HOUSTON – HCU baseball bounced back from a heartbreaking loss in the series opener, scoring early on Saturday afternoon and holding on late to earn a 5-4 victory over Southeastern at Husky Field to even the series heading into Sunday's rubber game.
Coming back for an afternoon game after being shutout in a 1-0 Friday night defeat, the Huskies (23-18, 15-8 SLC) made sure that wouldn't be the case early in the ballgame. HCU cracked the ice in the bottom of the third as Matthew Leiterman led off with a single and was followed by a walk to Kenneth Dutka. The pair moved up on a wild pitch before Tevis Payne came through with a chopper over the third baseman to plate both runners for a 2-0 lead.
Payne then moved to third on a groundout before coming across the dish on another wild pitch, giving the Huskies a 3-0 cushion heading to the fourth.
The Huskies extended their lead in the sixth inning. Parker Edwards reached on an error with one out to bring up Rhett Hendricks, who promptly launched a two-run missile over the left field wall to push the lead to 5-0.
The homer proved to be decisive, as
Southeastern (32-11, 17-6 SLC) rallied to make things interesting in the seventh. A sacrifice fly by Parker Coley plated the Lions' first run and was followed by run-scoring singles from Conner O'Neal. Dane Watts then greeted reliever Nick Ferazzi with a two-run single to left center to close the gap to just 5-4.
Ben Norton took over in the eighth and shut the door on the visitors, retiring all six batters he faced to secure the win and notch his sixth save of the season.
HCU had just five hits, but made the most of all of them. Payne was 1-for-4 with the two-run single and Hendricks was 1-3 with the two-run homer, his fifth of the season.
Caravalho (8-2) worked hard to pick up the victory, scattering nine hits with just one walk and seven punchouts on a season-high 120 pitches.
TJ Salvaggio and Bailyn Sorensen each had two hits for the Lions. Luke Lirette (4-2) took the loss, lasting 5.1 innings and giving up four hits and three runs. Lakin Polk went 2.2 in relief with six strikeouts.
The two teams will finish up the three-game series with a rubber match on Sunday, with first pitch scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
