ABILENE, Texas – McMurry Baseball opened a three-game series against University of the Ozarks on Sunday at Walt Driggers Field, splitting the first two games in a competitive doubleheader.
Senior pitcher Derek Hostas led McMurry to a 1-0 win in the opener, tossing a complete game shutout for a victory in the seven-inning game. In game two, Ozarks evened the series with a dramatic 7-6 win in extra innings.
McMurry moves to a 5-6 overall record and a 3-5 record in the American Southwest Conference. Meanwhile, Ozarks earns its first win on the young season and improves to 1-5 overall and 1-4 in the ASC.
Game 1: McMurry 1, Ozarks 0 – (7 innings)
Derek Hostas had a career day on the mound, going 7.0 full innings with just two hits and one walk allowed. He struck out six hitters and did not allow any runs, earning his first win this season.
Today's win was faintly similar to his 2018 outing against Ozarks, where he allowed just one unearned run and three hits in a 4-1 victory at home. The senior from Iowa Park has thrown 24.0 innings this season in four starts, owning a 1-2 record and a 2.63 ERA.
With business taken care of on the mound, the War Hawks needed just one run to win it and found it in the bottom of the sixth. After Reed Hodges reached on a leadoff walk and Blaze Rickerson got on with a two-out single, freshman Casey Turner blooped a single to right field and brought home Hodges.
With the go-ahead run on the board, Hostas returned to the mound to close it out. An early runner reached on a tough error, but he responded with a pickoff and two strikeouts to close a phenomenal outing.
Blake Benson was the losing pitcher for Ozarks, allowing just one run in six innings for a quality start.
The two sides combined for eight hits, with McMurry earning six of those. Turner and senior Nick Hamel led the way with two each, while Rickerson and Javier Rosa added one apiece. Rosa's hit was a double – the lone multi-base hit of the game.
Game 2: Ozarks 7, McMurry 6 – (10 innings)
The second game provided more offense, as Ozarks squeaked out a 7-6 win in 10 innings.
The Eagles took a 2-0 lead with a double in the second inning, then later made it 5-1 with a three-run homer by Ben Cross in the fifth inning. The lone run for McMurry in that span was an RBI single by Nick Hamel, who batted 6-for-9 with two doubles and three RBI over the two games today.
The War Hawks added a run in the bottom of the fifth to make it 5-2, as Blake Beach scored on a wild pitch. Beach also had the first run back in the third inning, walking his way on, stealing second base, moving over to third on a bunt single by Rickerson, then scoring on Hamel's hit.
Beach finished 3-for-5 with a walk and three singles in game two, while also stealing three bases. He now has six stolen bases in seven attempts this season.
McMurry rallied back to tie it in the sixth with three runs, two of which came on a two out triple by Rickerson to bring home Rosa and Logan Mercer. In the next at-bat, Hamel tied the game with by doubling home Rickerson.
Ozarks added a go-ahead run in the seventh, but McMurry answered it in the eighth as Hamel doubled home another to make it 6-6. This ended up helping his own cause as he moved to the mound in the ninth inning, relieving junior Travis Beauchamp after he completed one flawless inning in the eighth.
Kris Sloan took over for Ozarks and challenged Hamel in the ninth, as both did their job and forced extra innings with flawless innings. The Eagles would crack the code in the 10th though, as Joshua Ropple hit the go-ahead double in the top half. McMurry reached two – including Hamel on a single – to open the bottom half, but stranded the tying run on base with a bad luck double play.
Hamel and Beach combined for seven of the team's 13 hits, while Rickerson and Mercer added two each. Turner and Rosa added one apiece. Ozarks finished with just seven hits.
Marty Carnahan completed five innings on the mound, while Kaden Sebastian pitched two in relief. The pair combined for eight strikeouts, while Hamil fanned three in his two innings.
On Deck
The series concludes Monday at 12 p.m. at Walt Driggers Field.
