HOUSTON – The Sam Houston offense came alive on Friday morning as the Bearkats blasted Rice, 12-4, to kick off the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic at Minute Maid Park.
The Kats (2-4) put an end to a 3-game losing skid in resounding fashion, scoring in six separate innings with six hitters finishing with multi-hit games.
Gavin Johnson led everyone with a career-high four RBI on a pair of hits, while
Anthony MacKenzie smashed his first career home run.
In all, Sam Houston finished with a dozen hits and even walked seven times. Three of those free passes came from
Colton Cowser who reached base in five of six trips to the plate, adding a double and a single.
Corbin Vines had his first 3-hit game as a Bearkat, while
Christian Smith had a pair of hits and an RBI.
Jack Rogers also had two hits and two RBI in addition to two runs scored.
All that came in support of starter
Tyler Davis who looked outstanding in his second outing of the year. Davis struck out five and did not walk a batter thru 6.0 innings for his second win of the year, only allowing a pair of runs on a 2-run homer by Guy Galiday in the fourth inning.
Steven Beard and
Lance Lusk came on to throw the final 3.0 frames, striking out a combined five hitters while completing a game that saw the pitching staff go without issuing a free pass.
The Kats did their early damage with two outs against Rice starter Blake Brogdon, striking first on an RBI single by Vines in the top of the second inning and one inning later tacked on two more scores on an RBI double by Rogers and a 2-out single by Johnson.
Galiday's homer in the fourth cut the Bearkat lead to 3-2, but one inning later Johnson struck again, doubling to left field past the outstretched glove of Rice's Austin Bulman to get those runs back and increase the lead to 5-2.
Cowser and Johnson teamed up in the bottom half of the inning to keep the score right there as Johnson picked a Cowser throw from center field on a shorthop to tag out Will Karp at the plate to end an Owl scoring threat.
One inning later MacKenzie added on, blasting a 2-run homer out to left-center field to up the lead to 7-2. After a Rice solo homer in the seventh, Sam Houston put it away with four more runs in the eighth on RBI from
Blake Faecher, Johnson and
Clayton Chadwick.
The Bearkats continue the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. vs No. 10 Texas Tech in the Kats' first meeting with the Red Raiders since the 2017 Lubbock Regional.
Matt Dillard will get the start for SHSU against Texas Tech lefty Patrick Montverde. The game can be watched on AT&T SportsNet as well as Astros.com and MLB.com.
