LONGVIEW - Early Friday afternoon, the LeTourneau YellowJacket baseball team got bad news as a win from East Texas Baptist eliminated the Jackets from ASC postseason play. LeTourneau, looking to end the year strong, responded greatly as they took on the Mary Hardin-Baylor Cru in a non-conference battle and took a 3-1 victory.

Neither team got anything moving early on as a pitching duel developed between Jacket (21-15, 8-10 ASC) ace Curt Copeland and UMHB's Kreece Cooper. Both teams were able to put a few hits together, but clutch pitching kept the game scoreless.

The Cru (19-18, 10-8 ASC) struck first in the bottom of the sixth as after they led the inning off by reaching on an error and eventually scoring on a RBI single.

Junior Chuck Daugherty led the seventh inning off with a single followed by a beautiful bunt single by junior Dustin Varnado. After a pair of outs and a walk to junior Bryce Griffin, sophomore Ryan Bertram came to the plate, looking to at least tie the game. Bertram came through with a huge RBI double into the right center gap to score all three runs and take a 3-1 lead.

It was all Copeland needed as one of the most dominant pitchers in the ASC this season cruised to his eighth win of the season. It was his ninth complete game of the season as he goes to 8-2 on the season, giving up no earned runs on eight hits and striking out five.

His final stats for 2013 included a 1.53 ERA in 82.1 innings pitched. He struck out 47 batters while only allowing 14 earned runs and walking 10 batters.

Offensively, Varnado had one of his best games of the year, going 3-for-4 with a run scored and a stolen base. Daugherty and senior Jay Lutz were each 2-for-4 on the evening while Bertram was 1-for-5 with three RBIs. 

LeTourneau will close the 2013 season tomorrow afternoon in a doubleheader against the Cru. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. with the second game to follow shortly after. Live stats and live video can be seen on UMHB's Stretch Portal.