Sam Houston State reaches NCAA regional finals in outstanding performance at Oxford, MS
6/4/2007 1:00:00 AM | Baseball
From The Huntsville Item
By Tom Waddill, Sports Editor
NCAA Regional Semifinals
Sam Houston 12, Southern Mississippi 11
NCAA Regional Finals
Mississippi 21, Sam Houston 13
OXFORD, Miss. ? Baseball really is a crazy game.
Three times Sunday, the Bearkats were down to their final out, and three times, Sam Houston State found some way to stave off elimination and beat Southern Mississippi 12-11 in 11 innings at the NCAA's Oxford Regional.
Unfortunately, SHSU couldn't repeat the trick when they were 11 runs behind and down to their last out in Sunday's late game.
The Bearkats ran out of gas ? and more importantly, pitching ? against tournament host Ole Miss. The Rebels romped to a 21-13 win over scrappy Sam Houston State and earned a trip to a super regional against either Arizona State or Nebraska.
That hardly tarnishes what SHSU accomplished in its first regional trip since 1996. The Bearkats went 2-2 and outlasted a pair of higher-seeded teams, Southern Miss and Troy.
With their never-say-die spirit, the Bearkats (40-24) also earned the respect of thousands of rabid college baseball fans, a long way from home.
“We got here in the second inning of the first game and Sam Houston was behind 7-1. I thought they were whipped. I thought we were going to play Southern,” Ole Miss fan Jeff Henry said as Rebels reliever Cody Satterwhite finally finished off the Bearkats, after they had pushed across three runs in the ninth. “They just kept battling, kept battling.”
The Bearkats certainly did that the entire weekend.
On Sunday, the Bearkats fought like crazy just go get into the game with Southern Miss. Sam rallied for a total of six runs in the seventh and eighth innings to tie the game at 7. Then after Southern Miss took a two-run lead in the top of the ninth, the Bearkats simply refused to lose.
On a groundout by Todd Sebek and an RBI single from Heath Pugh, they scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to knot the score again. After Southern Miss touched closer Luke Prihoda for a run in the top of the 10th, the Bearkats answered when reserve third baseman Aaron Cook delivered a clutch RBI hit.
They did it again in the 11th when Keith Stein sliced a single to right to score Jeremy Holzbach.
The Bearkats put a fitting cap on their thrilling victory when junior Bobby Verbick drilled a fly ball over Southern Miss center fielder Bo Davis to score Clint Mann with the winning run.
“We were playing like it was our last game, because it could have been,” said SHSU center fielder Keith Stein, who had five hits with two RBIs in the win over the Golden Eagles. “We were giving everything we had and we kept chipping away, chipping away, chipping away. We kept getting clutch hit after clutch hit.
“It was amazing,” added Stein, who went 11-for-17 in the tournament. “Everyone on the team contributed to that win.”
It would have taken everyone on the team and more to knock off a rested Ole Miss squad (40-22) in the championship round. Had the Bearkats pulled off the improbable Sunday night, they would have had to repeat the feat today.
For a while, it looked like Sam Houston State might have another miracle in its back pocket. But after Verbick's three-run homer sparked a five-run rally in the top of the fourth against Ole Miss, the Rebels started banging the ball against the Bearkats' beaten bullpen.
Ole Miss, a team that was hosting its fourth straight NCAA regional, hung nine runs in the bottom of the fourth to go on top 16-8, then the Rebels coasted the rest of the way.
“I think Ole Miss is probably very happy, although I think Ole Miss is the best ballclub in the regional and they deserve to represent this regional,” Bearkats coach Mark Johnson said. “They've got a great ballclub.
“When we went at it so hard with Southern, and they went at it hard with us, we got into extra innings and we got a lot of emotion with the ebb and flow out there,” the coach added. “They score a run, we score a run, they score a run and we score a run. It gets into extra innings and we all got into our bullpens pretty good.”
After jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first in front of 6,329 screaming Ole Miss fans, Johnson said it was only a matter of time before the Bearkats, who were likely playing on pure adrenaline, hit a wall.
“It was a long day. We've been out there since 10:30 this morning,” the coach said at a little after 9 p.m. “I'm not making any excuses, I think Ole Miss is the better ballclub. But I think the team coming out of that (first) game, it makes it a little rougher.
“We went all the way to the bottom of our tank and the guys gave a great effort, the pitchers particularly, guys who haven't pitched much for us. But Ole Miss just absolutely squared up to every ball we threw up there. It was incredible how hard they hit the ball.”
Catcher Alex Kliman led the Rebels' offense with four hits and five RBIs. Left fielder Justin Henry added four more hits, while second baseman Zach Miller and Zach Cozart had three hits apiece in Ole Miss' 22-hit attack.
All nine of the Bearkat position players collected hits off four Rebel pitchers. Verbick led the way with a pair of hits and three RBIs. Senior Karl Krailo had two hits, including a long home run in his final college at-bat. Two of Krailo's classmates, Jeremy Holzbach and Austin Boggs, drove in two runs each in their final collegiate game.
After the loss to Ole Miss, none of the Bearkats appeared to be disappointed. Rather, they seemed thrilled by what they had accomplished.
A team with a new head coach, a bunch that had never been this far before, a squad that had never even reached the conference tournament, did exactly what Stein talked about after the Bearkats eliminated Troy on Saturday.
The Bearkats took every team's best punch and came back fighting.
“The emotion of this weekend, this was a new experience for all of us,” Holzbach said. “I just hope this is something that this club gets to experience for years to come.”
NCAA Regional Elimination Game
Sam Houston 5,Troy 4
OXFORD, Miss. ? Luke Prihoda doesn't mind sharing the spotlight, especially with one of his buds from the Bearkat bullpen.
In an NCAA elimination game Saturday, little-used Stephen Price came up huge, pitching 2 2/3 hitless innings and helping Sam Houston State rally for a 5-4 victory over Troy at Swayze Field.
Price (1-0) relieved starter Jesse Marshall with the bases full of Trojans in the top of the fourth inning. Facing Troy's top hitter, senior Clint Robinson, Price fearlessly threw strikes. He fanned Robinson with a 2-2 fastball, then pitched into the seventh before handing the ball to Prihoda, the nation's saves leader and a finalist for college baseball's Stopper of the Year award.
Prihoda breezed through the seventh and eighth innings, but the Trojans (34-27) mounted a serious rally in the ninth. Robinson delivered an RBI single off the hard-throwing right-hander from Weimar. With the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on first, Prihoda retired cleanup man Josh Dew on a comebacker to the mound to notch his 18th save and keep the Bearkats alive another day.
Sam Houston (39-23) plays Southern Miss, a 4-0 loser to rival Ole Miss, today in another 1 p.m. elimination game today.
“Price was probably the hero of the day. He took the shine away from Luke a little bit because Luke always gets to be the hero of the day,” Bearkats coach Mark Johnson said. “Stephen Price, I put him in in a bases-loaded situation the first batter, and he got out of that. He ate up some at-bats that we needed to get so we could get to Luke. Then Luke did his thing.”
Like he did in the Southland Conference Tournament last week, Johnson pushed all of the right buttons Saturday. With Marshall laboring from the start, Johnson elected to bring Price out of the pen in a tie game.
Against Robinson, a veteran left-handed hitter who brought a .362 average, 17 homers and 69 RBIs into Saturday's game, the righty Price showed no fear. With a fastball on the outside edge, he struck out Robinson swinging to end the Trojans' threat.
“I really didn't think about the hitter. I came in and just wanted to throw strikes,” said Price, a junior from Spring. “I ended up getting a punchout there and that swung the momentum for us.”
