Box Score MARSHALL, Texas – How sweep it is as the East Texas Baptist University baseball team swept Sul Ross State University 8-7. ETBU held off a feverish comeback en route to their fifth straight win. ETBU improves to 15-9 overall and to 9-3 in American Southwest Conference play. SRSU falls to 9-18 overall and 2-10 in ASC play.
Sul Ross got on the board first with an RBI single from Mike Munden. ETBU would answer with three runs in the bottom of the second to grab the lead. Casey Combs used an infield single to score Kam Sumrall from third base. Jaxon Rader and Landen Barns used back-to-back singles to give ETBU a 3-1 lead after two frames. Josh Warbington added on to the lead with a two-run homerun in the third inning to extend the ETBU lead to 5-1.
SRSU crawled back into a tie in the top of the fourth inning. Colton Barrington hit a two-run homerun to cut the lead to 5-3. Munden and Almager used two singles to tie the game at 5-5. Conner Combs quickly grabbed the lead with a solo homerun in the bottom of the fourth. Dylan Sumpter singled up the middle to bring home a run in the seventh inning, and Rader reached on an error to score another run, giving the Tigers a 8-5 lead. Wesley Moss and Munden teamed up to bring home two runs for the Lobos in the 8th, but that is all they could manage as Chad Boudreaux shut the door for ETBU.
All nine starters recorded a hit for the ETBU offense, led by Sumrall and Casey Combs with two hits each. Warbington had two RBI to pace the offense, and five other Tigers each recorded one RBI. Warbington and Sumrall each had two runs scored in the game.
Logan Sprinkle picked up the win in relief, pitching 4.0 innings and allowing two runs on four hits to improve his season record to 2-1. Chad Boudreaux picked up his first save of the season, pitching the final 1.1 to preserve the win.
SRSU had 10 hits in the contest, led by Munden with three hits and Jonathon Bigley with two hits. Munden added three RBI today and Barrington added two RBI. Aaron Marquez was tagged with the loss, after allowing two runs (one earned) over the final 2.2 innings pitched.
ETBU will return to action against Jarvis Christian College on Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. ETBU will then follow that up with a nonconference home series against the University of the Ozarks on March 31st and April 1st.
