UTSA visits the Don this weekend
3/24/2011 7:00:00 PM | Baseball
Sam Houston started the season with a 12-2 run that included victories over Rice, Michigan and Nebraska. But the Kats stubbed their toe in their first two Southland series, dropping two of three to UT-Arlington and getting swept by Texas State.
A 5-4 victory in 10 innings Tuesday over Houston Baptist and a 13-7 win against Prairie View A&M Wednesday put the Bearkats back in a winning mode.
The series is a crucial one for the Roadrunners as well as UTSA also comes into Friday's 6:30 p.m. game at Don Sanders Stadium with a 1-5 league mark. UT-Arlington also took two of three from the Roadrunners and UTSA was swept by Southeastern Louisiana.
First pitch for the second and third games of the series, respectively, will be 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Sam Houston brings the Southland's second most productive offense into the series. The Bearkats are hitting .304 as a team to rank behind only A&M-Corpus Christi (.308) in team batting average in the league.
UTSA owns a .278 team average and stands 7-12 overall for the season. Casey Selsor and Riley Good lead UTSA in hitting, both with .319 averages.
Sam Houston's Chris Andreas (.373) and Ryan Mooney (.371) rank among the Southland's leading hitters. Bearkat outfielder Greg Olson stands second in the Southland in doubles (10) and Andreas is third in the league in home runs (5).
Sam Houston shortstop Braeden Riley will be looking to continue his climb in the Bearkat baseball record book.
Riley now ranks third in career hits at Sam Houston with 250 in 171 games as a Bearkat. He needs six hits to pass Kelly Eddlemon (255 hits in 1997-2000) to move into second place on the all-time list. Terry Pirtle, a Bearkat in 1984-87, holds the SHSU career total hits record with 271.
Sam Houston probable pitching rotation will feature Matt Shelton (3-0, 2.67 ERA), Brent Powers (2-2, 3.18 ERA) and Brandon Kimbrel (2-2, 3.18 ERA).
The Bearkat-Roadrunner series will be streamed live on www.gobearkats.com .
Tickets for all three games are on sale now online at www.gobearkats.com/tickets or at the Sam Houston athletic ticket office located in the Ron Mafrige Field House at Bowers Stadium. Ticket office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The ticket office telephone number is (936) 294-1729.
