Matadors visit for three games
3/7/2014 9:57:00 AM | Baseball
The Sam Houston State baseball team hosts Cal State Northridge Friday at 6:30 p.m. for their final three-game weekend series before starting Southland play. The Matadors bring a 6-7 record into Don Sanders Stadium while the No. 20 Bearkats are trying to improve on their 10-3 record after losing two straight.
Righthander Tyler Eppler gets the start to open the series Friday night and will be backed by the SHSU offense that is batting .327 as a team. Freshman Sam Odom will make his second career start Saturday and Dirk Masters will continue the search for his first win on the mound Sunday.
Right fielder Hayden Simerly leads the potent Bearkat offense with a .479 average, nine RBI and nine runs scored. He currently has the Southland lead in hits with 23 through 13 games.
Six other regulars in the SHSU lineup are batting over .300 while two reserve players are also hitting better than .300. Seven different Kats have driven in at least seven runs, led by first baseman Ryan O'Hearn's 12 RBI. Second baseman Ryan Farney and center fielder Colt Atwood have each driven in 10.
Head coach David Pierce will hope his team can clean up the defensive play after Tuesday's 8-5 loss to No. 17 Rice in which the Kats committed five errors and allowed four unearned runs.
Conversely, Cal State Northridge hasn't kicked the ball around much this season. The Matadors have just seven errors all season.
CSUN comes to Don Sanders after dropping a pair of midweek contests to CSU Bakersfield and Loyola Marymount. CSU Northridge dropped Wednesday's game against LMU 12-11 in 13 innings.
Northridge has a solid pitching staff that has compiled a 2.82 team ERA this season even after it rose .61 after Wednesday's loss to LMU. The team is hitting just .239 this season and averaging just over three runs a game.
The weekend series continues Saturday at 12 p.m. and concludes with a contest Sunday at 1 p.m.
