BROWNWOOD, Texas -- The LeTourneau baseball team came up short twice on Saturday as host Howard Payne took game one, 16-8, before winning the finale 6-4 to take the ASC series on Saturday in Brownwood.
LeTourneau (9-13, 3-6 ASC) saw its three-game winning streak came to a halt with the losses.
GAME ONE: Howard Payne 16, LeTourneau 8
LeTourneau rallied from a 5-0 deficit, but Howard Payne scored 11 runs in the sixth to pull away for a 16-8 victory in Saturday's first game.
LeTourneau hit three home runs as
Dane Jones,
Xander Nabors, and
Carter Amarantos all went deep. LeTourneau had 11 hits in the loss.
Howard Payne opened with five runs in the first inning. LeTourneau rallied back with four runs in the third inning and four more in the fourth to grab an 8-5 lead.
Jones hit a two-run home run, his nation-leading 12th of the season, that put the YellowJackets on the board in the third. Two batters later, Nabors crushed a two-run homer to left field to cut the margin to 5-4.
LeTourneau grabbed the lead with four runs in the fourth. Nabors tied the game with an RBI single before Amarantos launched a three-run homer to left field to give the YellowJackets an 8-5 lead.
That margin held until the sixth. Howard Payne exploded for 11 runs on 12 hits in the inning to grab the lead for good. William Burford's three-run double gave the hosts the lead.
Jones, Nabors, and Amarantos all had two hits each for LeTourneau, while Nabors and Amarantos had three RBIs apiece.
Riley Davis (1-2) got the loss in relief as he went five innings out of the bullpen.
Howard Payne reliever Brandon Taylor got the win as he worked 2.1 innings.
GAME TWO: Howard Payne 6, LeTourneau 4
LeTourneau trailed 6-0 in the eighth before scoring four times, but Howard Payne held on for a 6-4 victory and a series win.
Howard Payne methodically built a 6-0 lead before LeTourneau made a rally in the late innings.
In the eighth,
Dane Jones delivered a run-scoring single to bring home
Zach Zarko to put the YellowJackets on the board.
Ben Jones followed with an RBI fielder's choice before an Amarantos RBI single and a Howard Payne error made it a 6-4 game.
Dane Jones had two hits in the loss.
Aman Patel (1-4) made the start went allowed one earned run in 4.2 innings with three strikeouts.
Cruz Cox tossed 1.1 scoreless innings out of the bullpen.
Brendan Read (2-1) went 5.1 innings and got the win for Howard Payne. Nicholas Richards set LeTourneau down in order in the ninth to record his second save.
Three different Howard Payne players had two hits as the Yellow Jackets had 10 in the victory.
UP NEXT
LeTourneau hosts Mary Hardin-Baylor for a three-game series starting on Thursday (7 p.m.).
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