History repeats itself
5/25/2008 1:00:00 AM | Baseball
From The Huntsville Item
By Cody Stark
NOTE: The official NCAA Baseball Playoff bracket announcement will be made on ESPN Monday at 11:30 a.m. on the "Road to Omaha" Show
As soon as second baseman Braeden Riley flipped the ball to Nick Zaleski at first for the final out, the Sam Houston State baseball team came barreling out of the dugout Saturday afternoon.
There were high fives, hugs and a huge dog pile at first base. That's because the sweet-swinging Bearkats are headed back to the NCAA regionals after cruising undefeated through the 2008 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament.
Sam Houston State capped off a perfect 4-0 run by dismantling Lamar 15-7 in the championship game at Don Sanders Stadium.
Tournament MVP Bobby Verbick belted a three-run home run and all-tournament shortstop Ryan Weber added a two-run triple as the Kats broke open a close game with a six-run fourth inning. Catcher Heath Pugh cranked out four hits and three RBIs, while Riley, Todd Sebek and Zaleski all drove in runs in the 17-hit attack.
This is the second consecutive year that Sam Houston State has won the league's postseason tournament as a fourth seed. Last season, the Kats also ran the table in Natchitoches, La., to advance to the NCAA regionals for the first time since 1996.
“I thought we were a stretch-run team, which is something I'm always proud of,” SHSU head coach Mark Johnson said. “That is something we even talk about in the fall. We have to continue to get better with each game. These guys did that and we had a lot of senior leadership.
“... We had a lot of key players and a lot of key plays. I thought we spread it out pretty good throughout the whole tournament. Everybody got to contribute.”
With Saturday's game tied at 1 heading into the top of the fourth, the Bearkats opened it up when seniors Ryan Trevino and Zaleski led off the inning with back-to-back singles off SLC pitcher of the year Tim Erickson. Trevino was able to score when Lamar catcher Jeff Vickers dropped a throw home on a fielder's choice grounder off Riley's bat.
That brought Weber to the plate, and as he did throughout the tournament, the Kats' No. 9 hitter came up big at the bottom of the lineup, drilling a triple to the gap in right-center field to make it 4-1.
Senior Keith Stein, who delivered a dramatic walk-off home run in Friday night's win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, followed with a walk to put runners on the corners. That brought Verbick to the plate, and the senior designated hitter went down and muscled a 3-2 pitch over the left-field wall for a 7-1 lead and his second homer of the tournament.
“To start off, (Erickson) had great stuff and he threw a changeup down low and I was able to stay back on it,” said Verbick, who just missed a homer in the third, but still went 2-for-4 with four RBIs against the Cardinals. “It was real big because we didn't want it to be a close ballgame. It was 1-1 at the (start of the inning) and we wanted to put a gap between us and them. We didn't want another close game like last night.”
Sam Houston went with freshman Zach Neal on the mound, and he was solid early, keeping the Cardinals off the board through the first two frames before surrendering an unearned run in the third when Tyler Link, who reached on a double, scored on a passed ball.
After the Kats went up 7-1, Neal began to struggle in the bottom of the fourth. Designated hitter Nik Gumeson hit a one-out solo homer to left and second baseman Brian Taylor drove in two more runs with a double into the right-field corner to cut the lead to three before Neal could get out of the frame.
The Cardinals' rally was short-lived, as the Bearkats answered with three more runs in the fifth thanks to RBI singles by Pugh and Weber and a triple by Sebek.
Each time Lamar closed the gap, Sam Houston would go back to work at the plate and regain its lead.
“We played our hearts out, but Sam ? all year ? we really didn't match up with them all year (SHSU won all four meetings),” Lamar head coach Jim Gilligan said. “We would have rather played (Texas) San Antonio, who was our conference champion, than Sam. We are a left-handed dominated (pitching) staff and they are a right(-handed) hitting ballclub.
“They did exceptionally well on breaking stuff and soft stuff. They do an excellent job of staying back and that is what my guys ? (Brian) Sisk and Tim ? is their forte.”
Freshman Dallas Gallant, who pitched a complete game in the Bearkats' opening win Wednesday, shut down the Cardinals in the fifth and sixth with four strikeouts to earn his second victory of the tournament.
The former Trinity High School standout walked the first two hitters in the seventh before leaving the game. Gallant was charged with two earned runs when Lamar cut the lead to 12-7, but he did his job by eating up enough innings so the Kats could get the ball into the hands of closer Zac Baker, who pitched the last three innings and earned the save.
Sam Houston put the game out of reach with three more runs in the eighth when Verbick scored on a wild pitch, Pugh drove in Seth Hammock with a sacrifice fly and Trevino came home when Riley reached on a fielder's choice.
“I just got tired a little bit (in the seventh),” said Gallant, who along with Stein and Seth Hammock were all-tournament selections. “I felt great when I came out there with all that adrenaline and everything like that. I ran out right there at the end, but we got Baker in there after me and there were no worries after that.”
Under the direction of Mark Johnson, the Bearkats have won two straight Southland Tournament championships. This go-round, they did it with dominating hitting and pitching to put themseleves among elite company.
With the Bearkats' 15-7 win over Lamar, Sam Houston State broke a conference record for most runs in a championship game. The previous record was 14 set by McNeese in 2003 with a 14-0 victory over Texas-Arlington.
The tournament title was the third for Sam Houston (1996, 2007, 2008). Each time SHSU won, the Kats were the No. 4 seed. The three titles ties SHSU with Texas State-San Marcos and Trinity University for most Southland tournament titles.
The Bearkats were the second team to host the tournament and win it. Lamar was the first in 2002.
