Islanders Invade For Home Southland Series
4/30/2015 11:17:00 AM | Baseball
Trying to keep pace with conference leader Southeastern Louisiana, the Sam Houston baseball team plays host to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi this weekend in an important Southland series at Don Sanders Stadium.
The action begins Friday at 6:30 p.m. Saturday's first pitch is at 3 p.m. The series finale is Sunday at 1 p.m. Sam Houston has not played at home since Saturday, April 11. The Kats have played their last eight games on the road.
With nine conference tilts remaining on the 2015 schedule, the Kats trail first place Southeastern Louisiana by four games. The Lions own a 17-4 record while Sam Houston stands at 13-8. A&M-Corpus Christi stands in eighth place (10-11) with a two-game lead over ninth place Stephen F. Austin (9-14). The top eight regular season finishers earn berths in the Southland tournament in Sugar Land May 20-23.
Remaining league series for the Bearkats are against sixth place Houston Baptist May 8-10 on the road and at home with 10th place Lamar May 14-16. Southeastern Louisiana plays all three of its final series at home, hosting Lamar this week, third place Central Arkansas the next and ending the regular season with last place New Orleans.
Sam Houston has won 10 of its last 13 games including non-conference victories over Texas and Oklahoma and series victories on Incarnate Word and Abilene Christian. The Kats stand 24-22 for the year.
Versatile infielder Jake McWilliam has the hot bat now for the Sam men. The senior who has started at second base, shortstop and third base owns a .376 batting average and has a nine-game hitting streak going.
Senior center fielder Colt Atwood looks to add to his collection of Bearkat records. His double Tuesday against the Houston Cougars marked his 283rd career hit. The Sam Houston record is 291 hits set by Braden Riley in 2008 through 2011.
Atwood already holds school records for most games played (226), most games started (224) and most career at bats (935).
First baseman Spence Rahm is hitting .311 with 10 doubles and five home runs and right fielder Travis Lee sports a .302 batting mean. Rahm leads the Bearkats with 31 home runs.
Sam Houston will go with the pitching rotation that has been successful during the past several weekends. Andrew Godail (2-5, 2.60 ERA), Logan Boyd (5-3, 3.44 ERA) and Sam Odom (3-4, 3.74 ERA) will start on the mound during the series. Alex Bisacca (5-2, 2.03 ERA) and Jordan Church (2-1, 2.35) have been effective in weekend relief.
The Islanders bring a 20-21 overall record into the series. Outfielder Jordan Lee and shortstop Casey Thomas are A&M-Corpus Christi's top threats at the plate with batting averages of 3.28 and 3.24, respectively.
Matt Danton (3-5, 1.99 ERA), Trevor Belicek (7-3, 2.91 ERA) and Devin Skapura (3-4, 3.97 ERA) are expected to start on the mound for the Islanders on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
A&M-Corpus Christi and Sam Houston met earlier this year when the pair played on Feb. 22 at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi in the TAMUCC Beach Classic. Sam Houston won 9-5 with Rahm leading the way with a 4-for-5 performance at the plate that included four RBIs.
