CONWAY, Ark. _ A nice mix of old and new carried the University of Central Arkansas Bears to a 3-2 Opening Day victory over the Northern Illinois Huskies on Friday in non-conference action at Bear Stadium.

Senior starting pitcher Tyler Gray went six innings for the victory while senior reliever Will Brand picked up the save with two scoreless innings on the back end. Junior first baseman Tyler Smith, in his first action in a UCA uniform, went 3 for 4. Senior second baseman Rigo Aguilar scored the go-ahead run in the sixth inning on senior Josh Somdecerff's triple as several veterans did their part.

The Bears fell behind in the first inning when the Huskies scored twice on three singles and a walk. Gray, a righthander from Fort Smith, settled down after that, allowing just two more hits and striking out seven over the next five innings. He closed out his final inning, the sixth, with a big bases-loaded strike out.

Junior Tanner Wiley, a transfer from Eastern Oklahoma State College, pitched a solid seventh inning, striking out one, walking one and allowing a hit. Brand came on in the eighth and struck out two batters in both the eighth and ninth frames, including a swinging strikeout of Samuel Vega to end the game.

The Bears got one run back in the fourth inning when senior catcher Justin McCarty singled up the middle, stole second base, advanced to third on a ground out and scored on Aquilar's RBI base hit to right field. In the sixth, Smith hit a one-out single up the middle and Jay Anderson was hit by a pitch for the second time by NIU starter George Faue. Aguilar hit a ground ball that looked like a double play but Vega threw wildly to first, allowing Smith to score from second to tie it at 2-2.

Somdecerff then tripled over the right fielder's head to give the Bears the lead for good.

UCA finished with nine hits and left seven runners on base. NIU had eight hits but stranded 10.

Game 2 of the series has been pushed back to 3 p.m. due to Saturday morning rain, with the series finale at 1 p.m. Sunday.