HOUSTON – The HBU baseball team taxed Iowa for 13 hits and seven runs and got a solid effort out of the pitching staff in a 7-1 win on Saturday afternoon at Husky Field.
The Huskies (8-9) recorded six extra-base hits against Iowa (10-3), which entered the series leading the country with a 1.37 ERA.
Senior
Thomas Clay paced HBU at the plate, turning in a 3-for-4 showing with three RBI, triple and run scored, as all nine Huskies in the lineup recorded at least one hit. The three-bagger for the native of Wichita, Kansas, was his second of the season.
Senior
Curtis Jones and junior
Austin Saenz each went 2-for-4. Saenz,
Andrew Alvarez,
Brandon Morones,
Zach Nehrir and
Samm Wiggins all doubled in the win.
Senior
Taylor Wright (3-2) scattered eight hits, allowing just one run on a solo-homer across six and a third innings in the win. Juniors
Matt Harding and
Dylan Zarosky combined to limit the Hawkeyes to just two hits over the final two and two-third innings to close it out.
The Huskies struck first, plating three runs in the bottom of the second. Morones led off the bottom frame with a double to the right center gap, before Alvarez reached three pitches later on a hit by pitch from Iowa starter Tyler Peyton (2-1). After junior
Greg Espinosa advanced Morones and Alvarez on a sac bunt, Clay brought in both on a triple into right center. Nehrir then doubled to down the right field line to plate Clay.
The Hawkeyes threatened in their next trip to the plate, but Wright worked around two walks and a single to strand three and turn things back over to the offense.
In the bottom of the third, Wiggins walked and Saenz doubled with one out to put two in scoring position and chase Peyton from the mound. Morones then delivered Wiggins in the next at-bat on a sac fly to push the Husky lead to 4-0.
With the lead in hand, Wright retired six of his next seven batters faced, before Jones extended the lead to 5-0, scoring on a wild pitch in the bottom of the fifth.
In the seventh, Eric Schenck-Joblinske hit a pinch-hit home run for Iowa's lone run of the game, but HBU responded with two more runs in the eighth to claim the 7-1 final.
The Huskies will play the second of the four-game series on Sunday in a 2 p.m. first pitch.
