LeTourneau baseball dropped game one of a three-game "Battle of the YellowJackets" series with Howard Payne 7-4 on Friday afternoon in Brownwood.
 
LeTourneau (7-15, 0-10 ASC) scored four runs in the eighth inning as they tried to rally for the second straight game. Freshmen Haden Simmons and Zach Cochran started the inning with a single and double respectively to put themselves in scoring position. Senior Carson Dickey took advantage with an RBI single up the middle so score Simmons.
 
A wild pitch by HPU would score Cochran and Dickey advanced to third. Senior Kyle Jacobs would cut the deficit to four with a double to left center field, scoring Dickey. Catcher Noah Mahoney would record the fourth RBI for the YellowJackets and brought home Jacobs with a double down the left field line.
 
The rally would fall short in the top of the ninth inning, however, as HPU retired the side and claimed the win.
 
The LETU defense recorded four errors in the game which led to four unearned runs for Howard Payne.
 
Sophomore Andrew Harlan falls to 1-4 on the season after striking out three in his 5.2 innings on the mound. Harlan gave up just two earned runs on eight hits.

Fellow sophomore Blake Maxfeldt pitched the remaining 2.1 innings in relief and struck out three batters giving up one run on two hits.
 
A unique box score for the YellowJackets shows every batter went 1-for-4 at the plate except for Ryan Conger who went 1-for-3 with a walk.
 
The two teams will battle again tomorrow afternoon in a Saturday doubleheader with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.