April 25, 2008

Final Stats

TYLER, Texas - Hardin-Simmons' baseball team dropped a 13-5 game to UT Tyler in the first game of its American Southwest Conference Championship series Friday evening at Irwin Field in Tyler.

The Cowboys had their 12-game winning streak snapped with the loss and will have to win two games on Saturday to extend their season. HSU fell to 26-15 with the loss and the Patriots improved to 34-7. Saturday's action will begin at 1 p.m.

UTT took an early 3-0 lead on the Cowboys. Kendall Fox led off the game for the Patriots with a walk and moved up on a single and scored on an RBI single by Jeremy Harding. The Patriots added another run on a Kevin Ellison error. UTT added a run in the second when Clay Baker doubled in Fox.

It remained 3-0 until the top of the fifth, when the Cowboys scored three runs. The first run scored on a wild pitch with two outs and Ryan Stepp had a two-run triple to tie the game at 3-3.

The Patriots responded with five runs after there were two outs and nobody on base in the bottom of the fifth. Andrew Damewood had a nine-pitch at-bat that led to a walk. Kyle Braden followed with a two-run home run to center field. A walk and hit batsmen and a double by Fox led to two more runs. Baker followed with an RBI single to make it 8-3. UTT added two runs in the sixth to make it 10-3.

Each team scored a run in the seventh, HSU's on a sacrifice fly by Stepp. UTT on a double-play with runners on first and third.The Cowboys last run came on a RBI double by Stepp.

Nathan Copeland (4-2) took the loss for the Cowboys. He went four and two-third innings and allowed six runs, five earned, he walked three and struck out four. Blake Booher moved his record to 11-0 on the year with eight innings of work. The Cowboys did touch him for four runs, the most he had allowed all year, but he struck out eight.

Stepp was 2-for-3 with four RBIs and Gage had two hits for the Cowboys. Baker had four hits and two RBIs, Fox had three hits and three RBIs and Towns had three hits.