ARLINGTON, Texas – HBU senior righthander
Taylor Wright held Michigan State hitless through six innings to lead the Huskies to a 3-1 victory over the Spartans in the opening game of the UTA Hilton Invitational Friday afternoon at Clay Gould Ballpark.
Wright (1-0) allowed one run on two hits, struck out one and walked two in 6.1 innings. Senior
Chris Garza made his fourth appearance in five games and tossed 1.2 scoreless innings, striking out two. Junior
Dylan Zarosky worked a perfect ninth for his first save of the season.
Junior shortstop
Louie Payetta went 3-for-4 and scored a run for the Huskies (4-1), while junior designated hitter
Austin Saenz went 2-for-3. Freshman catcher
Zac Garcia added a pinch-hit double for the only extra-base hit of the game.
Blaise Salter and Ryan Krill had the only hits of the game for the Spartans (2-2).
Mick VanVossen (0-1) took the loss for Michigan State, allowing three runs on six hits with two strikeouts and two walks in 6.2 innings. Walter Borkovich was perfect in 1.1 innings with a pair of strikeouts.
VanVossen had trouble finding his command early as he walked senior rightfielder
Thomas Clay to lead off the bottom of the first. Payetta followed with a single to right, then senior third baseman
Curtis Jones walked to load the bases. VanVossen uncorked a wild pitch to plate the Huskies' first run, then senior catcher
Samm Wiggins delivered a sacrifice fly and senior centerfielder
Zach Nehrir added an RBI groundout to stake HBU to a 3-0 lead.
Wright mowed through the Michigan State lineup, allowing only three baserunners through the first six innings. Brandon Hughes reached on an error twice, but was picked off in the first inning and doubled off when he failed to tag up properly to end the fourth, and Johnny Nate drew a walk.
Hughes drew a walk to lead off the seventh, then Salter beat out a chopper to short for the Spartans' first hit of the game. Mark Weist grounded to short and beat out the potential double play to put runners on the corners with one out. Krill then smacked a single to left to put Michigan State on the board, and Wright came out of the game. After Garza hit Ryan Richardson with his first pitch to load the bases, he struck out Alex Troop and got Anthony Cheky to fly out to right to end the threat.
The Huskies will conclude the UTA Hilton Invitational with a pair of games on Saturday. HBU will face Southland Conference rival Southeastern Louisiana in a non-conference tilt at 11 a.m., then will play host UT Arlington at 6:30 p.m. Both games can be heard on HBUHuskies.com.
