HOUSTON – A trio of HCU pitchers shut down the visiting Nicholls Colonels with a combined shutout, allowing just five singles, as the Huskies earned a 3-0 win at Husky Field on Thursday night to open the three-game Southland Conference series with a win.
Starting pitcher
David Lopez tossed 4.2 innings for the Huskies (14-16, 6-7 SLC), scattering four singles while striking out five and walking one.
Louis Castano came into the game with two outs and runners on first and third, inducing a pop out to end the inning. The senior right-hander proceeded to toss 3.1 innings, facing the minimum 10 batters with four strikeouts to earn the win and improve to 1-1 on the year.
Ben Norton closed out a scoreless ninth inning for his fourth save of the season and the 13
th of his career with the Huskies to move into a tie for fourth on the HCU career saves list.
The first four innings of the game flew by as scoreless frame followed scoreless frame. The Colonels (14-17, 6-9 SLC) put two runners on in both the fourth and fifth but were unable to push any across the plate. The Huskies broke the stalemate in the bottom of the fifth when
Preston Curtis reached base with two outs on a throwing error by Carter Jenkins that allowed him to move up to second.
Tyree Jackson then skied a ball to shallow right field that fell in for a double, scoring Curtis. Following a mound visit,
Jeremy Rader singled through the left side of the infield to bring Jackson around to score and give HCU a 2-0 lead.
HCU added an insurance run in the sixth with
Luke Bard and
Jack Walker connecting on back-to-back one-out singles followed by a double down the left field line off the bat of
Anthony Avalos to score one more. Consecutive strikeouts with runners on second and third ended the threat and the inning. The Colonels got just two baserunners over the final four innings and one of those was picked off by Castano in the eighth while the other was stranded in the ninth.
Bard finished the night 2-for-4 at the plate with a pair of singles for his fourth multi-hit game in the last five games and ran his current hitting streak to 10 games. Avalos and Jackson's doubles were the only two extra-base hits of the night as each collected one RBI while Jackson also scored a run.
The Huskies and Colonels are set for game two of their three-game series on Friday, Apr. 3, evening at 6:30 p.m. at Husky Field.
