CLARKSVILLE, Ark. – The Howard Payne University baseball team capitalized on four University of the Ozarks fielding errors to win 8-3 sweeping the conference weekend series.

Ozarks got the offense rolling early in the game scoring one run in each of the first two innings.

The Yellow Jackets started to chip away at the lead midway through the game, plating one run in the fourth and another in the fifth. Howard Payne then took advantage of Ozark errors in the sixth and seventh innings taking an 8-2 advantage through seven.

Ozarks would go on to add one more runs in the eighth, but that concluded scoring for the day for either team.

Overall, HPU trailed slightly 12-11 in the hitting battle, but the difference in the game was that the Yellow Jackets were able to string together timely hits, while defense worked to strand 13 Ozark runners on base throughout the game.

Matthew Daniel, Zachary Rodriquez and Noah Payne each finished with two hits for Howard Payne.

Kyle Ramon improved to 1-2 on the year with the win in the start. Ramon allowed three runs on 11 hits with four strikeouts in eight innings. Shawn Brody saw one inning in relief
striking out one.

With the series sweep, Howard Payne stands at 9-7 overall and 5-4 in American Southwest Conference play. Ozarks is now 9-13 overall and 3-9 in league action. The Jackets will play next on March 29th in Abilene, Texas versus McMurry University before playing a weekend home series at home versus Sul Ross State University on April 1-2.