The Howard Payne baseball dropped their season opener 4-3 to Southwestern University in Benbrook Tuesday.
The game was originally scheduled to be played at Don Shepard Park in Brownwood and was moved to the field of Southwest Christian High School in Benbrook.
Southwestern scored first gaining two runs in the third and one in the fourth. The Yellow Jackets got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth when Rey Rosales doubled home Lucas Creed and then Brian Cunningham singled home Ryan Breeding.
Howard Payne tied the game at 3-3 on Taylor Zambreski RBI single to left field. Southwestern answered back in the next inning with the go ahead run.
Billy Ray Cruz picked up the loss for Howard Payne in three innings of relief. Johnathan Morris started the game pitching three innings and giving up 2 runs on 4 hits. Will Hood also saw action allowing just one hit in three innings of work.
Matt Stuart got the win for Southwestern allowing 2 runs on 9 hits in 5 and 1/3 innings.
HPU is now 0-1 on the year and Southwestern is 2-4 overall. Howard Payne will play next the Friday and Saturday in Hobbs, NM against the University of the Southwest.
