PINEVILLE, Louisiana – The Howard Payne baseball team split a conference double header with Louisiana College 6-5 and 1-9 Saturday afternoon.

The Yellow Jackets took game one of the double header 6-5 with four players recording multiple hits. William Payne, Brandon Garrett, Cody Brown and Blake Laney each had two hits for Howard Payne.

After Tyler Colburn went 3.1 innings in the start, Adrian Acosta recorded his second win of the season throwing the final 3.2 innings, allowing two runs on four hits and striking out three.

After scoring single runs in the first two frames, the Jackets gained a lead that they would never relinquish.

A Brandon Garrett RBI single and Brent Quackenbush RBI double gave HPU a 4-1 lead in the fourth. Then a Blake Laney RBI single and a Cliff Lunceford RBI double extended the Jackets lead back to three 6-3 in the fifth.

In game two, with LC leading 2-1 going into the bottom of the fifth, the Wildcats dropped six runs in the inning to gain an 8-1 advantage. Three HPU errors contributed to the LC scoring with the Wildcats going on to win 9-1.

Howard Payne got its run in the top of the second when Lunceford had a sacrifice fly to center field to score Seth Dohrman who had reached on a double to right center.

Matthew Parks went two innings in the start for the Jackets, Wesley Smith recorded the loss in relief going 2.1 innings allowing five runs on just two hits and striking out two. Dalton Land and Chad Anders saw action on the mound closing out the game. Dohrman and Laney were both 2-for-4 from the plate for HPU.

Howard Payne is now 4-3 overall and 1-2 in American Southwest Conference action. Louisiana College is 4-8 overall and 1-2 in conference play. The Jackets will play next on March 1st at home versus Southwestern Assemblies of God starting at 12:00 pm.