Houston Baptist Tops Central Arkansas in Friday’s Nightcap
BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY | REPLAY
SUGAR LAND, Texas - Houston Baptist defeated Central Arkansas 6-2 Friday night at Constellation Field in Southland Conference Tournament action. The Huskies avenged a 15-4 drubbing by Central Arkansas in Wednesday's opening-round and set up a rubber game Saturday at 1 p.m. between the same two teams.
Each now stands at 2-1 in 2017 tourney play. They will be battling for the opportunity to meet Sam Houston State at 6 p.m. for the Southland Conference Tournament championship.
Huskies starting pitcher Zach Carter, who threw three pitches to lock down the save in his team's upset of top-seeded McNeese earlier in the day, lasted eight innings to garner the win. The right-hander gave up two runs in eight innings on eight hits along with four walks and two strikeouts.
"We're one game away from being able to play for a championship again, so we're in a good spot," said Houston Baptist head coach Jared Moon. "Hopefully, we can piece one together in the first game tomorrow and have it be all hands on deck for a championship game."
In the top of the second, the Huskies took a 2-0 lead with one swing of the bat when Christian Thames homered to left field, bringing around Tyler Depreta-Johnson.
Blake Thomas did the driving two innings later for Houston Baptist, doubling in Thames and Depreta-Johnson to make it 4-0. Two batters later, Zane Otten got into the act with an RBI double to right field bringing in Thomas and making it 4-0.
The score remained 5-0 until the bottom of the seventh inning when Central Arkansas finally broke through with a run on a Michael Haun RBI double, scoring Ty Tice. Keaton Presley singled later in the inning, moving Haun to third and putting runners at the corners with one out. Carter avoided further damage by garnering a strikeout and a groundout to end the threat.
In the eighth, the Bears inched closer as Brooks Balisterri singled in Justin McCarty to make it 5-2.
Houston Baptist got the run back in the next half inning after Brandon Brintz legged out an infield single on a bouncer to first base that allowed Austin Zillweger to dash home.
Tanner Luna came out of the bullpen to throw a scoreless bottom of the ninth and force the Saturday afternoon rematch.
Every game of the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament will be carried live on ESPN3. Matt Thomas and former Stephen F. Austin pitcher Kyle Rogers have the call for Saturday's 1 p.m. game. Southland Conference Assistant Commissioner Chris Mycoskie will handle play-by-play duties for the championship alongside color analyst Greg Swindell, a former first-team All-American at the University of Texas and 17-year Major Leaguer.