UTPB baseball improved to .500 both on the season and in Heartland Conference action with a pair of 13-1 and 2-0 wins over Oklahoma Panhandle State Friday afternoon at Roden Field in Odessa.

The Falcons were playing from behind in the opener when the Aggies pushed a run across in their first trip to the plate, but tied the game on a Colin Kowal single in the second to even the score at 1-1.

Ryan Arrick put the team in the lead for the first time in the third, hitting a two-out double to score a pair for a 3-1 lead.

David Lee hit a sacrifice fly to right in the fourth to tack on another run.

The offense broke out in the fifth as three of the team's four hits scored runs, including a two-run single by Ryan Popescu, an RBI double from Kowal and a two-run home run by Trey Cochran, his sixth of the season, to stretch the lead out to 12-1.

Lee added another RBI to his total in the sixth for the final run of the game.

Brad Paramapoonya improved to 5-0 on the season, throwing five innings in just his first start of the season. He allowed one run off of five hits and three walks while racking up four strikeouts.

Pitching carried the Falcons to their second win of the day to close out the doubleheader when Jesse Arnold went the distance, throwing all nine innings with just four hits and a walk issued to go with a season-high nine strikeouts in a 2-0 shutout of OPSU.

UTPB scored early, taking a 1-0 lead when Ryne Head scored from second on an error at short. A bases-loaded single from Arrick later in the inning scored  Andrew Grifol for the team's last run of the day to go ahead 2-0.

Neil Madsen led the offense with four hits on the afternoon in five at-bats. Arrick drove in three runs to lead all players as four UTPB hitters each drove in a pair, and four players each scored twice on the day.

The Falcons look for the series sweep Saturday afternoon as the teams return to Roden Field at 1 p.m.