LONGVIEW, Texas - The McMurry University baseball team came up short on both ends of its American Southwest Conference doubleheader at LeTourneau University. The War Hawks (4-10) fell to the Yellow Jackets (10-6) by scores of 9-6 and 10-6 at Conrad-Vernon field.
The two teams will play a single game on Saturday (March 10) to cap the three-game series.
In game one, McM starter
Jack Poe (1-4) was victimized by War Hawks' errors, charged with just two earned runs of the eight charged against him. Poe struck out four and walked four, permitting six hits to LETU.
The Yellow Jackets scored twice in the second, only to have the War Hawks tie the game up in the third thanks to a two-run home run by
Jordan Speck. Speck was 1-for-4 on the day.
All four of McMurry's hits in the game came from its numbers one through four batters. Leadoff man
Mike Gonzales had a two-run double in the sixth, along with Speck's blast. No. 3-batter
Tyler Jenkins slapped a single in the fifth and
Nick Hamel a single in the third.
Payton Stokes drove in a run in the fourth on a grounder and
Chris Baker lifted a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
In the nightcap, the McM bats came alive to the tune of 15 hits (compared to nine for LETU). But it was once again defensive lapses – to the tune of four McM errors – that proved costly. In going 3.1 innings, McMurry starter
Ben Russell (1-2) allowed five hits and was charged with nine runs, just four of which were earned. Reliever
Brooks Shearer gave up four hits in his 4.2 innings of work, striking out three and giving up one unearned run.
Speck had a big game once again, going 3-for-5 with a double and two RBI. Hamel,
Devin Molina,
Matthew Chalk, Baker and Stokes all collected two hits in the game. Hamel and Baker each slammed doubles and drove in a run. Chalk scored a pair of runs, as well.
The War Hawks scored first on Hamels RBI single. Then, trailing 3-1 in the fourth, McM scored three times. Baker's double scored Chalk from firstbase. Gonzales reached on an error by shortstop that allowed Baker to come home from third and Speck laced an RBI single that put McM ahead, 4-3.
However, LeTourneau responded with five runs of its own in the bottom of the fourth to thwart McMurry's efforts. The War Hawks added single runs in the fifth and seventh, while the Yellow Jackets matched McM with one in the bottom of the seventh, 10-6.
