Tayler Atkinson hurled a one-hit shutout and three Bearkats each posted a pair of hits to lead Sam Houston to an 8-0 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Chapman Field Saturday afternoon.
The win earned the Sam women their second consecutive Southland Conference series victory as the Kats took two of the three games in Corpus Christi this weekend. The pair split on Friday with Sam Houston winning the opener 7-1 and falling in the nightcap 1-0 in extra innings.
The Bearkats now have won seven of their last nine games to up their season record to 14-23 and stand 6-9 in Southland Conference play. The Islanders dropped to 13-23 for the year and 3-12 in the league.
“We're playing like we knew we could,” Sam Houston head coach Bob Brock said. “We had our opportunities to win the second game yesterday and get the sweep, but all-in-all this has been a good weekend for us. We got a tremendous efforts in the circle from both Lindsey McLeod and Tayler Atkinson.”
Atkinson was Saturday as she pitched the 26th one-hitter in the 37-year history of the Bearkat softball program. The junior right-hander retired 16 of the first 17 batters she faced. The only baserunner for the Islanders reached on an error. A&M-Corpus Christi picked up its only hit of the day with one out in the bottom of the sixth. The Kats retired the next two batters to pick up the run-rule win.
Atkinson also was the winner in Sam Houston's 7-1 victory in the opening game of the series Friday. McLeod blanked the Islanders for eight innings in a 1-0 loss in Friday's nightcap.
Third baseman Breanna Homer, second baseman Dani Allen and shortstop Tiffany Castillo each posted two hits and an RBI in the victory. Homer extended her current hitting streak to five games and went 6-for-11 this weekend in Corpus Christi.
Outfielder Bailey Watson got the Kats started quickly with a first inning lead-off single. After advancing to second on an Allen single she scored on an error, the first of four by the Islanders Saturday.
Homer's two-run single to center field and a tally by first baseman Codi Carpenter on an error put the Kats up 3-0 after two innings. Sam Houston added three more in the top of the fifth inning on back-to-back doubles by Allen and Homer.
Next for Sam Houston is a non-conference doubleheader at UTSA in San Antonio Wednesday. The Bearkats return home for their next Southland series Friday and Saturday, April 15-16, against Houston Baptist. The Huskies and the Kats duel in a 3 p.m. doubleheader on Friday and complete the series with a 3 p.m. single game Saturday.
