The Howard Payne baseball team celebrated senior day with two wins over Schreiner University to end the season Friday afternoon, a seventh inning comeback and a 20-run game.
The six seniors that were honored between the games included Will Garlick, Will Hood, Billy Ray Cruz, Robert Anders, Taylor Zambreski and Kevin Young.
Zambreski had miraculous day going 7-11 with five RBIs and six runs scored.
In the seven-inning game one, the Jackets (15-20, 10-11 ASC) would find themselves down 4-7 through six. They had already fought back from a 3-0 deficit in the third inning to take the lead 4-3, but would allow the Mountaineer (8-28, 4-17 ASC) offense to answer back with three of their own and to capture the 6-4 lead going in to the fourth.
Heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Jackets found themselves down three. Things got going quickly with lead-off hitter Alan Sailors knocking a single into left field. Dusty Taylor would come in to pinch run and would soon find himself on third after two pass balls.
After a Sam Dollahite walk, West Division Hitter of the Week Jordan Hammontree would follow with his sixth triple of the year to right center clearing the bases and moving the score to 6-7. The momentum wouldn’t stop there when next, senior Taylor Zambreski, would tie the game up with a single to right field.
After a bunt single by Ben Butler and a Chase Holmes walk, the bases were loaded with no outs. Ryan Abbott would complete the win for the Jackets with a single to left center, bringing home Zambreski from third to take the game 8-7.
In the second part of the double header, the Jackets would top their 19-run performance on Thursday with 20 in the final game of the series and season.
Seniors Garlick, Zambreski, Young and Cruz, who were playing their last game, went a combined 13-24 at the plate with two doubles, one triple, 12 RBI’s and eight runs scored.
With two quick runs in the first, the Jackets would play small ball effectively scoring six runs on five hits including a Zambreski two-RBI double, a Young two-RBI triple, and Garlick RBI single. Garlick would follow that up in the next inning hitting a bases-loaded three-RBI double to quickly expand the Jackets lead to 11-5.
Hammontree would next hit his second home run of the year to left center bringing Dollahite around from first to take the score to 13-5.
Schreiner would try and keep up scoring two runs in the top of the sixth – one of which came on a wild pitch and the other on a pass ball to bring them to within six runs, 13-7.
Despite the Mountaineers fight, the Jackets offense was too much. They answer back putting up three more runs in the sixth inning. The first run would cross with a bases loaded walk to Holmes, and then Young would clean up things hitting a single through the right side to bring in two more scoring Brian Cunningham and Zambreski, totaling the score to 18-7.
Two innings later Schreiner would get one more run, but the Jacket attack would add one more in the seventh and three more in the eighth to take the final score to 20-8.
