BROWNWOOD, Texas - The Howard Payne University baseball team fell 8-2 to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in its conference series opener Friday evening.

Down 8-0 going into the ninth inning, the Yellow Jackets scored two runs on a Will Iannacone double to break a scoreless game for Howard Payne.

Noah Coronado led HPU at the plate going 2-for-4. Seven other Jackets recorded hits in the game.

Gary Blair recorded the loss in the start for the Jackets allowing seven runs on seven hits and striking out three in three innings of work.

Brendan Read was solid in relief for HPU allowing just one run on three hits in 5.0 innings of action. Read recorded a season high six strikeouts in th outing.

The two teams will finish out the series on Saturday with a double-header starting at 1:00 pm.