A three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh by Alex Bishop and an insurance run in the eighth by UT Tyler spoiled a comeback by the LeTourneau University baseball team in its opening round game of the 2016 American Southwest Conference Baseball Tournament - Blue Bracket. The matchup was a rematch of the last two champions of the ASC Tournament.
The Patriots (26-15) tied the game in the sixth at 4, then a three-run blast by Bishop over the right-field wall put UT Tyler ahead 7-4. Bishop and the top five in the UT Tyler order accounted for nine of the 12 hits to support six-different pitchers in the win. Bishop had five RBI and Collin Belcher, who closed out the seventh inning for the Patriots picked up the win to improve to 1-0.
LeTourneau (15-21) quickly found itself behind 3-0 in the first inning before scoring twice in the fifth and sixth inning to take a 4-3 lead. Sophomore
Rayne Hobbs had three hits to lead an eight-hit attack for the YellowJackets, plus senior
Taylor Empkey had a pair of RBI to go along with three walks. Freshman
Andrew Harlan was the losing pitcher after allowing nine hits, seven runs (four earned) and striking out three in the loss to fall to 4-7.
A pair of errors by LeTourneau in the top of the first allowed UT Tyler to take an early 3-0 lead. LeTourneau capitalized on a pair of defensive miscues by UT Tyler in the fifth to cut the deficit to one, 3-2. In the inning, senior
Dylan Wadyko reached on a fielding error. Then, he moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Next, senior
Sean Sellers reached on a wild pitch on strike three and Wadyko moved to third to put runners on the corners for senior
Taylor Empkey. A bloop single by Empkey plated Wadyko for the first LETU run; then a fielder's choice by junior
Kyle Jacobs brought in Sellers to make it a 3-2 contest.
LeTourneau took its first lead in the sixth inning with two runs on three hits for a 4-3 lead. In the inning, Empkey picked up his second RBI of the day on a bases loaded walk and Wadyko brought in junior
Jacob Simmons, who had doubled earlier in the inning.
UT Tyler regained the lead with three runs on four hits including the three-run home run by Bishop in its half of the seventh. Earlier in the inning, LeTourneau hit into a double play that erased a threat. The Patriots' added an insurance run with Bishop hitting a RBI single in the eighth inning. A final threat by the YellowJackets was erased when they hit into their second double play of the day.
The next opponent for LeTourneau will be No. 8 seed UT Dallas at 1 p.m. Later on Friday, the Comets lost 2-0 to No. 1 seed Concordoa.
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