Price's strikeout did appear to give the Bearkats a boost. After rallying back from an early 3-0 deficit, SHSU pushed across two more runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Todd Sebek blooped a single to center to start the decisive rally. Heath Pugh bunted Sebek into scoring position, and when Holzbach's bouncer went under Trevor Tyre's glove at third, Sebek motored around and put SHSU on top for the first time in the regional, 4-3.
Another Troy error helped Sam add to its lead. With Holzbach on second, Austin Boggs bounced a ball to shortstop Charlie Calamia. Holzbach broke for third on contact and Calamia tried to gun him down. The throw was too low for Tyre to glove and the ball skipped into the Bearkats' dugout. Holzbach came home on the error.
Price, a guy who only worked 23 innings during the regular season, pitched a pair of 1-2-3 innings before walking second baseman Edgar Ramirez with one out in the seventh. After Price walked Ramirez, Johnson wasted no time pointing to the bullpen and bringing in his strongest arm.
Prihoda retired Robinson on a deep fly ball to left, then he got Dew to bounce out to short for the final out in the top of the seventh. Prihoda worked an easy eighth inning, getting two popups and a groundout.
Troy's leadoff man in the ninth, backup catcher Beau Brooks, drilled a single to right. Calamia worked a walk to put the tying run on base with no outs.
Trojans coach Bobby Pierce asked his speedy leadoff hitter Ian Craze to lay down a bunt to move the runners up 90 feet, but Craze couldn't get the bunt down off Prihoda. After two failed attempts, Craze popped out to second baseman Clint Mann.
Calling bunting a “lost art,” Troy coach Bobby Pierce talked about the Trojans' missed opportunity in the ninth.
“We work as much on bunting as anyone, but we had a sub-par year in that area,” Pierce said. “Clint's base hit would have tied the game if we move the runners up. We had opportunities and couldn't get the job done at the plate.”
Prihoda struck out Ramirez, then Robinson slapped a single up the middle before the Bearkats' closer retired Dew for the game's final out.
“I didn't feel like I had much of my velocity, but I thought my breaking ball and my split finger were working OK,” a relieved Prihoda said. “In the ninth, I just labored a little bit. I missed a spot to get the leadoff hitter on, and I work a little better off the wind-up, got a little more rhythm to it. Getting into the stretch, I just had to work really hard to get the job done. I came out, and we got the W.”
Getting the “W” wasn't the easiest thing, especially after falling behind 3-0 in the first three innings. The Trojans jumped on Marshall, a senior from Montgomery who gave up six hits and three walks in only 3 2/3 innings.
Ramirez smacked a solo homer in the first, then the Trojans tacked on two more runs in the third when they strung together three hits and a sacrifice fly. Again it was Ramirez who started the rally, this time with a single to left.
After Ramirez moved to second on a wild pitch, Robinson bounced a ball past Mann for an RBI single. Dew delivered Troy's third straight hit, a sinking liner that fell in front of a sliding Keith Stein in center. Tyre's sacrifice fly gave the Trojans a 3-0 lead, but the Bearkats battled back and scored three runs in the bottom of the third to tie the game.
Mann and Stein beat out infield singles with one out. Bobby Verbick, who had two of the Kats' eight hits, ripped a double down the third-base line to score the Kats' first run. Karl Krailo lifted a long sacrifice fly to center, and Verbick scored the tying run on Austin Boggs' infield single to the hole at short.
“We've always believed in ourselves,” said Stein, who collected a pair of hits for the second straight day. “It's one of those things that it is early in the game. We took a punch in the face, but our motto has always been to punch right back. We came back, and basically we punched right back. We are not going to just sit there and get hit.”
NCAA Regional Semifinals
Mississippi 14, Sam Houston 5
OXFORD, Miss. ? After the Bearkats (38-23) battled back to tie the game at 4, Ole Miss capatalized on another error in the bottom of the sixth. A potential double-play grounder to second quickly turned into a big inning for the Rebels when shortstop Jeremy Holzbach could not squeeze a flip from second baseman Clint Mann in his glove.
