WACO, Texas – HBU broke a tie by scoring twice in the top of the eighth and two more again in the ninth for a 5-2 victory over Baylor to even the non-conference baseball series Saturday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark.
Graduate student lefthander
Matthew McCollough took a no-decision for the Huskies (1-1), allowing one run on two hits with six strikeouts and a walk in six innings. The Katy, Texas, native moved up to ninth on HBU's all-time strikeouts list with 154 for his career. Senior righthander
Matt Heck (1-0), who started the game in rightfield, tossed one scoreless inning to pick up the win in his first appearance on the mound in an HBU uniform. Junior righthander
JT Newton notched his first save of the season, allowing a run on three hits with a strikeout over the final two innings.
Heck also went 2-for-5 at the plate and scored twice, while senior first baseman
Jake Pulcheon went 1-for-2, walked twice and scored a run. Junior designated hitter
Brady Batten singled and drove in the tying and go-ahead runs for the Huskies. Senior leftfielder
Spencer Halloran singled, walked and scored.
Kyle Hill took a no-decision for Baylor (1-1), allowing one run on two hits with four strikeouts and four walks in five innings. Luke Boyd (0-1) was handed the loss, giving up two runs in one-third of an innings and Drew Robertson also allowed a pair on four hits in 1.1 innings.
Davis Wendzel went 3-for-4 and scored a run for the Bears, while Andy Thomas went 2-for-3 with a home run.
Thomas led off the second inning with a solo home run to rightcenter off McCollough to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.
The Huskies tied the game in the fourth, when Heck led off with a single to leftcenter and advanced to second on an error. Pulcheon followed with a walk and junior first baseman
Grant Buck moved them up with a sacrifice bunt. Batten's RBI groundout tied the game, 1-1.
Heck led off the eighth with a single deep in the hole to short, then Pulcheon was hit by a pitch and the runners moved into scoring position on a balk. After Buck grounded out with the infield in, Batten lifted a sacrifice fly to right to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead. Junior
Tyler Clark delivered a pinch-hit RBI single to put HBU ahead by two.
Senior second baseman
Jack Fitzgerald led off the ninth with a single and went to third when Halloran followed with a single to right. Senior shortstop
Tyler Depreta-Johnson plated a run with an RBI groundout and Pulcheon came through with an RBI single up the middle for a 5-1 advantage.
In the bottom half, Newton got Shea Langeliers to groundout to second to lead off the inning, but Wendel, Thomas and Cole Haring strung together singles to load the bases. T.J. Raguse blooped a pitch into shallow center, scoring Wendzel, but Haring was forced out at second. Tucker Johnson then grounded out to second to end the game.
The series concludes with a 1:05 p.m. first pitch Sunday. The Legacy Sports Network audio broadcast with
Russ Reneau will be available on HBUHuskies.com, beginning at 12:55 p.m. with the pregame show.
