HOUSTON – Houston Baptist scored four runs in the first inning, which proved to be enough for freshman righthander Kyle Dickerson and senior reliever Stephen Nikonchik, as the Huskies downed Northern Colorado, 5-3, to salvage a split of the Great West Conference series Sunday afternoon at Husky Field.

Senior first baseman Beau Warren went 3-for-4 with a double, a home run and drove in four of the Huskies' five runs, while junior leftfielder Luke Clements went 2-for-2 with a double and a stolen base. Freshman third baseman Tanner Kalina scored a pair of runs and junior second baseman David Pfuntner stole two bases for HBU (8-25, 6-2 GWC).

“I feel great about (getting a split in the series), especially after dropping the first two,” head coach Jared Moon said. “It puts us in a good spot, it's all about positioning in the conference tournament. I thought the kids played hard the last two games, I thought we should've been able to put them away early – we left a lot of guys on bases and didn't capitalize – but you feel good about a split. You don't gain any ground, but you also don't lose any ground.”

Bret Fanning went 3-for-5 with two runs for Northern Colorado (7-26, 4-4).

Dickerson (1-0) earned his first collegiate win, giving up three runs, two earned, on two hits, striking out two and walking six in five innings. Nikonchik allowed just two hits and struck out five over the final four innings to pick up his second save of the season and moved into sole possession of fifth on HBU's all-time saves list with five for his career.

Kevin Willman (0-2) took the loss for Northern Colorado, allowing four runs on eight hits in 3.1 innings.

Dickerson got off to a shaky start in the first inning, allowing two runs without allowing a hit. He walked Adam Hilker to lead off the game, then made a bad throw to second on Fanning's sacrifice bunt attempt to put runners on the corners with no outs. T.J. Berge walked, but the final ball was in the dirt, so Hilker scored and the runners moved up another base when Dickerson couldn't field the throw from catcher Corey Hail cleanly. Ben Packard flied out to center to plate Fanning for a 2-0 lead, but Dickerson escaped without any further damage.

“(Coming from behind) shows the character of the team,” Dickerson said. “I started off pretty shaky, I guess I just had freshman jitters, but we got it done and 'Nike' (Nikonchik) did a great job coming out of the bullpen. My offense and defense did a heck of a job behind me and picked me up. When Beau hit the home run, it made it a lot easier to focus and get the job done.”

Pfunter walked to lead off the first for the Huskies, then stole second and scored on junior rightfielder Kolby Arnst's singled up the middle. Kalina hit a chopper for an infield single deep in the hole to short and the ball got away from Hilker allowing Arnst to take third. Warren followed with a three-run blast to leftfield, his first of the season, to put HBU ahead, 4-2.

“This was a must-win for us,” Warren said. “We have a tendency to get off to a shaky start sometimes, so (falling behind) really wasn't anything too different. Their pitcher had been coming in a lot, so I just saw it and hit it – it was right there for the taking. It fired up the team, when the old guy, the senior on the team does something like that, it gets the young guys fired up…it definitely set the tone for the game.”

Northern Colorado threatened in the fifth as Fanning singled to lead off the inning and stole second. Berge walked and Packard flied out deep to left to move the runners into scoring position. Casey Coy's sacrifice fly cut the lead to 4-3, but Jarod Berggren flied out to center to end the inning.

HBU got the run back in the bottom of the inning as Kalina drew a leadoff walk and scored on Warren's double to leftcenter.

Tony Crudo walked to lead off the sixth to chase Dickerson from the game, but Nikonchik came in and retired the Bears in order. Fanning singled to lead off the eighth, but Nikonchik then struck out the side. In the ninth, Fanning's one-out chopper to short hit the lip of the infield and bounced over the head of Hetzler for an single, but Berge flied out to center and Colby Harrison struck out to end the game.