For the first time since the season-opening series at Tulane, the Bearkats came out on the losing end Saturday.

Sam Houston couldn't overcome its five fielding errors and fell to UT-Arlington 8-4, snapping its 11-game winning streak, in the second game of the conference-opening series.

"We made a couple of mistakes today, but we're good enough to bounce back tomorrow. We're going to have off games and this is our off game," first baseman Chris Andreas said. "Coach (Mark) Johnson made sure that we knew that this was our off game. We've just got to wipe the slate clean and come out tomorrow and play our hardest. We'll be in position to win the ball game for sure."

In what proved to be the difference in the game, the five Bearkats errors were responsible for half of UTA's runs.

"It's probably just one of those ugly games that happens at every level you go to watch," Johnson said. "Out of nowhere, we come up with five errors. We've been playing pretty error-free. It was off the wall. We weren't ready to play and we didn't make plays we normally make."

Early on, the Bearkats got behind the figurative eight ball as the Mavericks jumped out to an early 4-0 advantage with a pair of runs in both the first and second innings.

UTA catcher Chad Comer drove in the game's first run with an RBI single through the left side of the infield. Later in the inning, right fielder Preston Beck scored on a balk by Kats starting pitcher Brent Powers (2-1).

In the second, UTA (1-1 in SLC play, 7-7 overall) added to its lead when Mavericks second baseman Ryan Walker blooped in a run into right-center field.

Then the error bug started to get after the Kats.

With runners on first and second, UTA successfully pulled off a double steal.

Sam Houston catcher John Hale tried to throw out Mavericks center fielder Philip Incaviglia at third base, but the ball sailed into left field and Incaviglia scored to extend UTA's lead to 4-0.

Slowly but surely, the Kats clawed their way back to make a game of it as Powers sent down the Mavericks three up, three down in both the third and fourth innings.

"He struggled early on and had an inning where he dealt well enough for us to keep him in there," Johnson said. "He ate up some innings for us and he gave us a chance to come back."

Sam Houston (1-1, 12-3) cut the lead in half when designated hitter Tyler Jones drove in a run on an infield single in the second inning and right fielder Greg Olson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the third.

The Mavericks went on the offensive again and were poised to add several more runs in the fifth.

Freshman left-hander Caleb Smith took over for Powers with the bases loaded and just one out.

Left fielder Payton Wisener kept a long fly ball from bouncing off the wall  and held it to just a sacrifice fly. In the next at-bat, Olson made an diving catch at the warning track to keep more runs off the board.

"They squared up two balls big-time," Johnson said. "PW makes a big play at the fence. Then I thought Greg's was a really outstanding play. He ran that ball down at the warning track with the fence closing in. I thought that was the defensive play of the day, without question."

The Bearkats pulled to within a run after Andreas' RBI triple off the right-center field wall and center fielder Mark Hudson's subsequent RBI grounder to second base cut the lead to 5-4.

"Momentum was definitely starting to go our way. It just didn't stay with us," Andreas said. "We worked hard. We fought back hard. I'm glad we didn't just roll over. We worked hard to push those runs across."

Sam Houston couldn't quite complete the comeback, though.

Thanks to two more errors in the eighth, the Mavericks were able to retake a three-run lead and then added another run in the ninth for good measure.

The Kats will attempt to win the series today in the rubber match against UTA. Senior right-hander Brandon Kimbrel (1-0, 2.55 earned run average) will start today's game against Mavericks junior right-hander Michael Oberto (2-0, 3.21), which is set to begin at 1 p.m.