ABILENE, Texas – McMurry University's baseball team won its fourth-consecutive game – and 14th out of 15 – with a doubleheader sweep of Schreiner University at Walt Driggers Field.  The War Hawks (17-4) topped the Mountaineers (4-19) by scores of 15-1 and 6-2.
 
In the afternoon's opening contest McM, for all intents and purposes, put the game out of reach in its first at-bat. In the bottom of the first, the War Hawks sent a total of 15 men to the plate, smacked eight hits – including home runs by Zack Hagan and Ben Douglas – which resulted in 12 runs in the frame for McM.
 
SU starter Jayme Kidder was chased after getting just one out and being charged with six hits and nine runs, eight of which were earned. Matt Barnett came on in relief of Kidder and finished the game.
 
The War Hawks added a pair of runs in the third when Ricky Garcia clubbed his second homer of the season. The two-run blast to left field made the score 14-0 in favor of McM. After the Mountaineers plated a run in the fourth, McMurry registered its final run when Hagan smacked his second round-tripper of the day – and team-leading fifth blast of the season – to make it the 15-1 final.
 
Hagan and Garcia each drove in four runs.  Garcia went 3-for-4 and scored three times, as well.  Hagan was 2-for-4 and scored four times. Kyle Sargent – McM's No. 9 hitter – went 3-for-4, as well, as the only other War Hawk with multiple hits.
 
Meanwhile, McMurry hurler Ben Bates (4-1) went five strong innings to win his fourth-straight game. Exiting with the comfortable cushion, Bates scattered five hits, allowed just the one earned run (lowering his personal ERA to 1.64) and struck out three SU batters.
 
Rody Johnson allowed just one hit in his two scoreless innings of relief work.
 
In the second game of the day, Schreiner got the first run of the day in the third inning, but the War Hawks would tally six unanswered runs on its way to the victory. The Hagan-Garcia combo got McM even in the fourth. A one-out double by Hagan was followed by Garcia's RBI single to knot matters at 1-1.
 
In the bottom of the fifth, Sargent drew a one-out walk and alertly went all the way to third on a single through the left side by Christian Simmons (2-for-3). Patrick Adams then slapped the first pitch he saw down the right field line for a double that drove home Sargent and sent Simmons to third. With two men in scoring position, Cody Howard punched double off the left field wall that drove in both base runners and made it 4-1.
 
After Sargent and Simmons opened the seventh inning with back-to-back singles, both would eventually score on a pair of wild pitches by SU starter Hayden Ray – who went the distance - that made it 6-1. The Mountaineers would add one run in the top of the eighth on a sacrifice fly for the 6-2 final score.
 
McM starter Mitch Labbie (4-0) remained perfect in 2015 with the complete game victory. Labbie permitted eight hits and the two earned runs. He struck out nine and walked three.
 
Garcia was 2-for-4 in game two, raising his batting average to a team-leading .434 on the season.
 
The two teams will close out the three-game series with a single game on Sunday afternoon (1 p.m.) at Walt Driggers Field.