HOUSTON – HCU baseball kept things rolling on Tuesday evening, earning a 12-11 win over visiting UTSA at Husky Field to move to 11-4 over the team's last 15 games.
The Huskies' (11-9) win was their second midweek win over an American Athletic Conference opponent of the season, having already beaten Rice earlier in the season. UTSA (15-6) was ranked 24
th in the nation as recently as last week.
Both teams put a runner on third with two outs in the first inning but
Kenan Elarton was able to strand the runner while
Rhett Hendricks came up with a single up the middle to drive in a run for HCU and give the Huskies a quick 1-0 advantage. The Roadrunners found their two-out stroke in the second, however, with consecutive singles driving in a pair of runs and putting the visitors ahead, 3-2.
Luke Bard then led off the bottom of the second with a walk, moving up to second on a sacrifice bunt and then over to third on a
Nico DeFazio single that put runners on the corners. Two batters later, with two outs,
Jeremy Rader smoked a double off the left field wall to plate two and put the Huskies back ahead.
HCU kept UTSA off the board in the top of the third and
Katcher Halligan welcomed relief pitcher Ryan Mason with a leadoff solo home run down the right field line. What followed was a hit batter, a walk, a wild pitch, an error, a passed ball and another walk to allowed another run to score and loaded the bases with one out. Another error by UTSA shortstop Jordan Ballin allowed another run to score and kept the bases juiced. Rader then hit his second double in as many innings to score two more runs and keep the offensive attack going.
Graham Laxton followed with a sacrifice fly to make it a six-run inning and put HCU ahead, 9-2, after three.
The fourth started with a triple off the bat of Jacob Silva followed by an infield bunt single by Christian Hallmark that brought Silva in to score. The Roadrunners added another later in the inning thanks to a Lane Haworth sacrifice fly that scored Hallmark. UTSA then pulled one run closer in the fifth with Caden Miller leading the inning off with a triple and promptly scoring on the next pitch which Garrett Gruell drove deep to left for a double. Heading into the bottom of the fifth, HCU held a 9-5 lead.
Laxton drew a two-out walk in the bottom of the fifth, moving around to third on a Halligan single. A third UTSA error allowed Laxton to score and gave the Huskies two runners in scoring position. Walker drove home both runners with a single up the middle, giving HCU a seven-run cushion with four innings left.
A leadoff walk and a single up the middle gave the Roadrunners a pair of runners with nobody out. Haworth then doubled to deep left center to bring both runners around to score and trim the HCU lead down to five, 12-7, through six.
UTSA took advantage of three walks, using a sacrifice fly and a pair of hits to bring home three more in the seventh, forcing HCU to turn to closer
Ben Norton with one out in the inning. The eighth inning was the first of the night to go scoreless for both teams, sending things to the ninth with the Huskies up by two, 12-10.
It got interesting in the ninth with a pair of walks to start things off followed by a single through the left side that loaded the bases with nobody out. Haworth then lifted a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Hallmark and moving Ballin up to third but a heads up defensive play by
Rhett Hendricks caught Drew Detlefsen too far away from the bag as he attempted to get back and tag up with a throw to first that just beat the runner for a double play. With the score now 12-11, Norton came up with a big strikeout to end the game.
The Huskies finished the night with 12 runs on just nine hits and left 10 runners on base. Rader finished the night 3-for-4 at the plate with four RBI and two doubles while also reaching on a walk. Halligan was 2-for-4 with his third home run of the season while DeFazio also had a two-hit game.
Elarton allowed four earned runs in four innings while getting a no decision.
Jett Feltman (1-0) picked up the win with one inning of relief, giving up one earned run on a pair of hits and a walk. Norton earned save number two of the season with 2.2 innings of work, striking out three and walking three while allowing one earned run on two hits.
HCU jumps back into Southland Conference play this weekend with a three-game series against UT Rio Grande Valley beginning at Husky Field on Friday, Mar. 20, at 6:30 p.m.
