ABILENE, Texas - The Howard Payne University baseball team fell 8-6 in its conference series opener to Hardin-Simmons University Friday evening.

Hardin-Simmons totaled 15 hits as a team and used a four run second to gain a 7-2 advantage. Howard Payne would have to play from behind from that point scoring one in the fourth and two in the sixth to make the score 8-5 heading into the ninth.

A Cliff Lunceford RBI ground out allowed Matthew Daniel to score from third to pull the Jackets to within two, 8-6. Now with a runner at second and the tying run at the plate, Will Roberts would strike out to end the Jacket rally.

HPU's Kyle Ramon (4-3) recorded the loss in the start going 1.2 innings and allowing seven runs on eight hits. Joshua O'Conner saw 2.1 innings in relief allowing one run on three hits and striking out three. Chad Anders threw the final five frames allowing no runs on four hits.

Joshua Martinez led HPU going 3-for-4 from the plate. Noah Payne and Matthew Daniel each had two hits. Will Roberts hit his fourth homer of his career in the sixth inning.

The series opener was moved from Brownwood to Abilene due to lighting in the Brownwood area and the game was played on the Hardin-Simmons campus that evening.

Howard Payne is now 18-18 overall and 8-11 in conference play. Hardin-Simmons stands at 24-14 overall and 16-6 in league action. The two teams will finish out the series on Saturday with a double header starting at 1:00 pm in Brownwood.