April 6, 2007

Final Stats

AUSTIN, Texas - Hardin-Simmons' baseball team swept its three-game American Southwest Conference series with Concordia-Austin by winning a doubleheader on Friday, 6-3 and 15-4, at Keller-Fasholz Field in Austin.

Senior centerfielder Michael Simpson was the highlight for the Cowboys, hitting three home runs and driving in eight runs in the second game of the doubleheader. He became the school's all-time hits leader with his three hits. He passed Clay Johnston's record of 208.

In the second game, HSU took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by James Gage. Concordia-Austin then scored three straight runs to take a 3-1 lead through four innings. HSU then regained the lead on four straight hits in the fifth. Taylor Gibbs and Blake Koch had singles and Brad Coleman hit a long three-run home run and Simpson followed with a solo home run to right.

Simpson was just getting started as he hit a three-run home run in the seventh inning and had a grand slam in the seventh to give him three home runs in the game and four in the series. Koch and Gibbs each had RBI singles in the eighth inning, prior to Simpson's slam. For the game, Simpson had three home runs and eight RBIs.

Jeff Walker (2-0) won the game in relief out of the bullpen with a solid outing. He went five and two-third innings of two-hit relief.

In game one, the Cowboys used some clutch hitting to best the Tornados. Simpson put the Cowboys on the board with two-out double to score Koch in the first inning.

Ryan Stepp had an RBI single in the fourth inning to make it 2-0. Bill Mitchell followed in the fourth with a solo home run to cut the Cowboy lead to 2-1. HSU added two runs in the sixth inning on RBI singles by Stepp and Taylor Lamar.

Dalton Rucker (3-3) cruised through five innings, before giving up two runs in the sixth inning. Kyle Barton came in and got the Cowboys out of the sixth and Josh Alcorn closed the game out in the seventh to record his fifth save of the year and the second of the series. Rucker's win was the 15th of his career tying him with Kyle Tabor for the school record.

HSU added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh on a RBI single by Koch and then scored on a double play ground ball.

The Cowboys put themselves back in the race for the ASC tournament moving one-half game behind the Tornados with the sweep. Hardin-Simmons is now 18-14 overall and 7-7 in ASC West action. Concordia-Austin fell to 18-15 overall and 8-7 in league play. HSU hosts Howard Payne next weekend at Hunter Field.