BASEBALL

The Huntington baseball team, playing on Spartan Field in St. Louis this weekend, split on day one of the Clayton Pfeiffer Memorial Classic. Up against host Missouri Baptist on Friday, the Spartans exploded for five runs in the fifth to run away with an 8-3 win over HU after which the Foresters turned around and blew out the College of the Ozarks 13-4.

It was all tied up 3-3 leading up to the Spartans’ big frame where they hammered out five of their 11 hits to blow the game open to which Frame’s crew had no answer. It was a 1-2-3 sixth and seventh for the Foresters for a quiet bowing out by the visitors.

The first four innings were a different story as Huntington played even with their hosts. MBU, ranked 6th nationally to start the season, struck first in the opening frame for an early 1-0 advantage. After a quiet second, HU got on the board in the third with a pair of runs. Tyler Zimske was hit by a pitch and eventually came around to score when Dan Lichty found a hole on the right side of the field for an RBI-single.

Adam Roser, who reached base on an infield single, scored Huntington’s second run of the frame on Jamar Weaver’s fielder’s choice to take what proved a short-lived 2-1 advantage as the Spartans matched that in their half of the third to reclaim the lead at 3-2.

Zimske forced the above-mentioned 3-3 tie by doubling in Nick Davit in the top of the fourth before Missouri Baptists’ score fest in the fifth that eventually resulted in their tenth win of the season.

Lichty claimed two of HU’s six hits to go along with an RBI to pace his team offensively.

Mason Shinabery took the loss on the bump. In five innings of work, he gave up 11 hits and eight runs while striking out five before Alex McCutcheon tossed a hitless, scoreless inning of relief.

In game two, Connor West picked up his first win of the year by giving up seven hits, two runs and three base on balls while striking out four in six innings on the hill against Ozarks in a game where Huntington’s bats came alive.

The Foresters more than matched their run total from earlier in day in the opening frame against the Bobcats by plating four runs highlighted by Adrian Perez’s three-run blast, his second dinger of the season.

Lichty’s RBI-single preceded Perez’s homer to get HU off on the right foot. The Cats (16-7) got two back in the second but it would make little difference after Huntington’s next at bat where they put the game out of reach with five runs.

It was another mighty swing, this time at the bat of Davit, that was the talk of the frame. After Weaver drove in Donovan Clark with a run-scoring base poke, Davit send one long with bases loaded for the rare grand slam to make for a 9-2 ball game after three.

The Foresters tacked on four more runs in the sixth on timely hitting for their second game of scoring double-digit runs. Clark touched home for the third time of the contest on a Bobcat error after which Lichty also scored his third run of the game by way of a wild pitch. Perez wrapped up HU’s scoring with a two-run single down the left field line in a frame where HU pounded out four hits.

Ozarks added two more runs in the seventh to their total but it was too little, too late as Huntington wrapped up the win to improve to 2-10 on the year.

Perez finished 2-for-4 at the plate and posted five RBI to lead Huntington. Davit and Weaver also collected a pair of hits and drove in four and one run respectively as the trio accounted for six of their team’s nine hits.

Huntington will face the same opponents tomorrow but in reverse order. They will open up play against College of the Ozarks at 10:00 a.m. CST before squaring off with Missouri Baptist at 12:30 p.m. CST.