HOUSTON – HBU erupted for five runs in the first inning, but Lamar trimmed the lead to one before the Huskies went on to a 7-4 victory in the Southland Conference baseball series opener Thursday afternoon at Husky Field.
Junior righthander
Zach Carter (1-3) hurled the third complete game of his HBU career, allowing four runs on nine hits with six strikeouts and no walks on 113 pitches.
Senior third baseman
Spencer Halloran went 2-for-3 with a double, a home run, a walk, an RBI and scored twice for the Huskies (10-16, 4-3 SLC), while senior catcher
Jake Pulcheon went 2-for-4 with an RBI and scored. Senior first baseman
Carey Jones doubled and drove in a pair.
After a rough first inning, Lamar righthander Tanner Driskill settled in and also went the distance, giving up seven runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and three walks in eight innings.
Grant DeVore went 3-for-4 with a double and scored twice for the Cardinals (5-21, 1-9), while Chad McKinney went 2-forr-4 and scored twice. Cole Coker went 1-for-4 and drove in two.
The Huskies loaded the bases with no outs in the first, but senior rightfielder
Matt Heck grounded into a double play to plate the first run of the game. Pulcheon delivered an RBI single, then junior centerfielder
Jonathan Ducoff walked. Junior designated hitter
Grant Buck also came through with an RBI single, then Jones unloaded a double to deep rightcenter to put HBU ahead, 5-0.
McKinney led off the third with an infield single, then DeVore followed with a single to right. Coker blooped a single into rightcenter to plate both runners and make the score 5-2.
McKinney also singled to lead off the fifth and DeVore smacked a double to leftcenter. McKinney scored on Chase Whetsel's RBI groundout, then DeVore scored on Philip Ingram's RBI single to cut the Huskies' lead to 5-4.
HBU answered in the fifth when Halloran ripped a two-out double three-quarters of the way up the batter's eye in straight-away center and Heck laced an RBI single to left.
In the seventh, Halloran blasted a solo homer over the batter's eye in center for his fifth home run of the season.
Lamar threatened in the ninth when Logan LeJuene led off with a single up the middle and Cole Girouard followed with a pinch-hit bunt single. Cole Secrest followed with a ground ball to the right side that kicked away from junior second baseman
Derek Reilly, but he recovered just in time to get Secrest on a close play at first. McKinney popped up to short, then DeVore flied out to center to end the game.
The series continues with a 2 p.m. first pitch Friday, followed by Saturday's finale at 1 p.m. The YouTube video broadcasts with
Russ Reneau begin with the pregame show 10 minutes prior to each first pitch and are available on HBUHuskies.com.
