SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – Austin Hoffman (Goodyear, AZ/Millenium HS) hit a grand slam in the first inning and Kris Looper (Wharton/Wharton HS) threw eight innings to give the University of the Incarnate Word baseball team a 10-5 win over Central Arkansas and their first Southland Conference sweep of the season on Sunday at Sullivan Field.

After back-to-back walk-off wins the Cardinals (18-27, 9-15 SLC) grabbed the lead early in the first inning this time and never looked back. Aaron Warren (Schertz/Wagner HS) led off the first inning with a walk, Matt Morris (Scottsdale, AZ/Saguaro HS) doubled over the center fielder and Jesse Hoover (Marion/Marion HS) walked to load the bases up for Hoffman. On a 2-1 count, Hoffman sent the ball flying over the left field wall for the first Cardinals grand slam of the season.

Morris hit a solo homerun in the second inning and Trey Rodriguez (Corpus Christi/Carrol HS) hit a bases-clearing double off the wall to extend the Cardinals lead to 8-1 in the third inning, which proved to be enough.

Looper improved to 3-5 on the year with eight innings of work. He allowed nine hits, five runs (four earned), walked one and struck out seven. John Shull (San Antonio/Churchill HS) pitched the last inning and kept UCA off the board, allowing only one hit and striking out two.

Hoffman finished the game with a pair of hits, a run scored and four RBI's after playing the hero in Saturday's ballgame with a walk-off double. Warren got on base three more times today on two walks and a single while scoring a run. Rodriguez contributed with three runs batted in and Brance Kahle (Colleyville/Grapevine Faith HS) added two hits to extend his hitting streak to five. Morris collected two hits, scored two runs and drove in a pair.

"We were able to keep tacking on runs and doing the little things right," UIW head coach Danny Heep said. "We got walks, we moved people, we scored guys from third and that's why we were so successful today."

Cardinal hitters walked five times, collected 10 hits, scored 10 runs and committed one error on the afternoon. UCA (23-18, 13-12) drew one walk and had 10 hits while committing two errors.

Riley Echols was tabbed with the loss after allowing four runs in 1.1 innings of work, but Derek Beier did a great job in relief. He pitched 6.2 innings, scattering seven hits and only allowing two earned runs, but a couple of errors led to four unearned runs against the Bears.

The win is the fifth straight for the Cardinals. They are 7-2 in the Southland Conference in their last nine games after starting 2-13 in only their second year in Division I.
UIW will host Prairie View A&M on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in a make-up game from earlier in the season before hosting Texas A&M Corpus Christi for a three-game conference series next weekend.
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