AUSTIN, Texas – After trailing 2-0 early in the game, the Concordia Texas baseball team responded by outscoring McMurry 7-1 after the second inning to pick up an 8-3 win over the War Hawks on Friday night at Tornado Field.
 
Casen Novak went 4-for-5 in the win and Carson Cox continued his hot streak by going 2-for-4 with three RBIs as CTX moved to 13-6, 6-1 ASC.
 
The War Hawks started the scoring in the second with two runs in the top half of the second. The Tornados answered immediately in the bottom half of the inning when Daniel Williams singled, stole second, advanced to third on an error and was brought home on an RBI groundout from Jacob Stegent.
 
CTX tied the game in the third when Cox lifted a pitch into left center to bring home Novak.
 
After starting pitcher Cole Angelle retired six straight in the fourth and fifth innings, the Tornados took the lead for good with two runs in the bottom half of the fifth.
 
Angelle, a senior out of Katy, Texas, picked up the win and moved to 3-0 on the year after pitching 5.0 innings, allowing just four hits, two runs and one earned run.
 
Michael Evan brought home the third run of the game on a sacrifice fly while Williams produced the fourth on a perfectly placed RBI bunt single to give CTX a 4-2 lead.
 
The combination of Novak and Cox produced once again in the seventh inning. Novak, a sophomore from Flatonia, Texas, lifted a two-RBI double down the right field line and Cox, a junior from Cotulla, Texas, followed it up with a two-RBI single up the middle to extend the lead to six.
 
In the ninth, Justin Traxler found himself in a bases loaded jam, but was able to get out of it thanks to a terrific double play turned by, who else, Cox and Novak. Traxler, a senior from Austin, Texas, pitched the final four frames, giving up five hits, one run and fanning three. 
 
The series against McMurry continues Saturday with a doubleheader in Austin, Texas starting at 1:00 p.m.