HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana Lions hit a pair of homers and had three multi-run innings on their way to handing the Sam Houston Bearkats an 11-3 loss at Pat Kennelly Diamond at Alumni Field in the Southland Conference opener for both teams Friday night.
Southeastern (8-4, 1-0 SLC) racked up 13 hits in the game and got homers from Nick Ray and Preston Faulkner to back up starting pitcher Will Kinzeler, a freshman who struck out nine Bearkats (3-7, 0-1 SLC) in 7.1 innings of work for his second win of the year.
The Lions did much of that damage against Bearkat starter
Tyler Davis who allowed seven runs – six earned – on 11 hits in just 3.1 innings, falling to 2-1 on the season.
Offensively,
Gavin Johnson had a pair of hits, including a double and
Colton Cowser hit his first home run of the season, while
Bryce Holmes had an RBI double in the fourth.
A solo homer by Nick Ray got things started for the Lions in the bottom of the second, giving SLU a 1-0 lead; however, the Kats answered just one inning later when
Colton Cowser connected on his first home run of the season, a 2-run shot that vaulted Sam Houston in front 2-1.
The lead was short-lived, though, as SLU surged right back in front with a 3-run third inning. An RBI double by Preston Faulkner tied it up and three batters later Gabby Cruz singled him home to put SLU back up 3-2 and two batters later they got another run on an RBI single by Matt Taylor.
A leadoff double by
Gavin Johnson led off the fourth and an RBI 2-bagger by
Bryce Holmes got him home to trim the lead to 4-3, but the SLU offense did not let up, pushing across three more runs in the bottom half of the inning to increase its lead to 7-3.
The Lions went on to push the lead to 9-3 in the fifth on a 2-run homer from Faulkner and added two more in the seventh.
The teams will now go at it in a doubleheader on Saturday before closing the series out on Sunday. The twinbill is set to begin at 11:00 a.m. with a 7-inning game, followed by a 9-inning game in the nightcap.
Each game on Saturday will be streamed on the Southeastern Sports Network on LionSports.net.
