Postseason on the line for Kats vs HBU
5/3/2018 4:54:00 PM | Softball
Game 51
May 4 • 3:00 pm • Huntsville • Bearkat Softball Complex
Sam Houston State (19-31, 10-14 Southland) vs Houston Baptist (9-31, 6-18 Southland)
Live Stats • @BearkatsSB on Twitter
Game 52
May 4 • 5:00 pm • Huntsville • Bearkat Softball Complex
Sam Houston State (19-31, 10-14 Southland) vs Houston Baptist (9-31, 6-18 Southland)
Live Stats • @BearkatsSB on Twitter
Game 53
May 5 • 12:00 pm • Huntsville • Bearkat Softball Complex
Sam Houston State (19-31, 10-14 Southland) vs Houston Baptist (9-31, 6-18 Southland)
Live Stats • @BearkatsSB on Twitter
HUNTSVILLE – The Sam Houston State Bearkat softball team will close out the 2018 regular season this weekend and try to earn a berth into the Southland Conference Tournament when it hosts Houston Baptist beginning with a doubleheader on Friday at the Bearkat Softball Complex.
Live stats will also be available for each game and fans can get updates as they happen by following @BearkatsSB on Twitter.
It is a big weekend for the Bearkats for multiple reasons, beginning with Sam Houston's quest for a postseason berth in the Southland Conference Tournament. The Kats sit one game behind Lamar for the final spot in the tournament with three games to go, and need to move ahead of the Cardinals in the standings due to the Cardinals owning the direct tie-breaker between the teams.
This weekend Lamar visits league-leading Nicholls for three games and can clinch a spot in the tournament with a series win. A Bearkat sweep of HBU along with LU dropping at least two games at Nicholls would put the Kats in the field. The Kats can also get in by winning just two of three this weekend, pending the Cardinals are swept by the Colonels.
The series will also be the final weekend at the Bearkat Softball Complex for head coach Bob Brock, who is retiring at the end of the 2018 season. A Sam Houston State graduate himself, he has served as the program's head coach for 17 seasons and is the school's all-time leader in victories. A 2016 inductee into the NFCA Hall of Fame, he has collected more than 1,100 wins at the collegiate level and was the head coach at Texas A&M when the Aggies claimed national titles in 1982, 1983 and 1987.
The Kats will also take time to honor its two-member senior class of Samantha Belongia and Katie Andrie prior to Saturday's series finale.
Sam Houston was in good position to qualify for the eight-team league tournament until a recent swoon that has seen the Kats drop five in a row entering the HBU series. They found themselves in a similar position a year ago before sweeping the Huskies to earn a berth in last year's league tournament.
They will likely have to follow the right arm of pitching ace Lindsey McLeod who comes into this weekend chasing a record of her own. The junior has punched out an SLC-best 185 hitters this season and needs 15 more to tie, and 16 to break Brandi Crnkovic's single-season school record of 200 strikeouts set in the 2007 season. She has struck out no less than seven hitters in each of her last four starts and has sat down at least 10 on strikes six times this season.
Freshman Brooke Malia has will also be going after a Bearkat single-season record as well. She is currently tied with three-time SLC Player of the Year Erika Piancastelli for the league lead with 16 doubles this season and needs one more to tie Joanna Graham's 1988 school record of 17 two-baggers.
Meanwhile, the Huskies are playing out their schedule this weekend and will be looking for their first series win in the league since taking two of three at ACU in late March. They dropped the opening two games of each of their last two series against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Northwestern State, winning the finale of each series.
