HAMMOND, La. – Following a pair of rainouts to scheduled midweek contests this week, the HCU baseball team will hit the road for a three-game Southland Conference set across state lines against the Southeastern Lions at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field this coming weekend.
HCU (18-21, 10-11 SLC) was supposed to play midweek games at Husky Field against Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern but widespread rains across the Houston area and locally in HCU's Sharpstown neighborhood had other plans. A well-rested Huskies' roster will take on the Lions (25-17, 13-8 SLC) with Friday and Saturday games set for 6:00 p.m. starts while Sunday will see a 1:00 p.m. start.
The Huskies (18-21) took two-of-three at home last weekend against SLC opponent New Orleans, out-scoring the visitors by a 24-13 margin. Senior outfielder
Preston Curtis batted .400 (4-for-10) on the weekend, belting his fifth home run along with a triple and a double. He drove in four runs and scored three. He is currently riding an eight-game hitting streak.
Since moving to using
Trent Barnes as an opener on Friday evenings, and on Sunday the last two weekends, the Huskies have won their last two SLC series after dropping the previous three. During that stretch, Barnes has opened four games with zero runs allowed in four innings with three strikeouts, zero walks and just two singles allowed.
The Lions won, 11-1, over Alcorn State in a midweek contest on Wednesday in Hammond after dropping two-of-three last weekend at UT Rio Grande Valley. That SLC series loss was the Lions' first since falling in two-of-three at McNeese in mid-March.
Southeastern, as a team, leads the SLC with 66 home runs this season with Alex Perry clubbing a team-high 12 round-trippers. 58.3 percent of Perry's hits this season have been extra-base hits as he also has nine doubles among his 36 base hits. On the mound, Lakin Polk owns a team-best four wins in nine starts with a 6.00 ERA. SLU has a team ERA of 5.26.
Following this weekend's series, the Huskies will travel to Prairie View, Texas for a Tuesday, Apr. 28, afternoon matchup against the Prairie View A&M Panthers.
