Baseball: Huskies find first win in another tough weekend

The Husky baseball team had another difficult weekend on the road as they played in the East Carolina Tournament in Greenville, N.C.

The Huskies (1-5) have had a rough start to their season. In each of their five losses they have held a lead late only to end up losing. The Huskies finally picked up their first win again St. John's (0-6), beating them 6-3 on Saturday afternoon.

"It's a relief," coach Ken Knutson said. "It's unusual to start that way around here, and it's mostly the way it's happened. We could be five-and-one real easily, but we're one-and-five ... hopefully we'll improve from there."

The win came behind the combined pitching efforts of sophomores Jorden Merry and Tyler Cheney. A junior college transfer, Merry (1-1) allowed three runs on five hits, striking out six and walking two in six innings to pick up his first win in a Husky uniform. Cheney earned the first save of his career with three scoreless innings of relief.

After falling behind 2-0, the Huskies rallied in the bottom of the third to the take the lead.

Sophomore Bradley Boyer started the rally with a double, then Andy Lentz reached base on an error, which left runners on the corners. Boyer scored on sophomore Jake Rife's groundout, then Lentz scored all the way from second on a wild pitch.

With two outs, junior Matt Hague drew a walk, before senior Curt Rindal pounded his second homer of the year, putting the Huskies up 4-2. Washington supported its relief with runs in the seventh and eighth innings to preserve the 6-3 win.

The previous two games of the weekend against Duke (9-1) and East Carolina (5-5) looked very similar to the three losses the team had the week before when the Huskies had narrow leads late in the game, which they could not hold on to.

The 4-3 loss against Duke on Friday came on a controversial call at home. With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Duke shortstop Gabriel Saade tried to score from second. First baseman Rindal's throw beat the runner and catcher Joey Dunn got the tag, but the umpire ruled that Dunn had obstructed the runner and called Saade safe, ending the game.

"It was an unusual call, I've never seen it made," Knutson said. "There was obstruction or the catcher was catching the ball and I'm not even sure what the call was. It was made and then the umpires ran off the field, never to give us an explanation and the guy was never to be seen again."

On Saturday, East Carolina came back, down 3-0, to win 6-3. ECU scored one run in the seventh and then rallied in the eighth, getting eight batters on base and scoring five runs.

"We just blew up late," Knutson said. "It was just too bad. [Nick] Haughian pitched so well. He was just completely dominant; they had two hits going into the eighth inning. We had the game in control."

Knutson said the team still has plenty of work to get their offense really swinging and he hopes they will be able to develop their batting in practice.

"It's still not there, it's a ways off," he said.

The team begins a twelve-game home stand on Tuesday against Portland at the Husky ballpark.

Reach reporter James Schleicher at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.