BROWNWOOD, Texas - The Howard Payne University baseball team fell 12-3 in its conference series opener against McMurry University Friday afternoon at Don Shepard Park.

HPU's Noah Coronado put the Yellow Jackets on the scoreboard in the sixth inning with a two-run homer to left field. It was Coronado's first home run of his career.

Trailing 7-2 in the eighth, the Jackets recorded another run on a Rylee McGee RBI single to center field to score Carson Wert.

The Yellow Jackets were outhit 14-6 in the game by the War Hawks and each team committed one fielding error.

Gary Blair recorded the loss in the start for the Jackets allowing five runs on eight hits in 4.0 innings. Ricky Mays, D'Andrey Silva, Dean Evans, Ty Garner, and Jasen Hollingsworth all saw action in relief. Silva went 2.2 innings and struckout three.

Howard Payne is now 11-23 overall and 6-19 in American Southwest Conference play. McMurry stands at 18-16 overall and 12-13 in league action. The two teams will finish out their series on Saturday with a double header starting at 1:00 pm. The HPU seniors will be recognized between games.