PLAINVIEW, Texas – For the first time this season, the McMurry University baseball team dropped two-consecutive games. The War Hawks (26-7) lost a doubleheader at Wayland Baptist University by scores of 5-4 and 10-1 at Wilder field.
 
In game one, an unearned run in the bottom of the first as a result of an error by McM third baseman Casey Berryman put the Pioneers (29-18) on top, 1-0.  WBU would add a pair of runs in the third and a single run in the fourth, and the War Hawks were looking at a 4-0 deficit.
 
The War Hawks would take advantage of some sloppy play by the Pioneers to push across three runs in the top of the fifth and one in the top of the sixth – all unearned – to knot matters at 4-4. Christian Simmons had a bases-loaded walk in the fifth that forced home pinch runner Blake Smith with McM's first run of the day, before adding two more later in the frame, 4-3.
 
Mikal Hunter's RBI single in the sixth drove in Zach Hagan – who had opened the inning with a single through the left side – with the tying run.
 
However, the Pioneers would manufacture a run in its half of the sixth to regain the upper hand, 5-4. The War Hawks went down in order in the seventh.
 
Hunter was the only McMurry player in game one with multiple hits, going 2-for-3.
 
Zier (7-1) went the complete six innings, giving up 12 hits and the five runs, four earned. Zier struck out four and walked just one.
 
In game two, sophomore pitcher John Eric Cortez also suffered his first setback of the season, as WBU dominated the War Hawks, 10-1. Cortez went 5 1/3 innings and allowed seven of the Pioneers 10 hits. He was also charged with six earned runs, while striking out five and walking one.
 
McMurry's lone run of the game came in the eighth inning on a Hagan RBI single that plated Simmons, cutting the margin at that time to 8-1.
 
Ricky Garcia was 2-for-4 to lead the McM batters, including a double.
 
The teams will play another twinbill on Saturday in Plainview.