St. Edward’s baseball defeated the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith 8-3 in their series opener on March 22. Due to the inclement weather in northeast Texas, which pushed the Hilltoppers’ road series against the University of Texas at Tyler back a day, St. Edward’s is operating on a quick turnaround this week with only four days of rest between the games.
The Lions struck first, with two runs on three hits, plus some aggressive baserunning in the top of the second inning. Lions’ shortstop Jordon Helm drove in the second run of the game on a ground ball to the second baseman, Kyler Kerlin, who threw to second for the force out. Shortstop Weston Symes pump faked to first, then fired home as UAFS’ Matt Schilling aggressively tested Symes by attempting to score from second base. Symes’ high throw home allowed Schilling to slide in safely.
Hilltopper right fielder Ty Murray led off the bottom of the second inning with a solo home run to left field that barely managed to stay fair. The Hilltoppers took the lead in the bottom of the third off a two-out two-run single by Kerlin to put St. Edward’s ahead 4-2. Ensuing batter Davis Drewek followed with an RBI single through the right side to extend the lead to 5-2 Hilltoppers.
“Just staying on my approach and putting the work in at practice,” Kerlin said. “We had a game plan coming in and I like how we executed it.”
SEU’s Jack Granack, who holds a 2-3 season record, won his second game of the season. He threw 102 pitches in six innings of work, giving up three runs and finishing with eight strikeouts, just one shy of his career high.
The Hilltoppers went on to add two more runs in the fourth and one in the seventh en route to their second consecutive series opening win.
