By Alan Wiederhold
HT Athletic Communications
TOUGALOO, Miss. – Huston-Tillotson University's baseball team completed a three-game HBCU Athletic Conference series sweep Sunday as the Rams toppled Tougaloo (Miss.) by a score of 17-8.
The Rams (17-13, 6-3 HBCUAC) jumped out to leads of 6-0 and 12-4 en route to their fifth league win in their last six games. HT pulled into a first-place tie with in-state rival Wiley in the HBCU Athletic Conference's West Division.
With the win, the Rams also completed their first sweep of a conference road series since the end of the 2022 season, when HT swept three at Wiley. Both schools were member institutions of the Red River Athletic Conference at the time.
Trey Garza went 2-for-4 with a team-leading four RBIs in Sunday's win over the Bulldogs. He knocked an RBI double to score Tucker Allen in the first inning and added a two-RBI single in the eighth.
Allen and Alijah Merkson collected two RBIs apiece and scored twice in the game. Allen was 2-for-6 in the game, while Merkson's three hits (in four at-bats) led six HT players with multiple hits Sunday.
Jaden Corzine and Josh Wilk each had two hits, one RBI, and scored three runs in the game. Kendall Brown entered the game as a pinch-hitter and finished the game with two hits and an RBI.
Wilk's two hits Sunday gave him six hits in the series at Tougaloo, as he picked up two hits in each game of Saturday's doubleheader. He has hit safely in eight of his last nine games, hitting .482 (14-for-29) since the start of HT's second game against Arlington Baptist on Feb. 28. During that span, Wilk has raised his overall batting average from .127 to .250.
Evan Mendoza picked up the win in relief for the Rams, striking out two batters over two and two-thirds innings while being charged for four runs. He improved to 3-0 with the win.
Sam Lozano earned his first save of the season for HT, pitching a pristine four and one-third innings of shutout relief, striking out three batters and giving up only two hits.
The Rams and Bulldogs will face each other again next month in Austin for HT's final conference series of the season. Tougaloo and Wiley are the two opponents from the six-team HBCU West Division that HT faced or will face twice in a home-and-home series. Tougaloo is in third place in the division behind HT and Wiley.
HT returns to action Tuesday, March 17, when they host Our Lady of the Lake in a nine-inning, non-conference game at Downs Field. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
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