March 20, 2006

Final Stats

ABILENE, Texas - Hardin-Simmons' baseball team won the final two games of an American Southwestern Conference tripleheader over crosstown rival McMurry, Monday at Walt Driggers Field.

HSU dropped the first game 7-6 in eight innings, then won 13-9 and 7-5.

The Cowboys improved to 11-9 overall and 3-3 in American Southwest Conference West Division play. HSU has played the top two favorites in the league, with both series coming on the road. McMurry fell to 14-6 overall and 4-2 in conference play.

HSU will play at Lubbock Christian on Tuesday afternoon.

Game 3 HSU 7, McMurry 5 In the third game, McMurry jumped out to a 5-1 lead before the Cowboys battled back. In the fourth HSU schored three runs on a hit and two errors. Taylor Lamar had the only RBI in the inning on a fielder's choice.

Trailing 5-4, the Cowboys scored two runs in the fifth to take the lead. The Cowboys had four straight singles in the inning. Trevor Bunte had an RBI single and the Cowboys scored the last run on an error.

The Cowboys scratched out another run in the sixth when Michael Simpson led off with a single, was balked to second, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on a Danny Ruth sacrifice fly.

Josh Alcorn (1-2) came on in relief of Lance Johnson and was brilliant for the Cowboys. He went six and one-third innings, striking out six and allowing only two hits. Eric Dickerhoff took the loss for McMurry.

Game 2 HSU 13, McMurry 9 The Cowboys outlasted the Indians in the second game. HSU had 19 hits in the game. The Cowboys scored in the first on a Brad Coleman double, one of three he had in the game.

McMurry scored two runs in the first on a Derek David single. HSU retook the lead in the third with a pair of runs. Simpson had an RBI fielder's choice and Coleman had an RBI single. The Indians came right back with two more runs to make it 4-3. Greg Erickson and Hank Casey had RBI singles in the inning.

Bunte tied the game up in the fourth inning with an RBI double for the Cowboys and the game went back and forth until the Cowboys came up with six runs in the sixth inning. McMurry added three in the sixth to make it 12-9, before HSU scored one in the seventh to make it 13-9.

Coleman went 5-for-5 for the Cowboys. Ruth had four RBIS for HSU. Bunte had three hits and drove in two runs for HSU. All nine starters had hits for HSU. Dalton Rucker earned the win on the mound to improve to 1-2.

Game 1 McMurry 7, HSU 6 (8) In the first game, Craig Richardson hit a home run for McMurry in the first to make it 1-0. HSU responded in the second with a three-run home run by Bo Vaculik. McMurry tied the game with two runs in the bottom of the second.

In the third, Coleman hit a two-run home run to make it 5-3 and then the Cowboys scored a single run in the fourth to make it 6-3 as Taylor Lamar had an RBI single. Derek David hit a two-run home run in the fifth for McMurry to cut it to 6-5. The Indians scored a run in the seventh to tie the game and Chris Manley homered in the eighth to give the Indians the win.

Coleman had three hits to pace the Cowboys. Kurtis Lay took the loss in relief for the Cowboys falling to 3-2 on the year. David had two hits and three RBIs for McMurry. Hank Casey earned the win, scattering nine hits in eight innings of work.