March 13, 2007

Final Stats

ABILENE, Texas - Josh Alcorn and James Sweatman combined for a two-hit shutout as Hardin-Simmons blanked Southwestern, 13-0, in the Abilene Baseball Classic on Tuesday afternoon at Hunter Field.

Alcorn (2-1) was dominating in his five innings of work as he did not allow a hit and struck out four to earn the win. Sweatman was almost as effective as he went four scoreless innings and did not allow a hit until there was one out in the eighth inning.

The Pirates' Michael Murphy lofted a perfectly placed blooper to shallow center field that fell between four Cowboys. Brent McMullen hit almost the same ball to the same spot for the Pirates second hit, but Sweatman shut them down and then had a flawless ninth to record the rare four-inning save.

The outcome of the game was not in the doubt after the Cowboys 11 runs in the middle three innings, after the teams were 0-0 through three innings.

In the fourth inning, Michael Simpson led off with a double, Ryan Stepp was hit by a pitch and Danny Ruth had an infield single to load the bases with no outs. After a fielder's choice cut off Simpson at the plate, Blake Koch tripled to center to score three runs. Trevor Bunte singled in Kock to make it 4-0.

In the fifth inning, Ruth had a sacrifice fly to bring in Brad Coleman, who had singled to lead off the inning and moved to second on a Simpson single and to third on a Stepp sacrifice bunt.

HSU put the game away with six runs in the sixth and added single runs in the seventh and eighth. In the sixth, Bunte had an RBI single, scoring Koch who led off with a double. Coleman had a two-run double and later scored on a wild pitch. Ruth had a sacrifice fly and James Gage had a RBI single. Coleman had an RBI single in the seventh and Koch had an RBI single in the eighth.

HSU pounded out 15 hits and did not commit an error in the game. Coleman had three hits and three RBIs and Koch had three hits and four RBIs.

The Cowboys will play Wayland Baptist tonight at approximately 6:30, after the Plainsmen finish their 3:30 game at McMurry.