CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – With just two weekends of Southland Conference play left on the schedule, the HCU baseball team heads into a big series against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Chapman Field this weekend with both teams tied for eighth place in the league standings.
The top eight teams in the conference standings qualify for the SLC Tournament and the Huskies (19-24, 10-14 SLC) are dead even with the Islanders (22-22, 10-14 SLC) with six games left to play. Both teams are just one game behind seventh-place McNeese and two games behind sixth-place Stephen F. Austin. Two games behind the Huskies and Islanders are UIW and New Orleans.
The Huskies picked up a 12-2 road win against Prairie View A&M this past Tuesday, snapping a four-game losing skid. Seven pitchers combined to cover the nine innings for the Huskies, collectively striking out eight while walking two and allowing six base hits. Offensively, HCU scored its 12 runs on 10 hits while taking advantage of nine walks.
Luke Bard reached base six times in the win, going 4-for-4 at the plate while also drawing two walks.
In SLC play, HCU is batting .295 as a team while hitting .282 over the course of the entire season. Outfielder
Preston Curtis leads the Huskies with 19 RBI in conference play while belting a team-high 12 extra-base hits. Curtis has hit four of his five home runs this season against SLC opponents and 19 of his 29 RBI for the season have come in league play.
The Islanders come into the weekend having won their last six games, including a 7-2 win at Texas State this past Tuesday. Last weekend, TAMUCC won all three games of its series against UIW. On Tuesday in San Marcos, seven pitchers limited the Bobcats to just four hits while a Hunter Azemar three-run home run in the third was part of a four-run inning that put the Islanders ahead for good.
Infielder Cade Sanchez leads the Islanders with a .367 average and is tied for the team-lead with 27 RBI and 10 doubles. Christian Smith-Johnson, a senior outfielder, has a team-best 35 runs scored and 19 stolen bases and is the reigning SLC Hitter of the Week. On the mound, Easten Smith owns a 5-2 record with 44.2 innings pitched and a 5.24 ERA.
Games are set from Friday through Sunday, May 1-3, with Friday's game scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m., moved up from an originally planned 6:00 p.m. start due to expected inclement weather in the area later in the day. Saturday will begin at 2:00 p.m. while Sunday is set for 1:00 p.m.
