JACKSON, Mississippi - The Howard Payne University baseball team out hit Belhaven University 20-17 but fell in a double-header 8-6 and 4-3 to the Blazers Friday evening in conference play.

HPU's Rylee McGee finished the double-header 4-for-8 at the plate with 3 RBI, which included a double and homerun in game one.

Game One
The Yellow Jackets out hit the Blazers 13-9 but stranded 10 runners in game one of the double-header.

Along with Rylee McGee going 3-for-4 at the plate for the Jackets, Joey Villarreal, Wylan Koltz, and Noah Coronado each added two hits for HPU.

HPU's Kyle Purdes went 4.1 innings in the start allowing seven runs on six hits and striking out four. Brendan Read threw the final 1.2 innings for the Jackets allowing one run on three hits and striking out four.

Game Two

Howard Payne held a 3-2 lead going into the final inning when the Jackets committed two fielding errors leading to the 4-3 walk-off win for Belhaven.

The Jackets opened the game scoring two runs on a RBI double by RJ Roberts and a RBI single by Derek Gifford.

HPU scored its third run of the game in the fourth on a Merek Hawthorne sac fly to bring home Trevor Fletcher.

Chandler Paul was solid in the start for the Jackets allowing just one run on five hits and striking out five. Bryant Chambers and Dean Evans each saw just over an inning of relief action. Landon Blass who threw the bottom of the ninth recorded the loss for HPU.

Howard Payne is now 3-10 overall and Belhaven stands at 6-5 on the year. the two teams will finish out their conference series on Saturday with a single game starting at 1:00 pm.