SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – The University of the Incarnate Word baseball team is playing a three-game Southland Conference series against Houston Baptist at Sullivan Field this weekend.  The teams will play Friday at 6:30 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.

The Cardinals (9-14, 1-5) are hitting .253 as a team and scoring five runs per game.  Ethan McGill (Penn Valley, CA/Nevada Union HS) is riding an 8-game hitting streak and is leading the team with a .346 batting average.  Matt Morris (Scottsdale, AZ/Saguaro HS) hit his third home run of the season on Wednesday night at UTSA and is now hitting .307 with a team high .511 slugging percentage.  Colton Besett (Cedar Park/Vista Ridge HS) leads the team with four home runs in only 41 at bats.

The Cardinals will be pitching Geno Encina (San Antonio/Brandeis HS), Garret Cooper (Round Rock/McNeil HS) and Brandon Anderson (Cheyenne, WY/Cheyenne Central HS) will be the three starting pitchers during the series.  Encina made his first start of the season last week and tossed 6.0 shutout innings to get the win against Prairie View A&M.  He has a 2.45 ERA in 11.0 innings this year.  Cooper is 4-2 with a 3.44 ERA and leads the team with 34.0 innings pitched and 26 strikeouts.  Anderson is 1-2 with a 4.40 ERA in 28.2 innings of work.

The Huskies (13-11, 4-2) are hitting .266 as a team and are scoring a little over four runs per game.  Zach Nehrir and Samm Wiggins have been the top hitters for the team.  Nehrir has a .367 batting average, .420 on-base percentage and .489 slugging percentage while driving in 19.  Wiggins has a team high three home runs and has driven in 14 runs.

The Huskies will be sending out Taylor Wright, Matthew McCollough and Curtis Jones as their 3-man rotation.  HBU has an impressive 2.97 team earned run average.  Wright is 4-2 with a 2.27 ERA in 39.2 innings.  McCollough has gone 5-1 with a 3.12 ERA with four walks and 31 strikeouts in 40.1 innings.  Jones is 1-3 with a 2.90 ERA and has a 5-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

All three games will be broadcast on www.uiwlive.com.
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