ABILENE, Texas – McMurry University Baseball held its home opener at Walt Driggers Field on Friday afternoon, but were unable to snag a win in an 8-6, 10-4 doubleheader loss to Louisiana College in American Southwest Conference play.
The War Hawks fell to 0-3 overall and 0-2 in the conference, while the Wildcats moved to 5-2, 2-0.
Game 1: Louisiana College 8, McMurry 6 (8 innings)
The first game of the series was scheduled for seven innings, but wound up taking eight in an extra inning effort. A three-run eighth inning for the visiting Wildcats gave them the 8-6 victory.
The home opener could not have started any better for the War Hawks, as junior pitcher Derek Hostas got things started with a three-up, three-down inning.
In the bottom half of the first, McMurry tacked on two early runs with three hits in the first three at-bats. A Jonah Bailey single and Mike Gonzales double set up a two-RBI single by junior Nick Hamel.
The teams traded two runs each in the third, as LC tied the game with a two-run double into the left-center gap. The War Hawks took back the lead immediately with an RBI double from senior Sam Hillyer. In the next at-bat, junior Christian Oliver grounded one past the glove of the shortstop, allowing Hillyer to touch home and double the lead.
The game remained tied after four innings, as the Wildcats posted three runs. Trailing 5-4, Gonzales drove home freshman shortstop Blake Beach to even things back up. Beach doubled to reach second, then was later moved over to third on a single by Bailey in the leadoff spot to set up the tying score.
The teams went scoreless for three innings, as Hostas finished five innings with a no-decision. He left the game tied, allowing five runs on six hits with one walk and two strikeouts. Helping him maintain the tie was sophomore Travis Beauchamp, who tossed a pair of scoreless innings.
LC had two runner reach third in that three-inning scoreless span, with Hostas stranding the first one. The second one came in the sixth inning, as Ty Morgan ripped a one-out triple to represent the go-ahead run. While coasting into third, his foot came off the bag for a moment and Jonah Bailey applied the heads-up tag to end the threat.
The game then went to extras, tied 5-5. Louisiana College stole momentum with a leadoff homer from Christian Vandergrif and a two-run bomb by Dane Pedersen to make it 8-5. McMurry eventually worked out of the inning, calling on senior Chris Lewis for the final two outs.
McMurry began a rally with a Oliver double and an Ethan Schmidt single to put runners on the corners and the tying run at the plate, but a bad luck lineout to the second baseman doubled up Schmidt and killed two quick outs. An RBI single by Javier Rosa kept the rally alive, but a strikeout ended things.
Bailey, Schmidt and Rosa each had two hit days, while Hamel went 1-for-3 with two RBI.
Pitchers of record:
W – Konnor McDermott (1-0)
L – Travis Beauchamp (0-1)
Game 2: Louisiana College 10, McMurry 4 (7 innings)
The nightcap started close early, but a five run seventh inning killed any hopes of splitting the series for McMurry in a 10-4 defeat.
LC scored the first three runs of the game, including a two-run homer in the first by Ju'Juan Franklin, but McMurry answered in the second and third innings to tie it at 3-3. Ethan Schmidt led off the second inning and hit a grounder to third, which took a weird hop and allowed him to reach on a single. Senior Ryan Potter then had his first hit of the season, drilling a double deep off the center field batter's eye.
Javier Rosa then stepped in and reached on an error, allowing two runs to score on a grounder past the shortstop. Christian Oliver then brought home Sam Hillyer with a third inning RBI single.
LC posted runs in the fourth and sixth innings to make it 5-3, but really opened the game in the seventh and final inning with five runs. McMurry managed one more tally in the seventh with a Hillyer RBI double, but could not keep the rally alive.
Freshman lefty Kaden Sebastian earned his first collegiate start, throwing 5.0 innings with four runs allowed on six hits. Despite taking the loss, Sebastian impressed with his command of the plate, striking out six hitters with only one walk.
Pitchers of record:
W – Brooks Southall (1-1)
L – Kaden Sebastian (0-1)
S – Colten Newsom (1)
On Deck
The War Hawks will look to salvage the series tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Walt Driggers Field. Tomorrow's game will not be streamed and will not have live stats. Follow @mcmsports on Twitter for inning-by-inning updates from tomorrow's game.
