NATCHITOCHES, La. – HCU picked up a big road series win on Sunday afternoon, defeating first place Northwestern State, 11-5, in Southland Conference action at Brown-Stroud Field.
The Huskies (16-19, 8-10 SLC) jumped out to a 3-0 advantage in the top of the third with
Luke Bard and
Katcher Halligan reaching on singles to set the scene for a three-run
Levi Castilleja home run to left center, his third round-tripper of the season. HCU added another in the third on a Halligan groundout that brought
Jeremy Rader across the plate.
Leading 4-0, the Huskies kept adding on in the fourth.
Preston Curtis doubled with one out and moved up to third on a wild pitch.
Jack Walker then hit into a fielder's choice, reaching first as Curtis beat the throw home for a 5-0 lead. The next batter,
Rhett Hendricks, was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Two hitters later, with two outs, Bard tripled to right field to plate both runners and stake the Huskies to a 7-0 lead through three and a half innings.
The Demons (23-13, 14-7 SLC) got on the board in the bottom half of the inning with a sacrifice fly. NSU then put together a two-out rally in the fifth with a double, a triple and a single in consecutive at-bats off HCU reliever
Ben Smith to push two more across and make it a 7-3 ballgame.
The sixth inning opened with consecutive singles off the bats of Walker and Hendricks followed by Rader reaching on a fielding error to load the bases. Demons' reliever Carter White struck out the next two batters and nearly escaped the jam but Halligan smacked a single through the left side to bring home two and push the HCU lead back up to six, 9-3.
NSU managed to make things a little interesting in the eighth, scoring a pair of runs on two hits with an HCU error mixed in along with two walks but
Kyler Mentzel shut the door with a strikeout on a full count with the bases loaded, sending the game into the ninth with HCU ahead, 9-5.
Nico DeFazio and Curtis both singled in the ninth, moving into scoring position on a Walker groundout with two outs. A wild pitch from Jacob LeBlanc gave both DeFazio and Curtis time to come around and score, restoring the Huskies' lead to six, 11-5.
Brock Lambert threw a scoreless ninth to preserve the win.
Bard, who saw a 13-game hitting streak come to an end on Saturday, came up with a big 4-for-5 performance at the plate with a triple and a double while driving in two and scoring once. Castilleja's home run was his third of the season as he finished the day 1-for-5. Halligan went 2-for-5 with three RBI and a run scored while Curtis, Hendricks and Walker all scored twice.
Trent Barnes opened the game with a scoreless inning before giving way to
Ben Smith who earned the win three earned runs allowed across four innings of work. Smith improves to 4-4 on the year as he struck out two, walked none and allowed six hits.
Caleb Matthews,
Jett Feltman, Mentzel and Lambert combined to close out the final four innings of the game.
The Huskies next travel to San Marcos, Texas on Tuesday, Apr. 14, for a 6:00 p.m. matchup against the Texas State Bobcats.
