Islanders visit for season finale
5/18/2011 8:40:00 AM | Baseball
Bearkats head baseball coach Mark Johnson does not want this weekend to be about him.
Sure, it will be the last time he slips on the No. 7 jersey with Sam Houston stitched across the front and stands along the third-base line in the coaching box at Don Sanders Stadium. Unless for some unforeseen reason he changes his mind, which is a safe bet he will not, it will be the last time he coaches in front of the hometown crowd.
It is a given that when Texas A&M-Corpus Christi comes to Huntsville for the final Southland Conference regular-season series Thursday through Saturday, there will be plenty of emotional moments for the long-time collegiate coach.
But that is not what Johnson is focused on. He is concerned more about the Bearkats gaining a little momentum heading into next week's SLC tournament in San Marcos.
That's more his style and it has been since he first heard a player call him "Coach."
"I'm certainly honored and I appreciate people wanting to honor me for retiring. They want to say thanks for what you have been able to do, and if you have been around long enough to retire, that means you had some success," Johnson said Tuesday afternoon. "It's a nice touch and part of baseball. I'm just not comfortable in the spotlight.
"I told the guys that once the umpire says 'Play ball,' I'm going to be zeroed in. We still have some baseball to play."
The Bearkats have already secured a spot in the SLC tournament. Now it is just a matter of where Sam Houston is going to finish in the regular-season standings and which slot it will be seeded in.
Heading into the final weekend, the Bearkats (34-19) are currently tied for third in the league with Southeastern Louisiana at 17-13. Texas State has already clinched the SLC championship, so the best Sam Houston can finish is second, which is currently being held down by Stephen F. Austin (18-12).
Since the SLC standings are so jumbled heading into the final three contests - only four games separate second place from eighth - the Bearkats are not too concerned with seeding. Sam Houston just wants to play better.
The Kats lost two of three at Central Arkansas this past weekend, including a 16-0 run-rule whipping at the hands of the 11th-place Bears last Friday.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (16-14 in SLC, 31-22 overall) will be a good measuring stick for Sam Houston heading into the SLC tournament. The Islanders are just a game back of the Bearkats and Lions and sit in fifth place.
"We are looking forward to the conference tournament, but that is not our focus," SHSU senior Chris Andreas said. "We are focused on Thursday, then we will focus on Friday and then Saturday. We had a rough go at Central Arkansas and we want to fix that."
With all the tournament implications this weekend, it is still hard to ignore the fact that this will be Johnson's final three games at Don Sanders Stadium. He has more than left his mark in what seems like five short seasons in Huntsville.
Johnson resurrected a Bearkats baseball program that had fallen on hard times and he did it in a hurry. Sam Houston won three straight Southland Conference tournament championships and advanced to the NCAA regionals in Johnson's first three seasons.
On the grand scale of things, that is probably microscopic to the rest of the country compared to what Johnson did throughout his coaching career. He has won more than 1,000 games at the Division I level and five conference titles while at Texas A&M, which also included two trips to the College World Series.
But for Bearkat fans and the players who have come through the program during Johnson's time, these past five seasons have been the ones they will always remember when looking back over the coach's career.
And this final hoorah could be extra special.
This Sam Houston squad has a chance to do something the previous four did not as if sending Johnson out a winner at home is not enough incentive.
The Bearkats can post the most regular-season wins during Johnson's tenure and finish the highest in the SLC standings. The Sam Houston teams which won the league tournament in 2007 and '08 both placed fourth in the regular season and the '09 team was seventh.
"We always want to do our best no matter what the circumstance is," Andreas said. "It is really important to coach Johnson that we do our best in everything. It does not matter if we lose as long as we do our best. We want to do our best for him and have a good series."
The Bearkats will honor Johnson before the start of game two of the series on Friday night. Fans and former players will get a chance to say thanks to the man who got people excited about Sam Houston baseball again.
Saturday, Johnson will walk off the field at Don Sanders Stadium for the final time as head coach. He is going to treat it just like any other game.
"People have asked what is it going to be like, walking off Sanders Stadium for the last time. I told them, 'I don't know. I have never done it,'" Johnson said. "I will probably be thinking about the game. I take it home with me. Then it will be back to practice for the Southland Conference tournament."
Again, that is just his style.
Tickets for the three remaining home games including the Mark Johnson "Farewell Game" Friday May 20 at 6:30 p.m. are available online at www.gobearkats.com/tickets or at the 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.
