BROWNWOOD, Texas - The Howard Payne University baseball team fell 10-9 to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in game one of the Yellow Jackets' weekend conference series at Don Shepard Park Friday afternoon.

Down 10-8 going into the bottom of the 9th inning, the Yellow Jackets started the late inning rally with a single by Joey Villarreal and a double by Derek Gifford to place runners at second and third with no outs.

A Rylee McGee sac fly to right field scored Villarreal pulling the Jackets with one, 10-9 with just one out. A strikeout and a fly out to the infield ended the HPU comeback in the 10-9 final.

The Jackets scored three runs in the bottom of the first. Joey Villarreal tripled to score Carson Wert, then a Gifford sacrifice fly brought home Villarreal, and finally a Taylor Griner triple plated McGee for the third run.

HPU had another three-run inning in the bottom of the third. A Gifford groundout scored Villarreal, and a Nolyn Box single up the middle scored Griner and McGee giving HPU a 6-5 advantage.

The Jackets tied the game at 8-8 with a two-run bottom of the 6th. Tanner Benson reached on an error allowing Box to score and a Jonathan McKay sac bunt scored Anthony Cook.

HPU's Joey Villarreal was 3-for-5 at the plate with one RBI, scoring three runs. McGee, Griner, Box, and Cook each added two hits for the Yellow Jackets.

Bryant Chambers had the no decision in the start for HPU going 3.2 innings and allowing eight runs on ten hits..Preston Taylor saw 3.1 innings of relief with Johnny Cravey recording the loss in relief. Xavier Haines threw the final two frames for the Jackets.

Both teams will finish out the weekend series on Saturday with a double header starting at 1:00 pm.