Abram Choate, SID

ABILENE, Texas - The Howard Payne baseball team was swept by Hardin-Simmons in a doubleheader, 5-2 and 5-1, Saturday afternoon in American Southwest Conference action at Hunter Field.

Hardin-Simmons improved to 21-15, 10-7 ASC while  HPU fell to 13-22 overall and  7-11 in ASC action.

In the first game, Dalton Rucker had a complete-game win for HSU. He struck out 10 batters and allowed just one earned run.

Hardin-Simmons took advantage of a four-error fourth inning to take a 5-1 lead. In the fourth, the Jackets had three straight chances to end the inning with routine double play balls, but all three were bobbled and they did not record an out. HPU's Josh Holmes received the loss for Howard Payne.

Howard Payne scored a single run in the third on a Cale Thompson double after a two-out error. It scored a single run in the fifth on four straight singles. That was all the run support Josh Holmes received in a tough-luck loss.

Coleman and Blake Koch had two hits each for HSU and Blake Shaffer had three hits for HPU.

In the second game, HSU continued its strong pitching. Nathan Copeland got the win pitching seven and two-third innings and stuck out nine while allowing only three hits for HSU.

Howard Payne scored its only run in the fourth when HSU had back-to-back errors. HSU retook the lead in the bottom of the fourth with two runs. 

Koch had three hits and Ruth had two hits for HSU. Jimmy Mays had two of the HPU four hits in the game