SHERMAN, Texas – The Austin College baseball team fell 12-11 to visiting East Texas Baptist University in extra innings on Tuesday night, dropping the ’Roos to 11-9 overall on the season.  Brian Buehler was 4-for-5 with a pair of runs batted in and three runs scored in the loss.

ETBU took advantage of an early Austin College error to jump out to a one run lead in the top of the first but the ’Roos came right back with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning when Buehler and Tyler Appelquist each plated a runner.  However, the Tigers put three runs on the board in the second and four in the third to jump out to an 8-2 lead before Mason Leech knocked in a pair of runs in the bottom of the third to make it an 8-4 game.

The lead grew to 9-4 in the top of the fourth but Austin College got a three run homer from Jordan Robison as part of a four run inning to cut it to a 9-8 game heading into the fifth.  In the fifth, ETBU plated two more runs to push the lead to 11-8, and that’s how it would stay until the bottom of the eighth, when two errors by the Tigers would open the door for three runs with Chase Muder scoring the game tying run to force extra innings.

The game would not remain tied for long in extra innings as ETBU’s Luke Leftwich blasted a solo home run to left field to put the Tigers on top 12-11 and Austin College would go down in order in the bottom half of the inning in the one run defeat.

Robison finished 1-for-4 with two runs and three RBI and Andy White and Scooter Merritt each went 2-for-3 for the ’Roos, while Leech absorbed the loss after giving up three runs, two earned, on three hits in 6.0 innings of work in relief.  Leech also struck out four batters in the game.

Austin College heads out on the road this weekend as they jump back into Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play against Southwestern University in Georgetown.

Austin College athletic teams participate as a member of the NCAA Division III and the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.

Austin College is a leading national independent liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas.  Founded in 1849, making it the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under original charter and name, the college is related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA). Recognized nationally for academic excellence in the areas of international education, pre-professional training, and leadership studies, Austin College is one of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential book Colleges That Change Lives.