Baseball | 3/18/2022 11:33:00 PM

Box Score ABILENE, Texas – Cody Stanley drove in three and Weston McKinney homered in LETU's series opening 5-4 loss against Hardin-Simmons at Hunter Field Friday.

The YellowJackets fell to 6-14 on the season, including 3-10 in American Southwest Conference play, while the Cowboys moved to 8-9, 6-7.

With one out in the third, McKinley opened the scoring when he blasted his first home run of the season with a drive over the left field wall.

In the next frame, Stanley registered his first of three RBIs, with a single down the right field line, plating Cameron Pfafman. Hardin-Simmons answered with three in the bottom of the inning, courtesy of a walk and a trio of base knocks off Jared Schurig, who tossed a complete game.

LETU responded with a three spot in the top of the fifth. Pfafman followed a pair of one-out singles by Ethan Wood and Anthony Ybarra to load the bags. Dane Jones drove in the tying run with a groundout. Stanley plated a pair with a liner to right, pushing the gap out to 5-3.

The first three batters scored in the home half of the sixth, pushing the Cowboys in front for good. A double, a single and a triple knotted the score at five-all. Corey Ballew grounded out to short, scoring Gannon Azios, the eventual game winner.

Stanley accounted for two of the YellowJackets six hits. Wood, Ybarra, McKinney and Cortes recorded a knock each.

Schurig tossed 8.0 innings, allowing six runs on nine hits, two walks and fanning five.

The series concludes with a doubleheader, beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Game Information
WP – Caleb Smith (2-0): 4.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K
LP – Jared Schurig (2-3): 8.0 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 5 K

Home Runs
LETU: Weston McKinney (1)
 
Triples
HSU: Gannon Azios
 
Doubles
HSU: Nick Ellington; Garrett Frazier

Stolen Bases
LETU: Devin Greaff (1)
 
Errors:
HSU: Luke Kirkbride; Gannon Azios

Start: 4 p.m. Time: 2:01 Weather: 65 deg, N 15-20 MPH