SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – The University of the Incarnate Word baseball team woke the bats up and recovered from an early 1-0 deficit to beat the Northeastern University, 6-1 on Saturday in the second game of a three game series at Sullivan Field.

Matt Morris (Scottsdale, AZ/Saguaro HS) led the Cardinals offense with three hits, two runs batted in and a run scored. Morris hit a line drive two-run homerun to left field in the third inning to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead. He had a double and a single, and was a triple shy of the cycle.

Christian Divelbiss (Yuba City, CA/Yuba City HS) and Jesse Hoover (Marion/Marion HS) contributed to the offense with RBI singles while Austin Hoffman (Goodyear, AZ/Millenium HS) brought in the last run of the game with a sacrifice fly to center field.  UIW finished the game with 12 hits, including four extra-base knocks.  They also took advantage of three errors by the visitors and Mark Whitehead (San Antonio/Johnson HS) scored three times.

The Cardinals (1-1) pitching has stepped up in the absence of some key players for two straight games. Garret Cooper (Round Rock/McNeil HS) followed Cody Richey's (Comfort/Comfort HS) great outing Friday night, with a gem of his own. Cooper gave up one run in seven innings of work, while scattering eight hits, no walks and four strike outs.

"Cooper gave us a really good outing," UIW head coach Danny Heap said. "He threw strikes and had his changeup going. He struggles when he can't command his pitches, but today he had good command in the strike zone."

John Shull (San Antonio/Churchill HS) came in relief in the eighth inning and recorded the last six outs of the game for the Cardinals while only giving up one hit and one walk.

Cooper earned the first win of the season for the Cardinals, while James Mulry got the loss for the Huskies (1-1). Mulry gave up three runs (two earned) in four innings and walked one.  The Huskies had nine hits in the game, including a 4-for-4 performance by Michael Foster.

The rubber-game of the series starts Sunday at noon at Sullivan Field.  The game has been moved up due to potential inclement weather.
####