Southland Title On Line This Weekend
5/9/2012 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
The series begins Friday at 6:30 p.m. The two teams also will play Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
Sam Houston State enters the weekend with a 20-7 Southland record, three games ahead of the second place Lions who stand 17-10. Only six games remain for both teams in the 2012 regular season.
Third place UT-Arlington (16-11), also still in the title hunt after taking two-of-three from SHSU last weekend in Arlington, plays at McNeese State this weekend.
The Bearkats end the regular season with a trip to Central Arkansas Thursday, May 17 through Saturday, May 19.
While the Kats have earned four NCAA regional playoff berths with Southland tournament titles in 1996, 2007, 2008 and 2009, Sam Houston has not hoisted a Southland regular season championship trophy since their second year in the league in 1989.
SHSU baseball finished as Southland runners-up in 1990, 1991 and 1994. But the Bearkats have not finished higher than fourth place in the league since 1998. Sam Houston won tournament titles as the fourth seed in 1997, 2007 and 2008 and the seventh seed in 2009.
Ranked as high as No. 20 this year, Sam Houston currently stands No. 29 in the College Baseball Writers Association poll and No. 48 in the NCAA Division I RPI ratings with a 32-15 overall season mark.
The Bearkats lead the Southland Conference with a .294 team batting average, are second in the league in defense with a team fielding mean of .970 and stand third in team pitching with a staff earned run average of 3.46.
Southeastern Louisiana leads the Southland in defense (.975) and is second in team ERA (3.33). The Lions rank sixth in hitting with a .274 team batting average.
Infielder Brock Hebert is the league's hitting leader with a .400 batting average that includes 19 doubles, two triples and two home runs.
Third baseman Kevin Miller owns a .337 batting average for the Bearkats.
Following the weekend series with Southeastern Louisiana, Sam Houston will wrap up their 2012 home schedule with a non-conference game against the No. 6 ranked Rice Owls Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Don Sanders Stadium.
The 2012 Southland Conference baseball post-season tournament will be held Wednesday, May 23 through Saturday, May 26 in San Marcos.
Tickets for all four remaining Sam Houston State baseball home games are available on line now at www.gobearkats.com/tickets or at the SHSU 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 is (936) 294-1729.
