LONGVIEW, Texas - The Howard Payne baseball team split a doubleheader with LeTourneau University to claim their third American Southwest Conference series of the season.

Game 1
A pickoff move by Kyle Ramon of HPU picked off a game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth to preserve a 1-0 shutout. Howard Payne got the only run of the contest in the fifth inning. HPU starting pitcher Jacob Spivey went 6.1 innings, striking out two and giving up just a single to Sean Sellers to start the bottom of the first in the win. With the win, Spivey improves to 2-5 and Ramon picked up his 5th save of the season.

Howard Payne started the fifth with a Joshua Martinez single to left field. Then, he moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Walker Dailey for the first out of the inning. Then, after a fly out, John Elmore drove in Martinez from second for the 1-0 lead.

LETU mounted a threat in its half of the fifth inning but Spivey ended the threat with a strikeout and a pop out to keep LETU off the scoreboard.

Again, LETU had a chance to tie it in the seventh. With a runner on second, HPU reliever Kyle Ramon appeared to have ended the game with a strikeout, but the ball got away from the catcher, allowing Jon Letu's Lewis to reach first and move the other runner to third. With runners on the corners, Ramon picked off Lewis at first to end the game.

Game 2
LeTourneau took game two 6-5 after a late rally by Howard Payne come up short. Howard Payne had 11 hits, including two from Cody Brown and Cody Cain in the loss. Shawn Brody, in relief of starter Zach Moseley, went 5.1 innings, allowing six hits, two runs – all earned and struck out four in the loss to fall to 2-2.

Brett Quackenbush started the scoring for the game in the first with a homer to right field, his first of the season.

Then in the fifth, Quackenbush grounded out to second allowing Cody Cain to score. Next Jacob Cowling singled up the middle to bring home Walker Dailey and tie the game at 3-3.

Down 6-3 going into the ninth, a Jacob Cowling sacrifice fly to right field score score Jake Sadler. Then Cody Brown singled up the middle to score Brandon Garrett. With the winning run at the plate, Dustin DeJohn grounded out to second to end the rally and the game.

Jacob Cowling and Brett Quackenbush each had two RBI for the Jackets in the loss.

Howard Payne is now 12-15 overall and 7-13 in the American Southwest Conference. LeTourneau, stands at 10-9 overall and 8-6 league play. Howard Payne will have a non-conference game with McMurry on Tuesday at Don Shepard Park starting at 3:00 pm.
,