HOUSTON – HCU baseball picked up a series win with a 9-2 victory at Husky Field over visiting Alcorn State on Saturday afternoon with the Huskies belting out 11 hits in the win while the pitching staff struck out 13 Braves hitters.
HCU (2-5) starting pitcher
David Lopez set the tone in the top of the first inning, striking out the side with all three Alcorn (1-5) hitters going down swinging.
Jeremy Rader and
Jack Walker led off the bottom half of the inning with back-to-back singles with both advancing two bases on an Alcorn error on a
Katcher Halligan chopper to second, giving the Huskies a 1-0 lead. The next batter,
Rhett Hendricks, was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Preston Curtis then grounded into a double play that allowed Walker to score and push the HCU lead to 2-0 at the end of the first.
The Braves got on the board in the third, rallying with two outs as three consecutive hits, a single, double and single, plated a pair of runs to tie the game up at 2-2. The Huskies broke the tie in the fourth with
Tyree Jackson drawing a leadoff walk and promptly stealing second base. A fly out to right off the bat of Rader moved Jackson up to third before he scored on a Walker ground out to first base, making it 3-2 in HCU's favor.
In the fifth, HCU added some cushion to its lead.
Nico DeFazio scored two with a one-out single through the left side, moving up to second on the throw home. A walk and a hit batter with two outs loaded the bases. Halligan and Hendricks then drew consecutive walks to bring home two more runs for a 7-2 lead after five.
In the top of the sixth, Alcorn put two runners on base thanks to a walk and a single but HCU catcher
Levi Castilleja threw them both out on attempted steals to end the half inning. Rader drove in a run with a bases loaded walk in the bottom half of the sixth for an insurance run while the Huskies' ninth, and final, run came in the seventh on a
Graham Laxton single.
On the mound, Lopez (1-1) earned the win with five innings of work. The righty struck out nine with one walk while giving up two earned runs on four hits. The trio of
Kenan Elarton,
Kyler Mentzel and
Brock Lambert finished off the last four innings with just one hit and one walk allowed.
HCU had just one extra-base hit in the win, a double by Laxton, as the Huskies drew seven walks and were hit by pitches six times for free passes. Castilleja finished the game 0-for-1 at the plate but reached base four times by virtue of three HBPs and one walk. Curtis, DeFazio, Laxton, Rader and Walker all finished the day with two hits.
HCU goes for the series sweep on Sunday, Feb. 22, afternoon against the Braves with a 2:00 p.m. start at Husky Field.
