Baseball Eliminates HSU to Advance to Championship Round
April 26, 2008

The 8th-ranked University of Texas at Tyler baseball team took care of Hardin-Simmons, 5-3, on Saturday afternoon at Irwin Field to win the best-of-three game series and advance to next weekend’s Championship Round of the 2008 American Southwest Conference tournament.

UT Tyler jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning with RBI singles from seniors Kyle Braden (Carrollton, Texas) and Corey Farra (Lewisville, Texas.)

In the bottom of the inning, the Cowboys’ Wayne Pimpton tripled to lead of the inning and would score two batters later to pull within one.

In the top of the third, senior Andrew Damewood (Plano, Texas) hit a two-RBI double that scored juniors Jeremy Harding (Houston, Texas) and Jared Hood (Marshall, Texas) to extend the UT Tyler lead, 4-1.

However, in the bottom of the third, Hardin-Simmons answered once again with one run of its own, this time on a single by Regan Dixon that would score Brian Weeks.

The Patriots extended their lead to 5-2 in the top of the fifth inning, when Andrew Damewood sent one sailing over the wall in right center.

The final run of the game would come from Cowboys catcher Regan Dixon, as he hit a solo homerun to pull his team within one, at 5-3.

Unfortunately for Hardin-Simmons, that would be as close as they would get, with UT Tyler winning 5-3.

Junior Kendall Fox (Carrollton, Texas) set a new ASC single-season mark, as he recorded his 50th walk of the season. Fox beats the previous record of 47 set by Louisiana College’s Scott Townsend in 2001.

Fox would not be the only Patriot to set a new ASC record on the day. Junior Brett Holland (Lindale, Texas) retired 15 batters on the day to set a new conference mark. The previous record of 14 had been reached by seven different ASC players representing six different teams.

Holland pitched eight innings and allowed just three runs off of nine hits on the day.

Junior Beau Ziegler (N. Wales, Pa.) picked up his fifth save of the year as he allowed no hits and struck out two in the game’s final half-inning.

With the loss, the Cowboys end their season at 26-15.

The Patriots now stand at 35-7 on the season and join Mississippi College in next weekend’s Championship Round. The site of the round will be determined by the winners of McMurry-Louisiana College series and the Concordia (Tex.)-Ozarks series.

Athletics Home Page