BROWNWOOD, Texas - Baseball won 11-10 before falling 14-11 in Saturday's split with Howard Payne.
"With their backs up against the wall, the players were able to take a road series at a place that's tough to win at regardless of HPU's record," said head coach
Bobby Mesker. "Now we go on the road at another tough place to win at. We'll need a great team mindset to take this next road series."
Game 1: Sul Ross 11, Howard Payne 10 (7 innings)
Trailing 1-0 in the third,
Tristan Karels plated
Tye Lindsey on a groundout to second for a 1-1 tie.
Jared Lorenz then homered to left for a 2-1 advantage.
Sully held the lead until HPU scored a pair in the bottom of the fourth for a 3-2 score.
Lindsey scored on a wild pitch in the top of the fifth for a 3-3 tie.
The Yellow Jackets took a 7-3 lead to the sixth after a four-run bottom of the fifth.
Sully used a seven-run top of the sixth to take a 10-7 advantage.
Jorge Marquez scored on a wild pitch before
Estevan Ortiz later scored on a fielding error to cut it to 7-5. Lorenz belted his second homer of the game, scoring Karels for a 7-7 tie.
Carsen Thor soon scored on a wild pitch to give Sully an 8-7 lead before
Peyten Kennard singled around
Jared Roiz to make it 9-7. Marquez then doubled in Kennard for a 10-7 advantage.
HPU got it to 10-8 in the sixth before Lorenz scored on an error in the top of the seventh for an 11-8 score. The Yellow Jackets scored a pair in the bottom of the seventh, but
Isaac Gallego entered with two outs and got the final out for the 11-10 win.
Lorenz tied a game-high three hits, three RBI and three runs scored.
Kennard also had three hits.
Game 2: Howard Payne 14, Sul Ross 11
Roiz doubled in Thor before Ortiz later plated Roiz on a sacrifice bunt for a 2-0 lead in the second.
The Yellow Jackets cut it to 2-1 in the second but fell behind 3-1 after Lorenz scored on an error in the third.
HPU tied it 3-3 in the bottom of third and upped it to 7-3 with a four-run fourth. They'd eventually take an 8-3 advantage after scoring another in the fifth and later upped it to 12-3 with four in the sixth.
Kevin Potts started a three-run seventh with an RBI double that scored
Orlando Moreno. Potts later came around on an error before Lorenz doubled in Karels for a 12-6 score.
The Yellow Jackets got one in the seventh and another in the eighth to take a 14-6 lead to the final inning.
Sully continued to put up a fight, scoring five in the top of the ninth before eventually falling by a 14-11 score.
Lindsey, Roiz and Ortiz led the Lobos with two hits each.
Moreno, Potts, Karels and Roiz each scored two runs.
The Lobos now stand at 12-15 and 9-12 in conference. HPU is now 9-21 and 5-16.
Sully remains on the road, next taking on Ozarks in a doubleheader on Thursday, April 14.
