PINEVILLE, La. - Needing to gain an early edge in hopes of hosting the American Southwest Conference Tournament, the East Texas Baptist University baseball ran off with a 9-4 win on the road against Louisiana College on Friday night. ETBU is now 28-10 overall and 17-5 in the ASC and it was LC's first home loss of the season. 
 
Of the 18 hits collected by ETBU, five came from Casey Combs, who also had three RBI and three doubles. Zach Gartner and Seth Mikeska (two RBI) each had three hits. Derrick Findley earned his eighth win of the season with five innings allowing two runs on three hits and three strikeouts. Call Florence would get three innings of work allowing two runs and two strikeouts while Chad Boudreaux earned a scoreless one-inning of relief to end the game. 
 
A scoreless first inning was followed by an RBI single from Jack Hanstad to grab an early 1-0 lead in the second. But LC matched that with a sacrifice fly to right to even the score. Over the next two innings, ETBU would score two runs each as Gartner and Mikeska each had RBI doubles in the third putting ETBU up 3-1. Then it was a Combs two-run single in the fourth that brought the score to 5-1. The Wildcats would get a run back in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a homer. But Findley would remain in control through five innings. 
 
ETBU burst the game wide open with four runs in the sixth inning. Combs, Mikeska, and Landen Barns each had RBI singles to make it 8-2 before Brady Faulkner grounded out to bring home the fourth run for a 9-2 cushion. Call Florence was called into pitch and he held LC scoreless for three innings. But when the Wildcats tacked on a run in the ninth inning and had the bases loaded, it was Boudreaux who was brought in. Although he couldn't keep LC off the board entirely, Boudreaux finished off the win with a strikeout.
 
Saturday will have a doubleheader beginning at 12:00 PM.