Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 FORT SMITH. Ark. - The St. Edward's baseball team split a doubleheader against Arkansas-Fort Smith Friday afternoon at Crowder Field. The Lions defeated the Hilltoppers, 5-3 in the first game, but St. Edward's responded with a 7-2 victory in the second game.

"We were fortunate to win one game today because we didn't play our best baseball," head coach Rob Penders said. Jeff pitched well enough for us to win the first game, but we did not support him defensively, or on the offensive end. In the second game, we got a great pitching performance starting with Stephen and finishing with Patrick and Tyler."

Game 1: Ark.-Fort Smith (11-12) opened the scoring in the first inning when Dax Dupire led off with a single and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Christian Allen.

The Lions put another run on the board in the second inning. UA-Fort Smith had two hits to go along with two errors by St. Edward's (15-10).

UA-Fort Smith added to its 2-0 lead with one run in the fourth inning and two in the fifth inning to forge ahead, 5-0.

St. Edward's got at least one hit in every inning except for the first inning off of Lion starting pitcher Kyle Thompson but they could not come up with a hit with runners on base. The Hilltoppers left nine runners on base for the game.

The Hilltoppers would try and rally in the bottom of the seventh inning. Rylan Patel (Freshman, Colleyville, Texas) led off the seventh with a single. He moved to second after a walk to Dylan Schuch (Senior, Austin, Texas). Paul McCoy (Senior, Killeen, Texas) drew a one-out walk to load the bases. Adam Shank (Junior, Sugar Land, Texas) finally got St. Edward's on the board as he drove in two with a single. With two outs, Daniel Homann (Freshman, The Woodlands, Texas) singled in another run to cut the lead to 5-3. But, that is how it would end.

Jeff Rohrbach (Junior, Houston, Texas) suffered the hard-luck loss as he gave up five runs (four earned) off of eight hits, while striking out one in his complete game.

Homann led the Hilltoppers at the plate, going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Kyle Harris (Junior, Layton, Utah) and Patel both had two hits each.

Game 2: In game two it was St. Edward's who got on the board first as they put up a run in the third inning. Will McCaleb (Junior, Houston, Texas) led off the inning with a single and stole second base. He advanced to third on an Eric Morgan (Senior, Salt Lake City, Utah) single and then scored on a squeeze bunt by McCoy to put the Hilltoppers ahead early, 1-0.

St. Edward's added another run in the sixth inning when Harris singled in a run to push the lead to 2-0.

The Hilltoppers would break the game open in the seventh inning when they pounded out four hits, scoring four runs. Homan, Schuch and Shank all had an RBI during the inning. Another run scored off of an error by UA-Fort Smith.

Shank picked up another RBI in the ninth as he finished the game 2-for-5 with two RBI. Schuch had three hits for the Hilltoppers as they pounded out 14 in game two.

Stephen Johnson (Sophomore, Boulder, Colo.) picked up the victory, allowing one run on seven hits, while walking one and striking out six.

"Our offense battled to get a ton of two-out runs and some clutch hits, none bigger than Dylan's in the sixth that allowed us some breathing room," Penders said. "Tomorrow, we hope to continue our offensive production from the second game and combine it with a quality start from Landon."

The two teams will play the third and final game of the series on Saturday. First pitch at Crowder Field is set for 1 p.m.