SUGAR LAND, Texas _ The fourth-seeded Houston Baptist Huskies turned the tables on the fifth-seeded University of Central Arkansas Bears on Wednesday night in the first round of the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament at Constellation Field.

A year after losing 15-4 to the Bears in a run-rule contest in the tournament opener, the Huskies did the same to the Bears with a 14-4 victory. The loss knocked the Bears (32-24) into a loser's bracket matchup with top-seeded Sam Houston State at noon Thursday. SHSU, the regular-season champion, lost in 10 innings to No. 8 seed New Orleans earlier in the day. HBU (27-28) faces UNO at 7 p.m. Thursday. 

UCA senior hurler Tyler Gray (6-2), the SLC Pitcher of the Year, struggled early as the Huskies scored four times in the first inning, with only one earned. The Bears, the top fielding team in the league, committed three errors in the first two innings. The Huskies added a single run in the third inning on Grant Buck's solo home run to right field. Three more came across in the fifth inning, all on a home run by Jack Fitzgerald, to make it an 8-0 HBU lead.

The Bears finally broke their longest scoring drought of the season _ 29 innings _ with two runs in the sixth inning off a two-run single by Coby Potvin that scored Josh Somdecerff, who doubled, and William Hancock, who led off the inning with a base hit. Another home run by Buck, this time a three-run shot, pushed the HBU lead back to 11-2 in the bottom of the inning.

The Bears scored twice in the top of the seventh on an RBI single up the middle by Rigo Aguilar and a sacrifice fly by Somdecerff. But the Huskies came through with three runs in the bottom of the inning to end it by run rule.  

UCA finished with just seven hits off HBU ace Matthew McCollough (9-3), two by senior center fielder Keaton Presley. The Huskies had 12 hits, with Buck going 3 for 4 with 5 RBI and 4 runs scored. Elijah Simon went 3 for 4 and Jonathan Ducoff and Spencer Halloran had two hits each. McCollough allowed two earned runs and struck out 4 while walking none.

Gray, a right hander from Fort Smith, Ark., went five innings, allowing six earned runs and striking out three to tie Matt Whitaker (2007) for UCA's single-season strikeout record of 116. Gray already owns the career strikeout record (284) and the single-game mark (15).

The Bears went 1-2 against the Bearkats during the regular season, winning the series opener in Huntsville, Texas (13-2) and dropping the final two games (5-3, 7-3). UCA and SHSU met in the championship game last season, with the Bearkats winning 9-4.

UCA came back from a first-round loss to win the 2013 SLC championship at Constellation Field, winning five consecutive elimination games.