HOUSTON, TEXAS – The University of the Incarnate Word baseball team will make the drive East on I-10 this weekend for a three-game series at Southland Conference rival Houston Baptist University. They will play at 2 p.m. on Friday, 1 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.
The Cardinals (6-19, 1-5) were off from conference play last weekend, but will get back into it against the Huskies (12-13, 3-3), the reigning Southland Conference Tournament champions. UIW is hitting .221 as a team and scoring an average of 3.3 runs per game. They have three regulars in the lineup hitting at least .300 on the season;
Brance Kahle (Colleyville/Grapevine Faith HS),
Braden Martin (Andrews/Andrews HS) and
Tanner Wall (San Antonio/Johnson HS). Kahle and
Christian Divelbiss (Yuba City, CA/Yuba City HS) lead the team with 15 runs batted in apiece.
UIW will be sending out
Bernie Martinez (Laredo/United HS) and
John Shull (San Antonio/Churchill HS) to the mound for the first two games of the series. Martinez is 0-4 with a 6.75 ERA and 21 strikeouts in a team high 30.2 innings. Shull is 0-2 with a 4.50 ERA and a team best 29 strikeouts. He picked up the save in Tuesday night's win over UT Rio Grande Valley.
Lance Moszkowicz (Spring/Klein Collins HS) leads the team with 13 appearances and two saves. He has a 3.00 ERA in 27.0 innings of work. Overall, the team has a 7.00 earned run average and has struck out 160 batters in 211 innings.
HBU is hitting .264 as a team and average 4.5 runs per game. Louie Payetta, Greg Espinosa and Andrew Alvarez are each hitting over .300 for the team. Payetta and Brandon Brintz lead the team with 14 RBI's. Brintz also has four triples. The Huskies will be sending Addison Russ, Julian Griego and Christian Thames to the mound as their three starters. Russ is 3-2 with a 2.51 ERA and 36 strikeouts. Thames is 1-3 with a 3.98 ERA and Griego is 3-1 with a 5.11 ERA. Dylan Zarosky leads the bullpen unit with six saves and a 2.55 ERA in 11 appearances.
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