Following Holzbach's error, Ole Miss hung three runs on the board and broke open a close game with a bases-loaded walk and a two-run single by Zach Miller. That gave the Rebels an 8-4 lead, which was more than enough for Ole Miss starter Will Kline (7-2) and reliever Justin Cryer.
Adding insult to injury, Boggs made another error in the bottom of the eighth. Ole Miss happily scored five more runs to turn the game into a rout. The top-seeded Rebels banged out 12 hits against four SHSU pitchers, but seven Ole Miss runs Friday were unearned.
“Obviously, we made three errors that were costly to us,” Bearkats coach Mark Johnson said. “Good teams take advantage every time you make a mistake, and Ole Miss is a very good ballclub.”
After Power lined his two-run homer over the left-field fence, the Bearkats got into the game by scoring three runs in the third. Using a pair of walks, a single by Mann and an error by Ole Miss third baseman Cody Overbeck, the Bearkats made it a one-run game.
Holzbach and Mann scored when Overbeck took his eyes off a double-play grounder off Bobby Verbick's bat. The ball got behind Overbeck and stopped in the grass behind third. Keith Stein scored two batters later when Austin Boggs grounded out to second.
The Kats knotted the score at four an inning later. This time, SHSU got four hits off Kline, but only Stein's slicing single to left plated a run. Kline pitched out of a bases-loaded jam when he got Boggs to fly out to left.
“Everything for me was missing the whole night,” Kline said. “When you don't have it, it's good for your offense to put up 14 runs.”
Before they scored nine runs in the last three innings, the Rebels were sweating a bit. The fourth-seeded Bearkats brought their bats on the long trip, and they fought like crazy to give Ole Miss a game.
“We talked about if we did get behind we had to stay within ourselves,” said Verbick, who had one of the Bearkats' 10 hits. “We couldn't try to get it all back with one swing.”
Ole Miss took a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the fifth. Second baseman Zach Miller led off by ripping a triple into the gap in right-center. A relay throw from Mann nearly got Miller at third, but Miller slid around a tag by Boggs. Justin Henry drove Miller in with a bouncer to Mann.
SHSU wasted an opportunity in the top of the sixth. Kline walked Mann, then with one out, Verbick walked on four pitches. Kline buckled down and struck out senior Karl Krailo on a high fastball that was out of the strike zone. Boggs bounced out to third to end the Bearkats' last serious threat.
In the bottom of the sixth, Howard walked Power, the Rebels' leadoff hitter of the inning. Evan Button then bounced a ball to Boggs, who fielded it cleanly, but when he turned to throw to second, he dropped the ball in the dirt. Pinch-hitter Fuller Smith knocked Howard out when he beat out a bunt single to load the bases, and after reliever Tim Gray fanned catcher Alex Kliman, he walked Henry Jordan, forcing home a run.
Miller then slapped a two-run single to center and the Ole Miss faithful started to relax.
“When a team gives you extra outs, you've got to take advantage of it,” Henry said. “They took advantage of ours and we took advantage of theirs. ... Two of those were double-play balls, and that was big.”
Led offensively by Stein, Krailo and Nick Zaleski, who had two hits apiece, Sam Houston had a chance to knock off a nationally ranked team on their home field. But unlike last week when they seemed to do everything right in a four-game sweep through the Southland Conference tournament, the Bearkats made too many mistakes and stranded 12 men, including eight in scoring position.
“We struggled a little bit with our pitching, but a lot of our problems came with the three errors,” Johnson said. “The guys who made those errors are good players. They make those plays and they've both been stellar players for us this season. We're anxious for tomorrow.”
Facing elimination, the Bearkats will send senior left-hander Jesse Marshall (8-3) to the mound against the Troy Trojans, a 14-1 loser to Southern Miss early on Friday. Junior righty Barry Bowden (7-3, 3.12) is scheduled to start for Troy.
