HOUSTON – The HCU offense found its power stroke on Saturday afternoon at Husky Field, hitting four home runs in a 17-8 Southland Conference win over UIW.
HCU (5-6, 1-1 SLC) starting pitcher
David Lopez struck out five through the first two innings and in the bottom half of the second,
Rhett Hendricks put the Huskies ahead with a leadoff home run that traveled 411 feet to left center field. UIW (7-4, 1-1 SLC) wasted little time flipping the lead in the top of the third, taking advantage of a pair of wild pitches and a walk followed by a two-run home run by Cole Tabor that made it a 3-1 ballgame.
Tyree Jackson drew a one-out walk in the third before stealing second before
Anthony Avalos drew a two-out walk to put two runners on.
Katcher Halligan then came up with a clutch single up the middle to score Jackson from second and cut the HCU deficit down to one, 3-2. In the fourth,
Jack Walker led things off with a double down the right field line, moving over to third on a sacrifice bunt by
Levi Castilleja.
Preston Curtis followed with a sacrifice fly to right field to even things up, 3-3, at the end of the fourth.
The Huskies put together a one-out rally in the fifth with Hendricks pulling a double down the left field line to bring home Avalos and move Halligan over to third. Walker was then hit by a pitch to load the bases and Castilleja drew a walk to bring home another run. With the bases still juiced, Curtis pulled a double down the left field line of his own to score two more and put runners on second and third, still with one out.
Nico DeFazio drew a walk to once again load the bases. Jackson lifted a sac fly to center to plate one more for a five-run inning and an 8-3 lead.
The Cardinals answered again, though, in the sixth. With two outs, Thomas Lyssy and Trent Rucker hit back-to-back doubles with runners on to bring home three runs followed by a single off the bat of Preston Newberry for a fourth run, bringing the score to 8-7 in the middle of the sixth.
HCU began the bottom of the sixth with three-straight singles with Hendricks driving home Avalos with the third. Walker was then hit by a pitch again to load up the bases. Two batters later, with one out, Curtis hit a laser over the left field wall for a grand slam and a second-consecutive five-run inning to put the Huskies ahead, 13-7.
In the bottom of the seventh, HCU got a 402-foot homer off the bat of Halligan to scored two and extended the lead. Two hitters later, Walker lofted a ball down the left field line that snuck over the fence and just inside the foul pole for a solo home run and a 16-7 advantage. The Cardinals scored one more in the eighth but the Huskies added one more of their own in the bottom half on an RBI triple by Avalos that scored DeFazio.
Curtis finished the day with seven RBI, going 2-for-4 at the plate with a home run and a double. Halligan went 4-for-6, driving in three and scoring three times while Hendricks also scored three times with three RBI on a 3-for-5 day. Walker scored four times, going 2-for-2 and reaching base five times.
On the mound, Lopez improved to 2-1 after throwing five innings with 10 strikeouts. The senior allowed three earned runs on five hits and also walked two.
The rubber game of the three-game series with between the Huskies and UIW starts at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, Mar. 1.
