HUNTSVILLE – The Sam Houston State baseball team battled back to force extra innings, but Louisiana Tech erupted for six runs in the top of the 10
th inning to pull out a 9-3 win on Tuesday night at Don Sanders Stadium.
The Kats (6-5) trailed 3-1 before scoring twice in the seventh to tie it up, even getting the potential winning run on base in the ninth inning; however, the Bulldogs (10-3) relentless offense finally broke through in the first extra inning of the game as Jorge Corona homered to start things and nine more Tech hitters came to the plate in the inning.
Cole Wesneski had allowed just two hit in 3.0 innings of relief, but was tagged for all six runs in the 10
th in taking the loss. He struck out five in his 4.0 innings and, along with
Garrett Egli, carried the relief load after starter
Jack Rogers who lasted just 3.1 innings with three strikeouts.
Egli tossed 2.2 scoreless innings in his stint as he and Wesneski put up five straight zeros on the board until the final frame.
But the Dogs, led by Steele Netterville's four hits and two RBI, finished the night with 13 hits and took full advantage of 10 free passes issued by Bearkat pitchers.
They got a strong start from lefty Kyle Griffen who struck out six in 6.1 innings, but took a no decision after allowing three runs in the seventh. Casey Ouelette picked up his first career win with 2.2 scoreless relief innings.
Offensively, SHSU finished with just five hits in the game, but managed to bunch them together for their three runs. A single and a stolen base by
Corbin Vines set things up for
Christian Smith to drive him in with an RBI single in the third for a 1-0 lead.
Then, after three runs by Tech in the fourth, the Kats were able to even it up in the seventh when Rogers snapped a streak of 11 straight hitters retired by Griffen with a 1-out double.
Anthony MacKenzie followed that up with an RBI triple to the right-center field gap and then scored on a wild pitch to tie it up at 3-3.
Unfortunately, the Kats had just one more base runner the rest of the way, with that coming on a 1-out walk by
Trent Touchet in the ninth to put the winning run on base. But Ouelette responded by getting key outs of both Rogers and MacKenzie to force extra baseball.
Corona then put the Dogs on top for good with a solo homer on a 3-1 pitch to lead off the 10
th and each of the next three Bulldog hitters followed him by reaching base before Alex Ray tacked on one more with an RBI ground out. Tech then salted it away with three consecutive 2-out RBI hits, the last coming from Netterville to push the count to 9-3.
The Kats will try to split the 2-game midweek series and its own 3-game losing skid on Wednesday in a game that has been pushed up to a 1:00 p.m. first pitch at The Don.
