Bearkat NCAA Regional Facts
5/29/2012 1:33:00 PM | Baseball
COMPLETE HOUSTON REGIONAL INFORMATION
(Tickets, schedule, live stats, live audio)
SEVENTH NCAA REGIONAL APPEARANCE
The Kats have earned berths in the NCAA tournament four of the past six years, representing the Southland Conference three years in a row in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Twice, SHSU has knocked off No. 1 seeds in the first round of the playoffs, defeating Oklahoma 5-1 in Austin in 1987 and knocking off Miami of Florida (the No. 2 team in the country) 5-4 in Austin in 1996. Sam Houston also held leads against host Texas and UCLA before losing in the 1996 regional.
Sam Houston's best regional performance came at Ole Miss in 2007 when the Bearkats bounced back to defeat Troy 5-4 and Southern Mississippi 12-11 (in 11 innings) to meet host Mississippi in the finals.
CINDERELLA BEARKATS
With a first-year head coach, only three returning starters and 16 newcomers on the 35-man roster, the Bearkats were predicted to be a middle-of-the-pack team in the Southland Conference this spring.
New head coach David Pierce directed the Bearkats to their first Southland Conference regular season baseball championship in 23 years. For the first time in program history, the Bearkats earned national rankings in each of the major college baseball polls, climbing as high as No. 20 in one poll.
Sam Houston enters the NCAA tournament 38-20. Only in 1987 (44-18) and 2007 (40-24) have the Kats won more contests as an NCAA Division I baseball program.
The year started with a weekend series win over San Diego and the Kats went on to take best-of-three series with UC-Riverside and 10 of their 11 Southland foes. The Bearkats were tough under pressure, going 12-1 in one-run contests in 2012.
SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE REGULAR SEASON CHAMPIONS
The Bearkats won 10 of their 11 weekend Southland Conference series with three sweeps among those series victories.
The 38-20 regular season record included victories over Rice, Dallas Baptist, San Diego, Louisiana-Monroe, Prairie View and UT-Arlington (other teams that received NCAA bids). The Kats are 6-10 against teams in the NCAA Baseball Championship.
Beginning March 23 with a three-game sweep of preseason Southland favorite Texas State, Sam Houston won 13 straight games, the longest baseball winning streak in the program's 26 seasons at the NCAA Division I level.
Sam Houston was the No. 1 seed at the 2012 Southland Conference tournament, their highest tournament seed ever.
DAVID PIERCE SOUTHLAND BASEBALL COACH-OF-THE -YEAR
In his first season as the Bearkats' head coach, David Pierce has direced Sam Houston State to its second Southland Conference regular season championship. SHSU had not won the Southland regular season since 1989. Pierce was honored as 2012 Southland Conference "Coach of the Year."
Pierce was the pitching coach for nine years for a Rice Owl team that has been one of the best in college baseball. In his last five years at Rice, the pitching staff was ranked in the top 30 in the NCAA in staff ERA, including a No. 4 national mark in 2007.
EIGHT BEARKATS SELECTED ALL-SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE
Third baseman Kevin Miller (Jr., Pearland) and designated hitter Anthony Azar (Soph., The Woodlands) are first team All-Southland Conference selections this season. Pitcher Caleb Smith (Soph., Huntsville) is a second team honoree. Outfi elder Jake Arrington (Sr., Gunter) and pitcher Michael Oros (Sr., Kingwood) have been named to the all-league third team. Outfi elders Luke Plucheck (So., Tomball) and Colt Atwood (Fr., Katy) and pitcher Justin Jackson (Sr., Magnolia) are honorable mention all-league selections.
TWO BEARKATS WERE MEMBERS OF 2009 NCAA TEAM
Only two members of the 2012 team played for the 2009 Bearkat squad that won the Southland Conference post-season tournament and advanced to the NCAA Regional in Houston. Jordan Bunch, now a relief pitcher, was a reserve infielder and Justin Jackson was a pitcher on the 2009 squad. Both are in their senior seasons now.
SHSU AT SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
Sam Houston lost to A&M-Corpus Christi 9-2, marking the fourth time in the past five years the No. 8 seed has knocked off the regular season champion in the first round.
Sam Houston fought back in the loser's bracket, defeating McNeese State 7-1 and avenging the loss to A&M-Corpus Christi 4-3. No. 4 seed UT-Arlington used a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to end the tournament for SHSU in a 7-6 thriller.
