Kats begin final series Thursday versus Lamar
5/13/2015 7:41:00 PM | Baseball
Sam Houston and Lamar meet in the final regular season Southland Conference baseball series for both teams Thursday through Saturday at Don Sanders Stadium in Huntsville.
The games will be played at 6:30 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday. Lamar enters the series at 20-30 on the season and 9-18 in league play while Sam Houston is battling for a top seed in the league tournament with a 27-25 overall and 16-11 in Southland play.
The series marks the final appearances at Don Sanders for several Bearkat seniors.
Outfield Colt Atwood comes into the weekend chasing one more record. Atwood has totaled 286 career hits that last four years. He stands six hits away from breaking Braeden Riley's school mark of 291 set in 2008-11. Atwood already has established Sam Houston records for most games played, most starts and most at bats.
Other seniors (and their career batting or pitching statistics) are Alex Bisacca (7-2, 2.38 ERA), Ryan Farney (.277, 43 RBIs), Andrew Godail (12-12, 2.95 ERA), Derrick Hadley (0-0, 4.50 ERA), Travis Lee (.286, 24 RBIs), Jake MacWilliam (.344, 25 RBIs), Wyatt Powell (.209, 5 RBIs) and Hayden Simerly (.266, 99 RBIs). Another senior, Shea Pierce, has missed the 2015 season with an injury.
Currently in fifth place coming into the Lamar series, Sam Houston still has the opportunity to improve its position before heading to Constellation Field, home of the Sugar Land Skeeters, for the Southland Tournament next week.
Northwestern State (19-7) ranks second and Nicholls and McNeese State (both 17-10) are tied for third place with 17-10 marks. Sam Houston is in fifth place with a 16-11 mark. Both Nicholls and McNeese are on the road as the Colonels travel to face Northwestern State while the Cowboys will be in Conway against sixth place Central Arkansas (14-13).
Lamar enters the weekend in 12th place with no hopes for a tournament berth.
The top eight finishers in the regular season final standings (excluding Abilene Christian and Incarnate Word) earn berths in the Southland Tournament. The event decides which team advances to the NCAA Regionals.
Newcomers Stijn van der Meer and Jake Nash lead Lamar with batting averages of .332 and .331, respectively.
MacWilliam tops the Kats' with a .371 batting average. Spence Rahm is hitting .306 and Travis Lee is .301. Rahm is the team's leader and ranks fifth in the league with 36 RBI, he also is the team's frontrunner at 31 runs scored.
