BASEBALL

Playing at Forest Glen for the first time this season, the HU baseball team took a break from league play to host Cleary University Wednesday afternoon. HU claimed a 6-1 win before running away with the nightcap 17-5.

The Cougars struck first in the opener but it proved one of their only bright spots of the day as Huntington took the lead in the third and never trailed the rest of the way.

Joey Butz got the nod on the mound and tossed the first three frames to pick up the W, the first of his Forester career. The freshman hurler surrendered three hits and two runs while striking out two after which Brent Turner threw four innings of hitless, scoreless relief.

The Foresters collected five hits to their visitors’ three and got help along the way to score twice in each of the three middle innings. In the second, Adrian Perez singled to lead off after which HU benefited from back-to-back walks and a hit batsman to score run #1. Daniel Lichty was credited with the second run of the frame with his sacrifice fly to left.

Perez sent his first pitch out of the yard in the fourth for a two-run blast to up lead to 3-1. Huntington was back at it in the fifth when Collin Landrum singled up the middle and Donovan Clark bunted for a base hit after which a passed ball, walk and wild pitch allowed two more runs to cross home for the 6-1 final.

Perez led Huntington offensively with his two hits and two RBI. The Forester drew seven walks on the afternoon.

Frame’s crew eventually had their way in game two as they posted 12 hits and worked just as many base on balls. They also swiped eight bases, behind two apiece from Perez and Clark, took advantage of seven Cleary blunders and sifted through eight CU pitchers.

Down 4-2 after three, HU finally let loose to score 15 times over the next three frames to the Cougars’ one to blow the game wide open for their most compelling offensive outing of the year.

Despite Ian McCutcheon logging his team’s only hit in the fourth, the Foresters still found a way to touch home four times to ignite the blowout. Three runs came by way of two errors while another on a wild pitch.

Thirteen batters stepped up to the plate in the fifth and once again, errors outnumbered HU’s hits to the tune of seven runs. The Foresters rounded out their scoring frenzy with four runs in the sixth highlighted by Austin Pritchard’s three-run dinger over the right field fence.

Pritchard was the only one of Frame’s squad to log multiple hits by finishing with two to go along with three RBI. Perez also drove in three runs while Nick Davit and Lichty picked up two RBI each.

Three Foresters spent time on the bump with Cameron Pitzer picking up his first collegiate victory. He tossed 2.1 innings to give up one hit and one run.

With these wins, Huntington improves to 14-9 on the year while the Cougars drop to 6-12. Next up for HU is a home series with Mount Vernon starting on Friday.