March 11, 2008

Final Stats

ABILENE, Texas - Ryan Stepp and Wayne Pimpton hit back-to-back home runs with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, as Hardin-Simmons' baseball team rallied for a 9-8 win over UT-Tyler, Tuesday evening at Hunter Field.

The Cowboys received a solid outing from freshman lefthander Sam Walker. He overcame a shaky start to go six innings, allowing only three runs on four hits. He started off walking the first three batters, but ended up only allowing one of them to score. He got a popout and a double play ball to get out of the inning.

HSU took a 3-1 lead with a single run in the second and two runs in the third. James Gage doubled in Taylor Berlin in the second and in the third Kyle Post single to lead off the inning. Moved to second on a sac bunt by Michael Morgan, went to third on a Brian Weeks single and scored on a Stepp groundout. Berlin then singled in Weeks.

Joseph Towns led off the fourth with a solo home run to right to make it 3-2. HSU scored two more runs in the bottom of the fourth. Tre' Sellari had a long home run to left center field and the Cowboys scored an unearned run off an error. UTT made it 5-3 with a Jared Hood RBI single.

HSU added two runs in the sixth inning. Stepp had a sacrifice fly and the Cowboys scored another run when centerfielder Chris Goss dropped a routine ball that would have ended the inning when he one-handed it, scoring Post. It remained 7-3 until the top of the seventh when UTT got to HSU reliever Lance Johnson. A leadoff double and three singles added a run and loaded the bases for Chad Deledian who deposited a pitch over the scoreboard for a grand slam to give the Patriots an 8-7 lead.

HSU went 1-2-3 after a Gage single to leadoff the seventh. Kyle Barton came on and worked a perfect eighth inning and HSU then got two quick outs on a Morgan strikeout and a fly ball to right by Weeks. Then Stepp hammered a Andrew Splawn (0-1) pitch just to the right of the green monster in right field and Pimpton followed with an opposite field home run to right to make it 9-8.

Josh Alcorn came on in the ninth and erased the first two batters, before allowing a two-out double. He then struck out Deledian to end the game and record his second save of the season and the 15th of his career. Barton earned the win in relief. He remained unscored upon this season in 19 and 2/3 innings of work.

Berlin had four hits for the Cowboys and Pimpton, Gage and Post had two as all nine starters had a hit for the Cowboys. Gage was the only Cowboy starter not to score a run in the game and he was on base three times. The home run was especially gratifying for Pimpton, who broke a 1-for-16 streak he had coming into the game.

The Cowboys snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 10-6 on the year. Fifth-ranked UTT fell to 16-3. HSU will play Mary Hardin-Baylor in a key three-game American Southwest Conference series this weekend with the first pitch slated for 7 p.m. Saturday night.

--- HSU ---