HUNTSVILLE – Dominic Robinson set a new career high in strikeouts for the second consecutive start, but Houston Baptist was able to keep the Sam Houston State bats silent for the second straight night as the Huskies clinched the series with a 3-1 win on Saturday afternoon at Don Sanders Stadium.
Robinson took a no-decision after tossing 5.2 innings against the Huskies (5-10, 2-0 SLC), striking out 10 hitters one week after also setting a career high one week ago with nine at Louisiana. But the Kats (6-7, 0-2 SLC) once again struggled to get much going on the offensive side of things, finishing with just four hits against a pair of HBU arms.
Kyle Gruller picked up his first win of the season for the Huskies, despite allowing all four Bearkat hits and walking four in his 6.2 innings of work. He then handed it off to Andrew Reitmeyer who struck out a pair in 2.1 perfect innings for his first save of the season.
The Kats got a second-straight clean inning from
Kyle Backhus, but it was
Garrett Egli who was saddled with the loss, allowing a pair of unearned runs on three hits in his 2.1 innings of relief.
HBU had just six hits of their own, but they were able to get on the board first in the third inning on an RBI grounder from first baseman Johnny Gonzales. Sam Houston had chances in each of the first two innings, but stranded four runners in the first two frames against Gruller before evening it up in the fourth inning.
They were able to take advantage of a leadoff walk by
Bryce Holmes when
Corbin Vines smacked an RBI single into right-center field with two outs to tie it up at 1-1.
The teams put up matching zeros in the fifth and sixth, but a leadoff single by Nathan Soriano quickly put the wheels in motion for the Huskies. A wild pitch and a bunt pushed Soriano to third and the Kats chose to intentionally walk Gonzales with a base open, but Todd Jackson made the Kats pay for that decision with a sure single to center field that surged HBU up 2-1.
SHSU had a chance to immediately answer when
Gavin Johnson led off the bottom half of the inning with a single and pinch runner
Jackson Loftin was advance to second on a sacrifice bunt. But Gruller responded with a strikeout of
Anthony MacKenzie before HBU head coach Jared Moon went to the pen for Reitmeyer. The righty promptly coaxed a ground ball out of
Colton Cowser to end the threat and went on to retire each of the next six hitters he faced to end it.
The Kats will now look to salvage a game in the series on Sunday when they host the Huskies in the finale, beginning at 1:00 p.m. at The Don.
