BROWNWOOD, Texas - Late game errors by the Yellow Jackets led to a 5-4 Howard Payne University loss to Blackburn College Wednesday afternoon at Don Shepard Park.

Howard Payne held a 4-2 advantage going into the ninth inning but two Yellow Jacket fielding errors led to three Blackburn runs in the 5-4 final.

Dean Evans was solid in the start for the Yellow Jackets allowing one run on three hits and striking out four in 3.0 innings of work. JT Howard threw the next three frames allowing one run on three hits and striking out five. Grant Beaver went the next two innings allowing just one hit.

It the final frame, Nicholas Richards allowed three runs on one hit and walked two. The Jackets committed two errors in the inning leading to two runs being unearned.

Kaleb Kuligowski finished 2-of-4 with one triple at the plate. Samuel Lampson was 2-of-5 including a double for the Jackets. Both teams ended the game with eight hits each.

Howard Payne is now 7-6 overall and Blackburn stands at 4-4 on the year. The Yellow Jackets will have a three-game non-conference series at Southwestern later this week, a single game on Thursday at 6:00 pm in Georgetown, Texas and then a double-header on Saturday starting at 1:00 pm.