HOUSTON, Texas (January 31, 2021) – The Lubbock Christian University pitching staff could not contain Arkansas Tech on Sunday, allowing 12 runs and 13 hits in a 12-2 loss to wrap up play at the Houston Winter Invitational at Minute Maid Park.
 
The Chaps fall to 1-2 with the loss and will now look toward Lone Star Conference play, which begins Feb. 5 at Arkansas-Fort Smith.
 
Most of the damage done by the Wonderboys came early in the game. They opened the scoring in the first inning, using a pair of doubles to push across a run before Chap starter Tyler Hardwick ended the inning with a strikeout.
 
LCU looked poised to answer in the bottom half of the first, getting a leadoff double from Eduardo Acosta and a hit-by-pitch from Colin Gordon to put two on with no outs. Two strikeouts and a caught stealing stopped the threat though.
 
ATU increased their lead to 3-0 in the second inning and then really broke the game open in the third inning, scoring six runs on four hits and an LCU error to chase Hardwick from the game and go up 9-0.
 
Grant Griffin led off the bottom of the inning with a solo home run and Nolan Macibroda worked a walk, but Lubbock Christian was unable to cut the lead down any more.
 
Owen Woodward, pitching for the second-straight day, replaced Hardwick and worked an inning and two thirds of scoreless ball with one strikeout. The LCU bullpen was pretty solid throughout the rest of the game, as Ivan Castro, Christian Garcia, Steven Dennis and Koi Carrillo all followed Woodward. Combined, the relievers struck out five batters while allowing just one earned run.
 
George Mendazona collected his first RBI of the season in the sixth, scoring Gordon on a sacrifice fly after the latter was hit by another pitch.
 
ATU's last earned run came in the seventh off Dennis after a single, a stolen base and a pair of wild pitches. The Wonderboys added two final unearned runs in the top of the eighth, and worked around another hit-by-pitch in the bottom of the inning to close out the run-rule win