LONGVIEW – The Howard Payne University baseball team posted an 8-4 victory over LeTourneau University in the Yellow Jackets’ conference series opener Friday evening.

HPU’s Kyle Purdes went the distance in the start for the Jackets allowing four runs (two earned) on ten hits and striking out a career-high nine batters.

Joey Villarreal also had a career day for HPU going 5-for-5 at the plate, scoring twice and recording two stolen bases.

Along with Villarreal four other HPU batters recorded multiple hits to total the Yellow Jackets 17 hits in the game. William Burford, RJ Roberts, Rylee McGee, and Merek Hawthorne each had a double in the game for HPU.

HPU posted two-run innings in the first, seventh, and finally in the ninth to put the game out of reach for LeTourneau.

Howard Payne is now 6-15 overall and 2-11 in American Southwest Conference play. LeTourneau stands at 6-17 overall and 3-13 in league action. The two teams will finish their three-game series on Saturday with a double-header starting at 1:00 pm