AUSTIN, Texas – Thanks to a quality effort on the mound and timely hitting at the plate, the Concordia Texas baseball team opened American Southwest Conference play with a 4-2 win over the University of the Ozarks Friday night at Tornado Field.
 
The Tornados got clutch RBI triples from both Cole Angelle and Casen Novak and struck out 15 hitters as a team over nine innings to move to 8-5, 1-0 ASC.
 
Calvin Bush (1-0) picked up his first career win on the mound for the Tornados as he went 5.0 innings, struck out a career-high seven batters and allowed just two hits and two earned runs.
 
The Eagles put two runs on the board first in the top half of the second inning thanks to an RBI single and a solo homer to left to go ahead 2-0.
 
CTX responded with a run to cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning when Angelle, a senior from Katy, Texas, laced a fly ball the right fielder could not quite make a play on for an RBI triple.
 
The Tornados tied the game in the fourth when Bret Leiferman hit a leadoff single, stole second and subsequently scored on an RBI single from Reed Carlton.
 
After a one-out walk in the bottom of the fifth, CTX took the lead for good when Novak, a sophomore out of Flatonia, Texas, hit an RBI triple down the left field line. Novak was then driven in by a sacrifice fly by Carson Cox to put the Tornados up 4-2.
 
The two run cushion was plenty Concordia relievers Daniel Lewis and Caleb Nicholson.
 
Lewis, a sophomore from Georgetown, Texas, had the best outing of his career thus far allowing just two hits, no runs and racking up a career-high five strikeouts over 2.2 innings. Nicholson, a junior from Moody, Texas, picked up his second save in as many games after throwing 1.1 innings of perfect ball and striking out one.
 
The three-game series against Ozarks will continue with a doubleheader Saturday at Tornado Field beginning at 12:00 p.m.