ALPINE – Trailing 15-3 heading into the top of the sixth inning, the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets scored 14 runs to spark a 26-23 comeback victory over the Sul Ross Lobos in American Southwest Conference baseball action.
According to HPUSports.com, Yellow Jacket Tanner Benson also tied the ASC record for most hits in a game with six – the 11th played to do so – and collected five RBIs. Kayden Kelley added five hits and four RBIs as Howard Payne collected 30 hits as a team.
The box score can be found at https://hpusports.com/boxscore.aspx?path=baseball&id=5918
The Jackets fought back and scored 14 runs in the top of the sixth. Eight of those runs were due to home runs by Carson Wert, Landon Prestage, Will Burford, and two by Tanner Benson. This put HPU ahead 17-15.
It remained a close game throughout the remaining innings. HPU’s Kayden Kelley hit the sixth home run of the game in the top of the eighth. By the end of the eighth inning, the Jackets were just ahead by one, the score being 22-21.
In the ninth inning, Howard Payne was able to score four more runs in comparison to the Lobos’ two, giving the Jackets the win 26-23.
Pitching 2.2 innings for the Yellow Jackets, Anthony Cook will take today’s win.
The Yellow Jackets won two of three games in the series with Sul Ross are now 18-19 overall and 11-13 in conference. Howard Payne is in a three-way tie for fifth place in the ASC with Sul Ross (15-18, 11-13) and LeTourneau (17-20, 11-13), as the top six teams advance to the conference tournament
Howard Payne wraps up the regular season with three games at home against ASC rival Concordia at 2 p.m. Friday and with a 1 p.m. Saturday doubleheader.