HOUSTON – HCU fell behind in the first inning and never managed to get back into the game on Thursday evening, suffering a 10-3 loss to the Lamar Cardinals at Husky Field in the first game of a three-game Southland Conference series.
The Cardinals (27-23, 18-10 SLC) came out firing offensively from the start with Tab Tracy reaching on a leadoff single followed by a two-run home run to left by Beau Durbin. Lamar pushed across four more runs in the inning for a six-run lead heading into the bottom of the first. The visitors scored two more in the second and another in the third for a 9-0 lead through three.
HCU (21-26, 12-16 SLC) got on the board in the bottom of the fourth after
Luke Bard and
Levi Castilleja reached on consecutive singles to start the inning. Back-to-back groundouts were enough to bring Bard home, bringing the score to 9-1.
Lamar plated one more run in the eighth for its tenth, and final, run of the evening. The Huskies attempted to get a rally going in the ninth with
Katcher Halligan leading the inning off with a single. Then, with two outs,
Jack Walker drew a walk and
Anthony Avalos singled to load the bases.
Jeremy Rader was hit by a pitch to drive in a run with another run coming across on a wild pitch.
Bard led the Huskies at the plate, going 2-for-4 and scoring a run. Rader recorded HCU's lone extra-base hit in the loss while Halligan ended the night 1-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored.
Trent Barnes was tagged with the loss, allowing six earned runs on three hits with two hit batters and a walk in a third of the inning.
Game two of the three-game series is set for Friday, May 8, at 6:30 p.m. at Husky Field.
