SUGAR LAND, Texas _ The Houston Baptist Huskies used a 15-hit attack and a strong pitching performance from starter Taylor Wright to record a 6-1 victory over the University of Central Arkansas Bears in second-round action Thursday night at the 2015 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament at Constellation Field.

    The seventh-seeded Huskies (26-25) sprayed 14 singles, mostly ground balls through the infield, against a pair of UCA pitchers to push the sixth-seeded Bears into an elimination game against No. 2 Northwestern State at 9 a.m. Friday. HBU advances and will face the winner of that game at 4 p.m. Friday.

    "That was the big difference, they had a lot of hits but they just found the holes,' said UCA head coach Allen Gum. "Up the middle, chopping through, through the four hole, through the six hole. It's baseball. They just found some holes. And they did a great job with two strikes, fighting pitches off and then finding balls on the right side of the field

    "And give them credit, that's their game. And when that game's going, they go really, really well. They showed us that earlier in the year. They are not a power hitting team but they hit a lot of ground balls, and when they find the holes, good things happen.'

    The teams endured a 2:21 rain and lightning delay that began in the top of the third inning with the Bears leading 1-0. Play resumed at 7:15 and things went downhill for UCA from there. The Bears (28-23) had grabbed the lead in the top of the second inning when freshman right fielder Ty Tice hit a one-out double to the right-center gap, advanced to third on Logan Preston's infield single and scored on a wild pitch by Wright.

    Tice, from Prairie Grove, had three of UCA's six hits in the game, including its only extra-base hit, a double in the second inning. But Wright (7-6) shut the Bears down with his second complete game of the season, both coming against the Bears. HBU has now won four straight against UCA after sweeping the season series at home.

    Following the long delay, HBU put up two runs in the third inning and added single runs in both the fourth and fifth to take a 4-1 lead. The Huskies added two more in the eight inning to put the game out of reach. 

    UCA starter Chris Durham, a freshman from Collierville, Tenn., took the loss, going four innings, allowing eight hits and three earned runs in just his second start of the season. Junior Derek Beier, from Oklahoma City, went the final four innings, giving up seven hits and another three earned runs.

    "I think the rain delay did make a difference with Durham,' said Gum. "He was really, really sharp but then we come out and have a rain delay. We had a little momentum going, Langley had a hit with nobody out. Then Durham came out and wasn't quite as sharp and it made a difference. We had to get him out of the game and go a different route.'

    Tice finished 3 for 4 with a run scored, while Langley was 2 for 4. Curtis Jones led HBU, going 3 for 5 with 3 RBI.