LONGVIEW, Texas -- The LeTourneau baseball team walked off the first game with a bunt single to win 6-5, but No. 24 ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor took the second 13-6 on Friday afternoon.
GAME ONE: LeTourneau 6, Mary Hardin-Baylor 5
It took an extra frame for Ethan Wood to lay down a bunt single, bringing Kevin Soto home to walk it off in the eighth.
LeTourneau (11-14, 5-7 ASC) got on the board first in the bottom of the second. Blake Vice got aboard via his single to right field.
Kevin Soto then doubled down the left line to leave two runners in scoring position for Ethan Wood.
Wood hit one far enough to left field for a sacrifice fly to put the YellowJackets ahead 1-0.
Mary Hardin-Baylor (17-8, 9-6 ASC) responded in the top of the third as Carson Hagan marked an RBI double, to be followed by Rhett Grosz who also knocked an RBI double to give the Crusaders their first lead of the weekend at 2-1.
LeTourneau answered right back in the bottom of the third as Hayden Norris led off with a single up the middle.
Ben Jones, who was robbed of a home run on Thursday, hit one well enough beyond the fence in left-center field for a two-run homer to take a 3-2 lead.
The Crusaders tipped the scale back in their favor in the top of the fifth with Kyle Hogwood's two-RBI single to left-center.
LeTourneau then bounced back in the bottom of the sixth as Xander Nabors led off with a single.
Carter Amarantos followed that up with a walk before Blake Vice flew out to advance Nabors to third.
After the fly out the Crusaders made a pitching change bringing Jacob Haynes who hit Soto and Wood to load the bases and score a run to tie it up at 4-4.
LeTourneau would leave three on base as Nicklas Fenner would take the mound and retire the side.
The Crusaders led off the seventh with a triple from Kaden deBeradinis, and was brought in by on a sacrifice fly from Hagan to take a 5-4 lead. That would stand going into the bottom of the seventh inning, in the seven-inning scheduled game.
Dane Jones was first at the plate for LeTourneau. Jones fell behind in the count at 1-2 before sending one out to left field to tie the game and send it into extra innings all tied up at 5-5.
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TJ Spitdowski pitched a three up three down inning in the eighth bringing the LeTourneau bats right back to the plate.
Soto led off with a double out to left center field.
Soto represented the winning run at second as Wood squared to bunt and reached on a single. Blake Gonzalez at third base threw the ball past the first base allowing Soto to come home to finish the game and give LeTourneau the series.
Ryan Brewer started on the mound for LeTourneau. He went 4.2 innings, allowed five hits, four earned runs, and got five strikeouts.
TJ Spitdowski (2-1) got the win for his 3.1 innings of work. He allowed one hit, one earned run, and had three strikeouts.
Nicklas Fenner (1-1) was credited for the loss in his 1.2 innings he allowed four hits, two runs, one earned, and got a strikeout.
GAME TWO: Mary Hardin-Baylor 13, LeTourneau 6
Mary Hardin-Baylor hopped out to an early 8-1 lead after the top of the fourth.
LeTourneau started to answer back in the bottom of the fourth as Soto walked and advanced on a wild pitch. Devin Greaff then knocked a one-out single as Soto scored on a throwing error.
Norris then hit a two-out double to score Greaff and make it 8-3 after four.
In the bottom of the fifth Carter Amarantos hit a solo homer to left field to make it 9-4.
The Cru would extend their lead to 12-4 in the top of the sixth.Â
Dane Jones hit his 14th home run of the season.
Keegan Symons (4-2) got the win for the Cru with 4.0 innings pitched, allowed five hits, three runs, two earned, and got two strikeouts.
Dylan Cortes took the mound late in the game he saw 1.0 innings and struck out three batters.
Camden Miller finished the game's last 1.1 innings, he allowed two hits and a run.
UP NEXT
LeTourneau will host Highway 80 rival, East Texas Baptist which will start with a single game on Friday (7 p.m.).
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