CONWAY, Ark. – The Sam Houston Bearkats swept both ends of a doubleheder over Central Arkansas on Friday at Bear Stadium, clinching the series with the Bears with one game left to play.
 
The Bearkats (11-13, 8-7 SLC) did it with pitching on a low-scoring day, getting great starts from Dominic Robinson in Game 1 and Matt Dillard in Game 2, while Lance Lusk closed out saves in each game.
 
Sam Houston will go for its first series sweep of the season on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in the finale.
 
Game 1 (7 innings)
Sam Houston 2, Central Arkansas 0
The Bearkats were able to push across two runs in the third and the combination of Robinson and Lusk made them hold up in the first game of the day.
 
A sacrifice fly from Jack Rogers and a solo home run by Colton Cowser were all Sam Houston would need in the game with Robinson going 6.0 shutout innings, allowing only three hits with four strikeouts to go to 2-1 on the season.
 
Lusk followed with a perfect seventh, ending it on just 12 pitches for his second save of the series and fourth of the season.
 
For UCA, Mark Moyer went the distance and struck out eight with both of his runs allowed being unearned. He retired nine out of the next 10 hitters after Cowser's 2-out blast in the third - his seventh homer of the season - and was able to strand a pair of runners in the sixth after Gavin Johnson and Blake Faecher each reached on 2-out singles.
 
Game 2
Sam Houston 3, Central Arkansas 1
Sam Houston's Matt Dillard and Central Arkansas' Tate Busey went toe-to-toe for 6.0 innigns each, but it was the Bearkat bullpen who held up longer in the full 9-inning affair to end the day.
 
Dillard allowed just one run on four hits without a walk, striking out seven Bears to earn his first win of the season; meanwhile, Busey struck out just three in taking his first career loss, but allowed just two runs on three hits.
 
Anthony MacKenzie and Faecher each finished with two hits apiece for the Kats with MacKenzie driving in the game's first run on an RBI ground out in the third, scoring Faecher who had led the inning off with a double.
 
Dillard, meanwhile, was on cruise control through 5.2 innings before Coby Potvin delivered a 2-out double. One batter later UCA's AJ Mendolia lined his second single of the day to left field, scoring Potvin to tie it up at 1-1.
 
The Kats were able to answer back with two runs in the seventh, despite not getting a ball out of the infield. Consecutive walks to Cowser and Trent Touchet opened the inning and a single by Mason Schulz loaded the sacks with nobody out; however, Bear reliever Tyler Cleveland kept the damage at a minimum, striking out Corbin Vines before Clayton Chadwick put the Kats ahead by beating out an infield grounder that scored Cowser. Faecher then picked up an RBI on an infield single to make it a 3-1 game.
 
Sam Houston then turned to the bullpen itself with freshman Logan Hewitt retiring three of the first four hitters he faced before handing things off to Steven Beard who struck out UCA's Connor Emmet and Potvin with a runner on second base to end the eighth.
 
Lusk then entered in the ninth and retired the first two hitters he saw before running into some trouble with a pair of walks; however, he was able to retire Benny Ayala to close out his third save of the series.