SUGAR LAND – Since the start of the season, Sam Houston State baseball head coach Matt Deggs has glanced over at a printed 2015 Southland Conference Tournament bracket that sits leaning up on the white board in his office, showing Houston Baptist as the champions.
Written in sharpie at the top of the bracket in all upper-case letters is written, “WE WILL WIN THIS!!!” Three hundred and sixty two days after the Bearkats watched the Huskies win the title, their chance came – and they took it.
The Bearkats defeated Southeastern Louisiana, 7-4, to win the Southland Conference Tournament title and the league's automatic bid to a regional on Sunday afternoon, becoming the first team is school history to win both the Southland regular season and postseason championship.
Now, Sam Houston awaits Monday's NCAA Tournament selection show, airing at 11 a.m. on ESPNU, knowing that their name will be called.
As was the case throughout the season, the Bearkats (41-20) did not make it easy for themselves. The squad fell behind 4-0 in the third inning when Southeastern Louisiana's Jameson Fisher, the league's most valuable player, belted a grand slam over the right field wall.
Instead of dwell, they responded – immediately. Sam Houston scored one run in the bottom half of the frame on a two-out double from freshman Clayton Harp, who was swinging away on a 3-1 count. The shot to right center scored Taylor Beene, who was hit by a pitch.
One inning later, they tied the game at four behind three hits and a pair of Southeastern Louisiana (39-19) errors. With Zach Smith (single) and Jaxxon Grisham (walk) aboard with one out, Robie Rojas singled to left center. The Lions' left fielder Ryan Byers fielded the ball on a pair of hops making a throw to the plate that was cut off third baseman Derrick Mount with Zach Smith crossing the plate.
“We've never made anything easy for us all year,” Rojas said. “We just know coach Deggs has put it in us that we're never out of fight. We could be down 15, and we're still going to fight back. [Jameson Fisher] put a good piece on the ball, so we just knew we had to scrap. We had plenty of game left.”
Cetodal fired an errant throw into second, in an attempt to get Rojas, and the ball slipped away into the outfield, plating a head-first sliding Grisham to make the deficit 4-3. One batter later, Hunter Hearn tied the game with a single into left on a 0-2 pitch.
“We were down and out for a while,” second-year head coach Matt Deggs said. “The most powerful force on earth is redemption and second chance, and we got new life about the middle of the season, and we made the most of it. And that's the best honor you can give somebody is when you're down, they get back up and come back swinging.”
In the sixth, the Bearkats took the lead for good, as Rojas doubled to right center with one out, scoring Grisham all the way from first. The catcher, who led all at his position in the tournament with four runners thrown out, scored on consecutive wild pitches.
Seeking insurance in the eighth, the Kats found it on a sacrifice squeeze bunt, scoring Grisham who walked and stole second base before moving to third on a failed pickoff attempt. Taylor Beene was successful in executing the sacrifice bunt, doing so on the first pitch of his at-bat.
"[The grand slam] can knock the breath out of you for sure, and it did,” Deggs said. “It knocked the wind out of us. It took about 30 minutes to recover from it, and we were right back. We were back to grinding, chipped a run away, and then we're able to have that big inning the next inning to tie that thing up.”
On the mound, Miles Manning, Hayden Nixon and Riley Gossett combined to hold the Lions scoreless over the final six frames. Nixon, a senior, moved to 4-2, recording the win, holding Southeastern off the board in 1 1-3 innings. Starter Greg Belton, who played a key role in getting the Kats to the title, permitted four runs in three innings, making his fifth start and first since May 15.
Sam Houston right-handed starter Heath Donica was named Southland Conference Tournament Most Valuable Player, becoming the fifth Bearkat to do so, after boasting a 2.25 ERA in 16 innings, including Saturday's semifinals elimination-game start on two days rest in which he no-hit Stephen F. Austin through the first eight innings.
Second baseman Lance Miles, Smith and Rojas were also named to the 11-member all-tournament team. In five games, the trio helped Sam Houston hit .296 as a team. After starting its season 6-12, Sam Houston won 35 of its final 43 games to advance to its 10th NCAA Regional with seven coming since 2007.
“Our fall was a grind,” Beene said. “This [championship] is what was on our minds, and what we were going for. Waking up at 6:30, this is what we wanted, and we went to go get it and accomplish it.”
