The Southwestern baseball team wrapped up their home schedule with a 4-3 victory over the Hendrix Warriors this afternoon at Rockwell Field. The win gave the Pirates a sweep of the two game weekend series and improved their overall record to .500 at 17-17.

After yesterday's 37 run outburst both teams needed strong starting pitching and both starters delivered with complete games. Hendrix starter Will Harris went eight innings allowing six hits and four earned. Bucs' starter Chris Churchwell was a bit better however throwing all nine innings, allowing 11 hits but only three runs while striking out four to pick up his fourth win of the season. After allowing three runs early Churchwell settled down and allowed only five hits and no runs over the final six innings.

After an early 3-0 deficit, the Pirates battled and blasted their way on the board in the bottom of the fourth.  Chris Lowry's one out double and a wild pitch led to a Brett Martin sacrifice fly to bring the score to 3-1.  The very next batter, Johnny Gavrel, kept the Pirate offense going with a blast deep over the left field wall for his seventh home run of the year.  This homerun ties Gavrel for second place in the conference. 

The key inning for Southwestern was the bottom of the seventh. They entered the frame trailing 3-2. Patrick Keenan led off with a single through the right side and Nick Ashford advanced him to second with a sacrifice bunt. After an out Greg Thumm (pictured) singled to center scoring Keenan and advanced to third when the throw from center went to the backstop. After a walk to pinch hitter Lance Gottardy, shortstop Charlie Garrett came up with a clutch infield single scoring Thumm with what would prove to be the winning run.

In the Hendrix half of the eighth the Warriors were threating to rally with a one out single by Collin Radack. However, Churchwell used his excellent pickoff move to catch the Hendrix right fielder leaning towards second. After a brief rundown he was tagged out at by Chris Lowry. It was the third pickoff of the game for the Bucs' starter. Churchwell struck out the next batter to end the inning.

In the ninth the Warriors challenged again with a one out double. Hendrix third baseman Kyle Raskin appeared to be poised to tie the game with a line drive to left. However, Southwestern left fielder Thumm made a phenomenal sliding catch to preserve the lead. The next batter, Andrew Thames, lined out softly to first baseman Brett Martin to end the game.

The victory concluded the regular season at Rockwell field and gave the Pirates an impressive 14-7 record at home. With two games to play in SCAC action the Pirates trail Hendrix by one game for the final tournament spot. The Pirates face Millsaps for a two game series beginning on April 16th but first face McMurry on Tuesday afternoon in Abilene.