SUGAR LAND, Texas – Fourth-seeded HBU could not muster up its bats one more time as the Huskies season came to an end with a 6-1 loss to eighth-seeded New Orleans in the semifinal of the Southland Conference Tournament Saturday afternoon at Constellation Field.
Senior catcher
Jake Pulcheon homered, while senior second baseman
Jack Fitzgerald went 2-for-3 with a double for the Huskies (29-30).
Senior
Cameron Copeland (1-1) took the loss, allowing three runs on five hits in two innings in his first career start. Senior
Weston Smart and junior
Hunter McClellan combined for 4.1 scoreless innings.
Owen Magee was 3-for-5 with a home run, two RBIs and scored twice for the Privateers (29-31), while Collin Morrill went 2-for-4 and scored twice. Pearce Howard went 2-for-5 with a double, an RBI and scored a run.
Kyle Arjona (4-5) went the distance for UNO, throwing 119 pitches and allowing one run on five hits with eight strikeouts and a walk.
UNO jumped out to an early lead, getting an RBI double from Howard and a sacrifice fly from Bratton in the bottom of the first. The Privateers added two more in the third, when Magee led off with a solo home run and Jay Robinson had an RBI single.
Magee added an RBI single in the fourth and UNO took advantage of an error to extend its lead to 6-0.
Pulcheon blasted a solo home run to left in the fifth, his sixth of the year, on his 23
rd birthday.
The Huskies finished the season with 61 home runs, the most since entering NCAA Division I play in 2007 and the second-most in school history behind the 1999 squad's 67.
UNO will face Northwestern State in Saturday night's championship game at 6 p.m.
