By Gene Schallenberg The Huntsville Item
HUNTSVILLE - It was all too familiar a scene.
Early in Friday's series opener against Stephen F. Austin, the Bearkats dug themselves into a deep hole. Sam Houston could never overcome the early deficit as the Lumberjacks built on their lead and never trailed, holding on for an 11-2 victory.
"All season long, we just cannot start the game without getting behind," SHSU head coach Mark Johnson said. "A large percentage of our games have started off that way. We're not as good as we need to be to keep that from happening.
"We're ready to play. We've just got to keep playing. We've got to put this one behind us and come out tomorrow."
Stephen F. Austin, which remains tied for second place in the Southland Conference with Northwestern State, jumped on top with one swing in the second inning.
With a pair of runners aboard, designated hitter Darren Crabtree drilled an offering from Dallas Gallant (2-7) over the right-center field wall.
The Lumberjacks (14-7 in SLC play, 28-12 overall) added a couple of more runs in the third off a pair of sacrifice flies by left fielder Ryan Priest and right fielder Bo Coffman.
Gallant managed to stop the bleeding and held Stephen F. Austin hitless through the next three innings, but the Bearkats couldn't provide any offense to whittle away at the deficit.
Following left fielder Payton Wisener's leadoff single in the bottom of the first, Lumberjack starter Tyler Herriage (7-2) retired 10 Bearkats in a row before allowing another runner aboard the basepaths.
"After we had a couple of runs, that gave us a bunch of confidence and I just went out doing what I needed to do," Herriage said. "The defense was behind us 100 percent."
Sam Houston (9-13, 17-26) finally broke the skid after getting a pair of runners on base, but first baseman Taylor Davis and shortstop Ryan Mooney flied out to end the inning.
The Lumberjacks added two more runs in the seventh before the Bearkats finally put a crooked number on the scoreboard off second baseman Braeden Riley's RBI triple. Sam Houston added another run in the following inning to pull to within five.
Stephen F. Austin piled on and added four more in the ninth and the Bearkats weren't able to muster a threat.
Coupled with Nicholls' 5-3 win over Southeastern Louisiana, the Bearkats fell two games behind the Colonels and Lamar, which is tied for seventh place and currently own the final two spots in the conference tournament.
Even though there wasn't much offense for the Bearkats, there were bright spots came from Chris Andreas and Braeden Riley. Andreas and Riley combined for three of Sam Houston's seven hits to extend their hitting streaks to 14 and 12 games, respectively.
Sam Houston will be looking to break a three-game conference losing streak when the Bearkats host Stephen F. Austin in second game of the three-game series today at 2 p.m.
For more information about Sam Houston baseball tickets, go to the ticket link below or contact the Sam Houston State ticket office located in the Ron Mafrige Field House at Bowers Stadium. The ticket office telephone number is (936) 294-1729.
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