UT-Arlington went on the win the tournament title, the eighth time in the event's history for the No. 4 seed to win (more than any other seed). Three of Sam Houston's four Southland Conference tournament championships came as the league's No. 4 seed (1996, 2007 and 2008).
BEARKATS A BALANCED TEAM
Sam Houston State rolled to the 2012 regular season championship with a balanced attack that featured strong hitting, pitching and defense.
The Bearkats lead the Southland Conference in hitting (.295), are second in team fielding (.972) and third in earned run average (3.42).
Not a power hitting team (the team's total of 16 home runs ranks ninth in the Southland), Sam Houston has produced a league hit 574 total hits and is one of only four teams in the conference to score more than 300 runs.
MULTIPLE HIT GAMES
Sam Houston batters have produced 160 multiple hit games this season. The most hits in one game by a Kat batter this season has been four accomplished twice by Anthony Azar and Kevin Miller and once by Ryan O'Hearn.
WALK-OFF VICTORIES
Sam Houston won four games on walk-off plays this season. Luke Plucheck's walk-off single provided the Kats a 3-2 win over San Diego. Anthony Azar had a walk-off single to win 9-8 over Houston Baptist and a game-ending home run in the Kats' tournament win over A&M-Corpus Christi. Ryan O'Hearn's RBI single powered SHSU to a 3-2 win over Southeastern Louisiana. The Bearkats also earned a victory over A&M-Corpus Christi in the regular season weekend seasons with a walk-off balk.
COACH DAVID PIERCE SAYS
"The most gratifying thing about this year's squad is the way the whole group has come together and become a team," first-year head coach David Pierce said. "There are no superstars on this team. We can't aff ord to lean on just one or two guys every game and expect to win. Everyone has to be ready to step up and that's what they've done. This is a group with a lot of goals and winning the regular season conference title is just one. There is a lot of baseball still to play.
"When you have a young team like ours it's important to have good leaders and that is what we've gotten from our seniors," Pierce said. The 2012 seniors are catcher John Hale, pitchers Jordan Bunch, Michael Oros and Justin Jackson and outfielder Jake Arrington.
"Those five guys have been a big factor in pulling things together and coordinating the young and the old," Pierce said. "We've had some youngsters who have made some freshmen mistakes and sometimes we've had to pull them back and talk about not trying to make extraordinary plays but play the game one pitch at a time and enjoy themselves.
"We've battled through some injuries. It was really big to get (catcher) John Hale and (designated hitter) Anthony Azar back. During the first half of May we had to switch our lineup around with those two sidelined. But we did a good job of guys stepping in. That's been the beauty of this team."
SAM HOUSTON'S NCAA HISTORY
The Bearkats stand 5-12 in their six NCAA Division I Baseball Championship appearances. Sam Houston's best regional finish came in 2007 at the Oxford regional when the Bearkats reached the finals. SHSU came from behind in both loser's bracket games for a 5-4 win over Troy and an 12-11 victory over Southern Mississippi in 11 innings.
The Kats trailed 3-0 against Troy and were down 7-1 against Southern Mississippi. Bobby Verbick's two-out walk-off double was the game-winner in the second game. Sam Houston pulled two impressive upsets in regional tournaments in Austin.
The 1987 team, in their first NCAA Division I championships game, knocked off No. 1 seeded Oklahoma 5-1.
Nine years late, the 1996 Bearkats upset No. 1 Miami 5-4. The Hurricanes came into the regional ranked as the nation's No. 2 team. Sam Houston also held leads against Texas and UCLA in the 1996 regional.
Tickets now available for Houston Regional
Tickets are currently on sale for the Houston Regional, which will be held at Reckling Park at Rice. Currently, all-session tickets are available for $65 each and can be bought at Riceowls.com or by calling the ticket office at (713) 522-6957.
NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament - Houston Regional
Reckling Park, Houston
Friday's schedule
Game 1: No. 2 seed Arkansas vs. No. 3 seed Sam Houston, 1 p.m.
Game 2: No. 1 seed Rice vs. No. 4 seed Prairie View A&M, 6 p.m.
Saturday's schedule
Game 3: Elimination game between Game 1 and Game 2 losers, 1 p.m.
Game 4: Winner's bracket contest between Game 1 and 2 winners, 6 p.m.
Sunday's schedule
Game 5: Elimination game between Game 3 winner and Game 4 loser, 1 p.m.
Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 6 p.m.
If game 5 winner defeats game 4 winner, as necessary game scheduled Monday
