Old Westbury, NY (April 17, 2010) – The NYIT Baseball team split a double header with Houston Baptist University this afternoon as the two teams continued their four game Great West Conference series. The Bears won the opener 9-4 as freshman Dan Lackner (New Hyde Park, N.Y.)went 2-for-4 with two homeruns and six RBI, before losing the nightcap 9-3. With the split the Bears are now 13-14 overall and 5-2 in the conference, while Houston Baptist are now 15-17 overall and 5-2 in league play.

Game one:

 

The Bears grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Effery Valdez (Flushing, N.Y.) drove in Brian Smith (Nesconset, N.Y.), on a groundout. The Bears scored four times in the second inning to take a 5-0 lead with Jerry Smith (Nesconset, N.Y.) scoring on a throwing error to make the score 2-0. Two batters later Lackner hit his second homerun of the season, a three run homerun into right field.

 

Houston Baptist cut the Bears lead to 5-3 with a three run third inning, but Lackner connected for his second three run homer of the day, this one to deep left field, to push the Bears lead back to 8-3.

 

Valdez smashed his fifth homerun of the season to left center field in the sixth to give the Bears a 9-3 lead and provide the final score.

Game 2:

 

The Huskies built a 4-0 lead through the first two innings of game two and led 8-1 after four innings of play.The Bears chipped away at the deficit, scoring twice in the fourth inning on Christian Dienna’s (Old Bethpage, N.Y) RBI single to right field Greg Gilroy’s (Nesconset, N.Y.) sacrifice fly.In the bottom of the eighth inning, Valdez made the score 8-4 as he blasted his second homerun of the day, a solo shot into deep left centerfield, but that would be as close as the bears would get and the Huskies tacked on a run in the top of the ninth to provide the final margin.