HOUSTON – HBU rebounded from a one-run loss in game one to claim a 6-2 victory over Northwestern State in game two to split Saturday's Southland Conference doubleheader at Husky Field.
In the second game, senior righthander
Jacob Coats (2-4) picked up the win, allowing two runs on six hits with seven strikeouts and two walks in 7.2 innings. Junior righthander
Andrew Reitmeyer notched his third save of the season, holding the Demons scoreless striking out one and walking one over the final 1.1 innings.
Junior second baseman
Jake Miller went 1-for-4 with an RBI and scored a run, extending his hitting streak to seven games for the Huskies (9-24, 6-13 SLC). Senior designated hitter
Brandon Bena also went 1-for-4 with an RBI and scored a run and sophomore first baseman
Brennen Bales singled and drove in a run. Senior leftfielder
Lane Botkin walked, stole two bases and scored and senior centerfielder
Chase Talbot went 1-for-2 with a walk, stole two bases and scored.
Levi David (2-4) took the loss for the Demons (16-17, 10-9), giving up four runs, three earned, on only two hits with nine strikeouts, four walks and a hit batter in 4.1 innings. Alex Makarewich allowed two runs on three hits with three strikeouts, a walk and a hit batter in 2.2 innings of relief.
Cam Sibley went 2-for-4 with a double and scored and Jake Haze went 1-for-4 with two RBIs for NSU.
In a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fourth, the Huskies had runners at second and third with two outs when David uncorked a wild pitch allowing Botkin to score from third and an error on the throw home allowed freshman shortstop
Sebastian Trinidad to score on the play to give HBU a 2-0 lead.
Marshall Skinner led off the top of the fifth with a single, then Sibley followed with a double. After Coats got a couple of pop outs, Haze came through with a two-run single to center to tie the game, 2-2.
Talbot led off the bottom half of the inning with a single to left and went to second on an error, then he stole third and junior rightfielder
Christian Dumont walked. Miller singled to right to put the Huskies back on top, then Bena followed with an infield single that drove in another run. Bales delivered an RBI single to leftcenter and Bena scored on another wild pitch to cap a four-run inning to put HBU ahead, 6-2.
Coats and Reitmeyer shut the Demons down from there to secure the split.
In the first game, Miller singled and scored for HBU and Botkin singled, was hit by a pitch, stole a base and scored a run. Dumont went 1-for-4 with a double.
Sophomore righthander
Jared Burch (2-1) took the loss, allowing three runs on six hits with four strikeouts and a walk in five innings, then Bales allowed no runs, a hit, struck out five and walked three over the last two innings.
Lenni Kunert went 2-for-3 and drove in two runs and Larson Fontenot went 2-for-3 and scored twice for NSU.
Cal Carver (4-3) went the distance for the Demons, allowing two runs on six hits with eight strikeouts and two walks in seven innings.
Fontenot led off the game with a single and scored on a wild pitch with two outs as the Demons took a 1-0 lead.
Kunert extended NSU's lead to 3-0 with a two-run single in the third.
HBU broke through in the sixth when Miller and Bales singled and senior second baseman
Trent Franson had an RBI groundout. Botkin was hit by a pitch in the seventh stole second and later scored when senior third baseman
Nathan Soriano was picked off of first. With two outs and no runners on, Dumont doubled to center and stole third, but he was left stranded as Carver got a strikeout to end the game.
HBU stole 11 bases in the doubleheader and have 15 stolen bases in the series.
The series concludes Sunday with a 2 p.m. first pitch.
