BROWNWOOD, Texas - The Howard Payne baseball team scored five runs in the final three innings to down Sul Ross State University 5-2 in their conference series opener Friday afternoon at Don Shepard Park.

HPU's starter Kyle Ramon struckout nine in 8.1 innings of work for the win. Ramon allowed just two runs on seven hits and walked just two to improve to 2-1 on the year. Shea Edmonds came in throwing the last two-thirds to pick up the save, his first of the season.

Down 2-0 after Sul Ross scored single runs in the sixth and seventh innings, the Jackets answered in the bottom of the seventh to take a 3-2 advantage.

Cody Cain tripled to right center to score Brett Quackenbush and Cody Brown to tie the game at 2-2. Then Walker,Dailey doubled down the left line to bring home Cain and give the Jacket the 3-2 lead.

Howard Payne would pick up two insurance runs in the eighth on a Quackenbush double to right center to score Matthew Daniel and Jake Sadler. Quackenbush finished 2-for-4 from the plate with two RBIs.

Jake Sadler was also 2-for-4 from the plate and Cody Cain drove in two runs as well.

Howard Payne is now 13-23 overall and 8-19 in American Southwest Conference action. Sul Ross falls to,19-19 overall and 15-13 in league play. The two teams will finish out the series on Saturday with a double header starting at 1:00 pm.