ABILENE, Texas -  McMurry University's softball team lost an American Southwest Conference doubleheader at home to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, falling by scores of 8-2 and 9-1 at Red Bud Park.  The team will complete the three-game series with a single game Saturday at 12 p.m.
 
The War Hawks fell to 3-12 overall and 1-7 in ASC games.  The Crusaders improved to 10-4, 5-3 in the conference.
 
In game one, UMHB scored five runs in the first two innings off of McM starter Cheyenne West (1-6). West would give way to Kamwren Jackson, who tossed the final five innings, allowing three runs, striking out five and walking just one.
 
While Jackson restored order in the circle, the War Hawks' offense could not seem to get on track. That is, until the fourth inning.
 
Ashley McClellan led off the inning with a single to left. Then, with one out, junior firstbaseman Rachel Ripley crushed her team-leading third home run of the year, a prodigious blast to left-centerfield that made it 5-2.
 
McM got its only other hit in the fifth with two down, after Sarah Nagy single off the pitcher. On the afternoon, the Cru out-hit McMurry by a 10-3 margin.
 
 
It was a similar situation in game two for McM, but this time it was Jackson (0-4) who struggled as the starting pitcher. Jackson went 2.1 innings and charged with seven earned runs. She struck out three and walked one. West came on in relief and allowed two runs in 3.2 innings.
 
UMHB tallied four in the first and three in the third. Sandwiched in between, the War Hawks plated their only run of the game in the second. Nina Hernandez laced a two-out double to right-center. That was by an Adrienne Nairn's single down the leftfield line that drove in Hernandez.
 
A fourth-inning single by Ripley was McM's only other hit.  Ripley went 1-for-2 in the second game, after a 1-for-3 effort in the first.