April 30, 2006

Final Stats

ABILENE, Texas - Hardin-Simmons' baseball team held on to defeat Louisiana College, 8-7 to win its American Southwest Conference Championship series, Sunday afternoon at Hunter Field in Abilene.

The Cowboys, who were the visiting team in their own ballpark, scored four runs in the top of the second inning. Danny Ruth had a one-out walk and moved to second on a balk. Michael Simpson followed with a walk and Ruth scored on a Taylor Lamar single. Simpson moved to third on the hit and came in to score on another balk. Trevor Bunte then had an RBI single and Ryan Stepp had an RBI double.

LC chipped away with two runs in the second and one in the third. Ryan Reeves had a leadoff home run in the second and Brad Smith scored after he walked, moved to third on a Jeremy Trahan double and scored on a groundout by Ben Kojis. Matt Byrnes had a double and scored on a B.J. Savoia run-scoring single.

HSU added a run in the fourth inning when Lamar led off with a triple and scored on a James Gage RBI single. LC scored two more runs to tie the game at 5-5 in the fourth inning. Herman Galatas had a two-run single in the inning.

The Cowboys ultimately put the game out of reach with three runs with two outs in the fifth. Ruth was hit by a pitch with two outs and Simpson singled to center. Lamar was walked and Gage had a two-run single to center. Bunte then followed with a single to right to chase starter James Halle and give the Cowboys an 8-5 lead.

James Morgan came on in relief of Halle and went four and one-third innings and allowed just two hits and no runs. The game remained 8-5, until the eighth inning, when Cowboy closer Josh Alcorn came on and walked two guys with the bases loaded to make it 8-7, but got out of the inning. He then got two quick outs in the ninth, before an error put a runner on second but he retired Ben Kojis to end the game and record his seventh save of the season.

Kurtis Lay has a workmanlike performance for the Cowboys as he went seven-plus innings and scattered eight hits, allowed six runs and struck out eight to improve to 7-4 on the year. Halle took the loss to fall to 5-4.

HSU will play Mississippi College in the first-round of the ASC Tournament next Friday in Seguin. HSU improved to 27-15 and Louisiana College closed its season with an 18-24 mark.