Old Westbury, NY (April 16, 2010) – The NYIT baseball team lost to the visiting Houston Baptist University Huskies by the score of 18-3, this afternoon as the two teams opened up a four game Great West Conference series this afternoon at President’s Field. With the loss, NYIT falls to 12-13 overall and 4-1 in the conference, while Houston Baptist improves to 14-16 overall and 4-1 in league play.

 

Houston Baptist jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning on an RBI double by Johnathon Moore, and a solo homerun by Robbie Buller. The Huskies tacked on two more runs in the second inning and one in the fourth inning to increase their advantage to 5-0.

 

In the top of the fifth inning Houston Baptist built an 11-0 lead, exploding  for six runs, highlighted by a Jake Gonzalez two run homerun and a Chase Hernandez two RBI single to centerfield.

 

Senior Brian Smith (Nesconset, N.Y.) put the Bears on the board in the bottom half of the fifth with a double down the right field line that scored freshman Ali Rodriguez (Yorktown, Va.) to cut the Huskies lead to 11-1.

 

The Huskies added five more runs in the sixth inning and two more runs in the eighth inning to develop a commanding 18-1 lead. NYIT Senior Sebastian Grazziani (Whitestone, N.Y.) provided the game’s final score, when he smacked his sixth homerun of the season to left field, which drove in freshman Dan Lackner (New Hyde Park, N.Y.).

 

NYIT and Houston Baptist continue the series with a double header tomorrow.  First pitch is schedule for noon.