HOUSTON – HBU senior leftfielder Lane Botkin came through with a bases-loaded single to leftcenter on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the ninth as the Huskies clinched the Southland Conference series against UIW with a 10-9 victory Saturday afternoon at Husky Field.
 
Junior rightfielder Logan Letney drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the ninth, then junior third baseman Reed Chumley singled to left. After a wild pitch, sophomore catcher Parker Edwards was intentionally walked to load the bases, setting up Botkin's line drive into the gap.
 
Edwards was 2-for-2 with a double, three RBIs and scored, while Letney was 2-for-3 with a pair of walks, an RBI and scored three times for the Huskies (17-27, 10-7 SLC). Junior centerfielder Austin Roccaforte was 2-for-4 with a walk, three stolen bases and scored a run and junior first baseman Brennen Bales extended his hitting streak to 10 games by going 2-for-4. Senior second baseman Braden Sanford has reached in 12 straight after going 1-for-4 with a double, an RBI and scoring a run.
 
Senior righthander Andrew Reitmeyer (3-2) picked up the win after blowing the save, allowing two runs on one hit with a strikeout and a walk. Senior starter Jared Burch allowed five runs, three earned, on five hits with five strikeouts and four walks in six innings.
 
Trey Triolo was 3-for-4 and scored twice and Alec Carr went 2-for-5 with a triple, two RBIs and scored for the Cardinals (16-23, 6-11). Grant Smith was 1-for-3 with a home run, three RBIs and scored twice. Jimmy DeLeon scored three times for UIW.
 
Kaddin Mikulik (0-1) took the loss, giving up one run on one hit with a strikeout and a walk in two innings. Starter Kayden Cassidy gave up four runs on three hits in 1.1 innings and Seth Higdon followed, allowing one run on three hits with five strikeouts in three innings.
 
HBU scored four runs in the third on an RBI single by Letney, an RBI double by Edwards and an RBI groundout by Sanford. Chumley scored on a wild pitch.
 
UIW answered back with five in the top of third, as Smith drew a bases-loaded walk, Gonzalez had a sacrifice fly, Carr had a two-run triple and Nixon Brannan put the Cardinals ahead with a sac fly.
 
The Huskies tied the game in the fifth when Roccaforte stole third and home on the same play when Bales was caught in a rundown between first and second.
 
HBU got a sac fly from Edwards to take the lead in the sixth , then Chumley and Sanford each scored on wild pitches to extend the advantage to 8-5.
 
Gonzalez drove in a run in the seventh when he beat out a potential inning-ending double play, then the Cardinals pulled off a double steal to cut the Huskies' lead to one at 8-7.
 
Edwards added another sac fly in the eighth to put HBU ahead 9-7.
 
DeLeon walked, then Smith homered down the leftfield line off Reitmeyer to tie the game, 9-9, in the top of the ninth.
 
The series concludes with a 2 p.m. first pitch Sunday on ESPN+.