CORPUS CHRISTI – Sam Houston State baseball has been red-hot offensively. On Saturday, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders found a way to halt it – for now.
The Bearkats fell 2-1 from Chapman Field, setting the stage for Sunday's 1 p.m. rubber match. The loss overshadowed a complete-game performance from Heath Donica.
“We just weren't very good offensively tonight,” second-year head coach Matt Deggs said. “Tip your cap to their guy. He pitched us extremely tough. We're going to come out tomorrow and be better offensively. We had a lot of early outs and balls in the air; that is a recipe for not being successful.”
The loss was just the second in the last 19 Southland Conference games for Sam Houston. The squad entered the day atop the league in batting average at .311 in conference games but mustered just one hit between the bottom five players in the batting order.
The Bearkats (30-18, 18-5 SLC) appeared primed to turn it around in the ninth as Zach Smith led off the frame with a home run over the right field wall, his fifth of the season, and pinch hitter Matt Broadbent reached on a walk but the Kats couldn't manage any more.
“I was just swinging as hard as I could trying to get on base,” Smith said. “We'll be alright. We've been training since the fall for this. We've been to the rock bottom and we came all the way back up. We're not afraid to crash and burn. We're going to play as hard as we can, as fast as we can.”
The Islanders (16-30, 5-18 SLC) broke it open in the seventh, using an errant throw to third base on a bunt to score two runners. Sam Houston was able to prevent further damage as the Bearkats turned a 6-3 double play with Islanders' runners on the corners.
In the fourth, the Islanders put their first two runners aboard, bringing up the heart of the order but Donica clamped down. The right-hander recorded a strikeout then Hunter Hearn made a sensational running catch in right field. A grounder to Andrew Fregia ended the threat.
Sam Houston put a man on base in every inning except the fourth but was victim of three double-play balls. In the eighth, the Bearkats put runners on second and third with one out after Rojas was hit by the pitch and Taylor Beene reached second on a two-base error.
However, starter Devin Skapura (3-7) buckled down, recording a strikeout and inducing a flyout to left to end the threat. The right-hander scattered seven hits, allowing one run while striking out five and permitting two walks in nine innings.
For the Bearkats, Donica (8-3) permitted just four hits in eight innings, allowing two unearned runs. The junior struck out six and allowed two walks.
“Heath's been really good all year,” Deggs said. “I thought he was outstanding again tonight. We'd like to have one play back. We didn't finish a bunt play. That wasn't what did us in. We did ourselves in offensively. I thought we played really good defensively and pitched really well. We never were able to get anything done offensively.”
Sam Houston has seven games remaining on the league schedule and is two games back of league-leader Southeastern Louisiana, who defeated Lamar on Saturday. The Bearkats will seek a seventh-straight conference series win in the finale.
“We're going two down with Southeastern winning against Lamar but you never know what can happen,” Deggs said. “We're going to come back tomorrow ready to get after it.”
