HBU Baseball Blanks Concordia, 9-0

Senior catcher Johnathon Moore goes 4-for-4 with two RBIs.

Senior catcher Johnathon Moore went 4-for-4 in Tuesday's 9-0 win over Concordia.

HOUSTON – Houston Baptist senior catcher Johnathon Moore went 4-for-4, stole a base and drove in a pair of runs as the Huskies rallied late to cruise past Concordia, 9-0, in the home opener Tuesday afternoon at Husky Field.

Sophomore rightfielder Kolby Arnst went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and an RBI, while senior second baseman Derek Smith went 3-for-4 and scored a pair of runs for HBU (5-9). Junior centerfielder Paul Prestera went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles, an RBI and two runs scored, and freshman third baseman Josh Gonzales went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Junior righthander Stephen Nikonchik (2-2) no-hit Concordia through five innings and picked up the win, shutting out the Tornados on two hits while striking out four. Nikonchik did have to pitch out of a few jams after walking six and hitting two batters. Freshman Tyler McCarty picked up the Huskies’ first save of the season, giving up just one hit in 2 2/3 innings. The defense helped the pitchers out by turning four double plays on the day.

Pedro Maldonado had  a pair of hits for Concordia (8-12), and Donovan Riggles (0-1) took the loss, allowing four runs on eight hits, striking out five and walking four in 6 1/3 innings.

Concordia threatened to get on the board first in the top of the second as Alec Carter and Maldonado drew back-to-back walks to lead off the inning and Micah Runnels laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up. Russell Johns lifted a fly ball to left, but freshman Jake Gonzalez threw a perfect strike to nail Carter at the plate and end the inning.

HBU broke the scoreless tie in the third as Prestera led off with a double to right-center and scored on Moore’s single to right. The Huskies tacked on a run in the sixth when Kolby Arnst doubled and scored on Gonzales’ bizarre single to left. On the play, leftfielder Michael Bogard misplayed the bounce, allowing the ball go all the way to the wall and Gonzales to advance to third. However, Gonzales missed second base and was called out on an appeal to end the inning.

Concordia trailed only 2-0 and threatened again in the seventh as Maldonado had a one-out single up the middle and Nikonchik walked the bases loaded. McCarty came in and got Nick Kozole to bounce into a double play.

The Huskies broke the game open in the seventh, getting an RBI single from senior shortstop Zeke Zikeli, a  two-run double from sophomore designated hitter Robbie Buller and an RBI double from Arnst. HBU padded the lead with three more in the eighth on Prestera’s RBI double, Zikeli’s RBI groundout and Moore’s RBI single to right.

HBU returns to action when it hits the road once again to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Wednesday at 2 p.m. in Corpus Christi, Texas, to makeup the Feb. 23 game that was rained out.