Huntsville - Led by right fielder Jake Fuller, Central Arkansas swept a Southland Conference baseball doubleheader from Sam Houston Saturday, winning 4-3 in 10 innings and 11-4 at Don Sanders Stadium.
Fuller went 6-for-10 with three RBIs and a home run.
The losses combined with a 7-3 Nicholls victory over first place Texas State in Thiboudaux, LA, put the Bearkats on the brink of losing out on a berth to the 2010 Southland Conference post-season tournament in Corpus Christi in two weeks.
Only the top eight regular season finishers earn tournament berths. Nicholls stands in eighth place at 12-17 in league action. Sam Houston, now 9-20 in the Southland, is three games back with four to play.
The Kats and UCA complete the three-game series Sunday at 1 p.m. Sam Houston ends the season with a three-game series at A&M-Corpus Christi Thursday through Saturday.
The Bearkats now stand 17-34 for the year. They have lost their last nine games in a row and have dropped 16 of their last 18 contests.
Central Arkansas upped its season record to 17-32-1 and stand 11-17-1 in Southland action.
In the first game, after the Bearkats tied the game 3-3 in the fourth, the two teams held each other scoreless until extra innings when UCA right fielder Jake Fuller scored the winning run on a passed ball.
Sam Houston took a quick lead in the opener as right fielder Greg Olson doubled then scored on an error by the first baseman in the bottom of the first inning.
The Bears struck back in the top of the second, scoring three runs on four hits and two Bearkat errors. Right fielder Jake Fuller singled and center fielder Tye Thornberry doubled. Second baseman Jordan Getchell singled in Fuller and Thornberry scored on an error. Left fielder Michael Pair brought in the third run with a sacrifice fly.
Shortstop Ryan Mooney singled and left fielder Tyler Fiebrich walked to start a Kat rally in the fourth inning. Catcher Doug Oney and right fielder Greg Olson produced back-to-back singles to score Rooney and Fiebrich and knot the contest at 3-3.
Fuller singled and Thornberry walked to lead off the 10th inning for UCA. After a sacrifice bunt moved to two runners to second and third base, Fuller scored on a passed ball by catcher Michael Hilliard.
Bobby Pritchett (5-1) was the winning pitcher, spreading 10 hits over nine innings while striking out two. Michael Wild picked up his second save of the year retiring all three Bearkat batters in the bottom of the 10th.
Matt Shelton (5-5) was the loser in relief for SHSU. Dallas Gallant went the first seven innings as the starter. Olson and shortstop Ryan Mooney led the Kats at the plate, both going 3-for-5.
Fuller's three-run home run sparked a six-run third inning in the doubleheader nightcap. Pritchett added an RBI double and the Bears scored on an RBI walk and a wild pitch in the inning. Central Arkansas added three runs in the top of the sixth.
Ryan Mooney posted his third home run with a solo shot in the fourth inning. Catcher Michael Hilliard and second baseman Braeden Riley added RBI singles in the seventh inning.
"One of our rules is to respect the game of baseball, playing hard and playing it right," Bearkats head coach Mark Johnson said. "It is hard right now because we don't have a lot of confidence. But we are going to come out hard and take pride in putting on the Sam Houston uniform. We just need to give it our best shot and go for it. You have to play smart. We made some errors today on plays that we have been practicing on. We struggled today. I think the first game was an absolute heartbreaker. We were really pushing hard for that first game," Johnson said. "That was going to be a big deal for us and we didn't get it back."
One of the few bright spots for Sam Houston was designated hitter Chris Andreas stretching his hitting streak to 22 games, which didn't happen until the bottom of the ninth with two outs.
Thanks to heads-up base running by Payton Wisener, who beat out a tag at second base on an infield single by Riley, Andreas was able to lace a single into right field to extend his streak. The 22-game mark is the third longest in SHSU history behind Terry Pirtle, who hit in 34 straight in 1987, and Andrew Kasparek, who hit in 28 consecutive games from 2003-04.
For more information purchasing tickets to Sam Houston baseball, 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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