April 14, 2007

Final Stats

ABILENE, Texas - Hardin-Simmons' baseball team swept a doubleheader from Howard Payne, 5-2 and 5-1, Saturday afternoon in American Southwest Conference action at a blustery Hunter Field on Senior Day in Abilene.

The Cowboys (21-15, 10-7) earned their ninth straight American Southwest Conference win and are in position to claim a berth in the ASC Championship series, after a 1-7 league start. The Cowboys moved to fourth place in the standings with the three-game sweep this weekend and control their destiny to reach the postseason. HSU plays at last-place Sul Ross State to close the regular season next weekend.

In the first game, Dalton Rucker improved to 4-3 on the year with a complete-game win. He struck out 10 batters and allowed just one earned run. Rucker threw the first complete game for the Cowboys this season. With the win, he passed Kyle Tabor for the ASC era career wins record at HSU with 16.

The Cowboys took advantage of a four-error fourth inning to take a 5-1 lead. In the fourth, the Jackets had three straight chances to end the inning with routine double play balls, but all three were bobbled and they did not record an out.

HSU had scored single runs in the first and second innings. Brad Coleman had an RBI single in the first and Trevor Bunte had a RBI single in the second.

Howard Payne scored a single run in the third on a Cale Thompson double after a two-out error. It scored a single run in the fifth on four straight singles. That was all the run support Josh Holmes received in a tough-luck loss.

Coleman and Blake Koch had two hits each for the Cowboys and Blake Shaffer had three hits for HPU.

In the second game, HSU continued its strong pitching. Nathan Copeland (1-5) pitched seven and two-third innings and stuck out nine while allowing only three hits. He allowed only an unearned run. Brownwood native Josh Alcorn recorded his sixth save by recording the last four outs against his hometown team.

Howard Payne scored its only run in the fourth when HSU had back-to-back errors. HSU retook the lead in the bottom of the fourth with two runs. Ryan Stepp led off with a walk and moved to second on an error by Kyle Lloyd that allowed Danny Ruth to reach. Taylor Lamar's grounder moved the two to second and third and Stepp scored on a James Gage groundout and Ruth scored on a Bunte single.

HSU added a single run in the seventh on a two-out RBI double by Blake Koch. Taylor Gibbs had walked with two outs and stole second base. The Cowboys plated two runs in the eighth. Ruth and Gage had RBI singles for HSU.

Koch had three hits and Ruth had two hits for HSU. Jimmy Mays had two of the HPU four hits in the game. HPU fell to 13-22 overall and fell out of the ASC postseason race at 7-11.