HUNTSVILLE – The Sam Houston Bearkats hit three home runs and got another strong outing from the pitching staff, earning a series split with a 6-3 win over Northwestern State on Sunday afternoon at Don Sanders Stadium.
Colton Cowser hit a pair of home runs and drove in four runs, and
Jack Rogers had a pair of hits, including solo home run to help propel a Bearkat (5-12, 2-6 SLC) offense that finished with nine hits on the day.
Meanwhile, the Bearkat arms continued to show well, with three pitchers combining to strike out 14 Demon (9-9, 4-4 SLC) hitters for the game.
Kyle Backhus tied his career high with seven strikeouts during a 4.1-inning start before handing it over to freshman
Coltin Atkinson in the fifth.
Atkinson went on to throw 3.2 innings of relief, allowing just one run on two hits while striking out six without a walk to earn his first collegiate victory.
Lance Lusk followed that up with a perfect, 9-pitch ninth inning for his first save of the year.
It took the Kats just three hitters to get on the board as both
Easton Loyd and Rogers reached off of Demon starter Reed Michel before Cowser launched an opposite-field, 3-run shot to put the Kats up 3-0.
An error and a pair of walks helped NSU get on the board in the fifth with a pair of runs, but Atkinson managed to limit the damage with strikeouts of both Marshall Skinner and Jeffrey Elkins to keep SHSU ahead 3-2.
Rogers then greeted new Demon pitcher Nick Millsap by launching the first pitch he saw over the left-field fence to get a run back and three batters later
Bryce Holmes got in on the action, tripling off the center field wall to score Cowser and up the lead back to 5-2.
A solo homer by NSU's Tyler Smith made it a 5-3 game in the sixth, but Cowser would answer with his second homer of the day, a solo shot to mark his first career multi-homer game, in the bottom of the seventh to cap the scoring.
The Kats will now look to continue SLC play next weekend when it opens up a 4-game series with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Friday at The Don.
