EDINBURG, Texas – HCU baseball pulled another upset at the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament as the sixth-seeded Huskies took down No. 2 seed UT Rio Grande Valley, 9-6, on the Vaqueros' home field on Friday evening at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
HCU (29-23) broke the game open in the bottom half of the second.
Katcher Halligan picked up where he left off on Thursday, leading the inning off with a single. Two batters later, with one out,
Jeremy Rader singled to right center to put runners on the corners. Three consecutive one-run singles followed off the bats of
Trevor Roper,
Kenneth Dutka and
Tevis Payne to put the Huskies ahead, 3-0.
The HCU hit parade continued with
Jack Walker driving a double to the gap in right center, scoring both Dutka and Payne to push the lead to five.
Rhett Hendricks followed with a single for the team's sixth-consecutive base hit, bring Walker home for another run. Two hitters later, Halligan came up with his second single of the inning to score the team's seventh run of the inning to stake starter
Joshua Caravalho to a 7-0 lead through two.
Caravalho kept the Vaqueros (35-17) off the board until the fifth inning when a walk and a hit batter with one out set up Jacob Sanchez to drive in a run with a single, making it a 7-1 ballgame. Caravalho retired the next two hitters to end the threat.
The top of the sixth saw UTRGV put up a big inning of its own and make it a game. The Vaqueros pushed across five runs on six hits to pull within one, 7-6. In the bottom of the seventh, Halligan doubled with two outs followed by a
Graham Laxton walk. The two advanced to second and third on a wild pitch before a Rader walk loaded the bases. Roper then hit a ball on the ground to first with an errant throw by the UTRGV first baseman allowing both Halligan and Laxton to score and give HCU a pair of insurance runs and a 9-6 advantage.
HCU relievers stranded three runners over the final two innings to secure the win.
A day after hitting three doubles, Halligan went 3-for-4 at the plate with another double, two runs scored and one RBI. Hendricks also finished with three hits while Walker had two. The Huskies out-hit the Vaqueros 12-9. HCU pitchers stranded 12 UTRGV baserunners.
Caravalho earned his ninth win of the season on the mound, tied for most among all SLC pitchers this season, allowing three earned runs in five innings of work. The senior allowed three hits while striking out five and walking six.
Ben Smith threw 2.1 innings in relief without allowing a run with a pair of strikeouts and three hits allowed.
Ben Norton earned his eighth save of the year with 1.1 innings of scoreless relief.
HCU is now just one win away from advancing to the SLC Championship Series next week and will face the winner of Saturday, May 17, afternoon's elimination game between UTRGV and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 6:00 p.m.
