Box Score SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The St. Edward's baseball team dropped the opening game of the Heartland Conference Tournament for the second-straight year as they fell late to Newman, 8-4, Friday afternoon at Sullivan Field. St. Edward's (35-13) struck first in the bottom of the first. Kyle Harris (Layton, Utah/Clarendon JC) reached first with a one-out single to left centerfield.
Adam Shank (Sugar Land, Texas/San Jacinto JC) followed with a walk on four-straight balls by Newman starting pitcher Kyle Burkhardt. Wes Koenig (Austin, Texas/Hill JC) came up with the big hit as he placed a single down the left field line to score Harris with the first run of the game. Newman (28-21) got two runs back in top of the third inning. Ben Wagner led off the inning with a double down the leftfield line.
Terrell Brown would follow with a tapper that stuck fair just in front of home plate and he easily made first base to put runners at the corners. A sacrifice fly by Tyler Hancock would drive in Wagner to tie the game. A single by Corey Cowan and an error on rightfielder Marshall Burford (Austin, Texas/Temple JC) put runners at second and third. An infield single by David Longmore drove in Brown and give the Jets the lead, 2-1.
The Jets would push another run across in the fifth inning when Brown led off with a triple to the gap in left field. Hancock knocked him in with a sharp single to right field for a 3-1 Newman lead. The Hilltoppers would get a run back in the bottom of the fifth when Taylor Johnson (Dripping Springs, Texas/Dripping Springs HS) led off with a walk. A big two-out double by Koenig to the gap in right field scored Johnson and knotted the score, 3-3.
St. Edward's would reclaim the lead in the sixth inning when Ransom LaLonde (Tulsa, Okla./UT-San Antonio) led off with a triple to the right field gap. Colin Elmore (Rockwall, Texas/Richland JC) would drive him in with a RBI-groundout. Nate Bobrowski (Jerome, Idaho/San Mateo JC) then drove a double down the left field line with one out. St. Edward's would load the bases with one out and K. Harris drove in Bobrowski with a fielder's choice. Newman would not go away, as the Jets put three runs on the board in the bottom of the eighth.
Hilltopper starting pitcher Jeff Rohrbach (Houston, Texas/Bellaire HS) would allow the first two runners to reach via a base hit. He would give way to St. Edward's closer Stephen Johnson (Boulder, Colo./Boulder HS). Cowan laid down a sacrifice bunt that every runner was safe on. Longmore would knock all three runners in with a double to the left field gap. The Jets would add two insurance runs in the top of the ninth, as the Hilltoppers could not mount a rally.
St. Edward's will take on the loser of the second game between UA Fort Smith and St. Mary's. First pitch is set for Noon at Sullivan Field on the campus of Incarnate Word.
