ASC Championship Central | Tournament Website | Live Stats | Live Video | Photo Gallery (Courtesy of Howard Payne)
 
SAN ANGELO, Texas – Having waited a total of 26 hours to finally get their 2019 postseason underway, the LeTourneau University baseball team scored the first three runs of the game and took advantage of four Howard Payne University errors to grab an 11-3 win in the American Southwest Conference Blue Bracket opener at Foster Field at First Credit at 1st Community Credit Union Stadium on the campus of Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas on Friday, May 3rd.
 
LETU improves to 22-19 overall on the season after picking up their third win of the year over the regular-season ASC champions while HPU falls to 26-15 overall and faces postseason elimination when they take on Louisiana College tonight.
 
LeTourneau would put up a single run in the top of the first as Brandon Ramirez and Bryce Brueggemeyer would each collect one-out singles before a Kyle Guevara two-out RBI single get LETU on the board. Things would remain a 1-0 lead for LeTourneau until the top of the third when Eli Birriel would get aboard with a leadoff single and come around to score on a Will Bradshaw two-out home run to left field to make the score 3-0. A solo home run would allow HPU to get a run back in the bottom half of the third as LETU would hold a two-run lead going to the fourth.
 
Birriel would get in on the action again in the fourth as leadoff Noah Mahoney double and Lee Hosie walk would set the stage for a two-out, two-RBI double to add to the LeTourneau lead and make things 5-1 in favor of LETU. Howard Payne managed to push across another run in the bottom of the inning to try and keep pace with LeTourneau as the score would be 5-2 going to the fifth.
 
Errors would begin to pile up for Howard Payne in the middle innings as LeTourneau plated a run on a throwing error by the HPU pitcher on a pickoff but conceded a run in the bottom of the fifth to keep things at a three-run LETU lead. A scoreless sixth inning would make way for a three-run LeTourneau seventh on two hits as two errors allowed all three runs to come home and break the game open with LETU doubling their lead to 9-3.
 
The six-run LeTourneau lead would be added to once again in the top of the eighth as a Birriel sacrifice bunt and Brueggemeyer RBI single brought home two more runs as LETU would go up 11-3. LeTourneau would allow just two hits in the final two innings to Howard Payne as the game never would be in question with LETU picking up their first ASC Tournament-opening win since 2015.
 
A big outing for starter Kolton Eberlan would see the sophomore go 7.1 innings and allow three runs on 10 hits while striking out five batters and cruising to his fourth win of the year. Leading the LeTourneau offense would be Brueggemeyer with a three-for-five performance with one RBI while Birriel drove in a game-high three runs. Free bases would also prove to be a boon for LeTourneau thanks in part to six stolen bases and five walks in the game allowed by Howard Payne pitchers.
 
What's Next?
The most-common opponent for LETU in the ASC Tournament, the YellowJackets will be back in action tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. when they take on the University of Texas-Dallas as the Comets finished off an 11-2 win on Friday over Louisiana College. LETU and UTD will be meeting for the sixth-time in ASC Tournament history, with Texas-Dallas having won the past five postseason meetings. The game will mark the fourth-time in a week that the two squads have met, with UTD taking two out of three games over the YellowJackets to close out the regular-season.