Brownwood, Texas - The Yellow Jacket Baseball Club hosted the Blazers of Belhaven in an American Southwest Conference double header today. The Jackets won both games by a score of 8-5 and 19-8 to move their win streak to 9, 8 in ASC play.
Game 1
The Jackets got out to an early 3-0 lead with a Ty McCain doubled to right center that scored Joshua Gerig and Noah Payne, and then a SAC fly from Nolyn Box that plated McCain.
The Blazers closed the gap 3-2 with a triple, but the Jackets tacked more on in the 2nd and 4th innings making the score 7-2. Cliff Lunceford laced a single that scored Rylee McGee in the 2nd, then Noah Payne singled to score Jacob Rodriguez and Joshua Gerig singled to score Payne and Lunceford in the 4th.
The Jackets would score 1 more in the 6th on another Joshua Gerig single that plated Noah Payne on a fielding error.
The Blazers would make it interesting scoring some runs late, but the scoring stopped at 8-5.
Noah Payne and Ty McCain were both 2-4, McCain with a double and 2 RBIs, and Payne with 1 plus 2 stolen bags. Joshua Gerig and Cliff Lunceford both finished 2-3, Gerig with 2 RBIs and a swiped bag and Lunceford added an RBI of his own.
Chandler Clark got the win for the Jackets and dealt 5 innings giving up 6 hits and 3 earned runs while striking out 4. Brenden Clanton got the save for HPU, his 2nd of the year.
Game 2
The second game of the afternoon was a score fest for the Jackets. Scoring 8 runs in the first two innings.
It looked like the Blazers were going to fight back after scoring a couple in the 6th making the score 8-3, but an RJ Roberts' 3 run jack made the score 19-3 and ended the 11 run 6th inning for the Jackets. The bullpen held the rope from there as the final was 19-8.
RJ Roberts led the Jackets going 3-4 with 7 RBIs, a double and a bomb. Noah Payne added a 2-3 day building his lead in the NCAA triple race by 2, while adding 3 RBIs. David Groves also went 4-5 with 3 RBIs.
Bryson Lyro, had another great start grabbing his 3rd win on the mound. He gave up 6 hits over his 6 innings and struck out 2. He gave up 3 runs, 3 earned. Kory Owen, Ethan Cerna and Landin Blass also saw action on the mound.
Howard Payne improves to 11-7, 8-0 in ASC play, while Belhaven drops to 6-9, 1-4 in ASC on the season. The Jackets will be back at The Don tomorrow, Saturday Mar. 9th, to wrap up the series with the Blazers. The first pitch will be at 12:00 pm.
