EDINBURG, Texas – Strong pitching and seven extra-base hits spelled victory in the opening game of the Southland Conference Tournament bracket play at UTRGV Baseball Stadium as No. 6 seed HCU defeated No. 3 seed Lamar, 6-3.
The Huskies (28-23) got the scoring started in the top of the second with
Matthew Leiterman drawing a nine-pitch walk with one out before scampering home two pitches later on a
Katcher Halligan double off the top of the wall in right center. The next batter,
Jeremy Rader, singled through the left side with the left fielder misplaying the ball and allowing Halligan to score while Rader moved up to second, leaving HCU with a 2-0 lead with just one out in the inning.
Trevor Roper kept things moving, singling through the left side to put runners on the corners.
Kenneth Dutka followed with a single up the middle for HCU's fourth-consecutive hit, plating Rader and giving starting pitcher
Parker Edwards an early 3-0 advantage.
The score remained 3-0 in HCU's favor until the top of the sixth inning when
Jeremy Rader blasted a solo home run over the left field wall with one out for his first round-tripper of the season, upping the Huskies' lead to 4-0.
Lamar (40-16) finally broke through against Edwards in the bottom half of the sixth, loading the bases with two outs. Bryce Grizzafi came up with a single through the left side that allowed two runs to come home and cut the HCU lead in half, 4-2.
The Huskies came right back in the top of the seventh, taking advantage of back-to-back walks with one out. With two outs, Halligan drove a ground-rule double down the left field line to score
Rhett Hendricks with
Luke Bard moving on to third. The threat ended there, but HCU pushed its lead back to three, 5-2.
That lead grew back to four in the ninth after Bard reached on a one-out double and two batters later scored with Halligan trading places at second with his third two-bagger of the game and HCU headed into the bottom of the ninth leading, 6-2.
The Cardinals strung together a walk and a pair of singles to push one more run across in the ninth but
Louis Castano nailed down the save by inducing a double play to wrap things up.
The bottom three in the HCU order had three hits a piece while combining to go 9-for-14 at the plate. Halligan had three doubles with three RBI while Rader went 3-for-5 with a home run and a pair of runs scored. Roper, meanwhile, finished 3-for-4. Bard ended the day with a pair of doubles, going 2-for-4 with a run scored.
Edwards earned the win on the mound, moving to 2-4 on the season, limiting the Cardinals to just two earned runs on five hits with three strikeouts and four walks.
Louis Castano pitched the final three frames to pick up his third save of the season. The junior allowed one earned run on three hits with a pair of strikeouts and one walk. The Huskies held Lamar to just one extra-base hit and stranded 10 LU baserunners.
HCU's win comes less than a week after getting swept by Lamar on the final weekend of conference play.
The Huskies move on to face the winner of No. 2 seed UT Rio Grande Valley and No. 7 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Friday, May 16, evening at 6:00 p.m.
