings, but the War Hawks would respond with a four-run inning in the top of the seventh.
 
Ricky Garcia led off the inning with a single to left field. After being moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Greg Koll, Garcia then scored on Rueben Zendejas' sixth RBI of the season to make the lead 4-2. After back-to-back walks to Dylan De Leon and Howard loaded the bases, Zendejas came into score on a wild pitch. The next batter was Alex Hajduk, who tallied his first hit of the season and drove in De Leon and Howard to give McMurry the 7-2 lead.
 
The Dustdevils would respond quickly in the bottom of the seventh, striking for three runs, including RBI base hits by Alex Salas and Alex McKeon, to cut the War Hawks lead to 7-5.
 
Closer Jared Hopper came into the game in the bottom of the eighth to work for the two-inning save, and worked a quick inning to hold the game at 7-5. However, in the bottom of the ninth, the Dustdevils threatened.
 
After Jeff Anderson singled and stole a base to open the inning, he was quickly moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored one batter later to put TAMIU within striking distance, 7-6, with one out and two runners on.
 
With the tying run at second-base and the winning run at first, Hopper forced McKeon to ground into a fielder's choice and Sean Smedley flied out to end the game and give the War Hawks the 7-6 win.
 
Offensively, Berryman and Hajduk knocked in two runs each, and Cody Howard reached base four of the five times he was at the plate, and also scored three runs on the day.
 
On the mound, Burns registered his sixth win and improved his record to 6-1 in 10 appearances against Heartland Conference opponents. The freshman went 6.2 innings of work while allowing four earned runs and nine hits. He also struck out five in the game.
 
Hopper worked two full innings of relief allowing one earned run and two hits. He also earned his fifth save of the season, just one shy of tying the career mark of six (Byron Pierce collected six saves in 1998, and senior Deen Coleman registered six saves in 2011).
 
The War Hawks will be back in action for their final home series of the season, when they play host to Newman University on Friday and Saturday, April 26 and 27.