THIBODAUX, La. – Sam Houston split a pair of games at Nicholls on Saturday at Ray E. Didier Field.
With the results, including winning three of four games in the series, the Bearkats have secured the No. 5 seed in the upcoming Southland Conference Tournament. The Kats will play No. 4 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the opening round in Hammond, La., at 9:00 a.m.
The other half of the bracket includes No. 1 Abilene Christian and No. 8 Lamar.
Game 1
Sam Houston 5, Nicholls 4 (7 innings)
A pair of fifth-inning home runs by
Anthony MacKenzie and
Colton Cowser proved to be just enough late offense for the Bearkats to hold on for their third win of the series.
Coltin Atkinson stayed perfect in Southland play and moved to 5-1 on the year with 5.0 innings of work, not allowing an earned run or a walk and striking out three. He then handed it over to
Lance Lusk who tossed the final 2.0 innings for his seventh save of the year, striking out the side in the seventh.
Sam Houston had just five hits, two coming from
Jack Rogers, but saw three of its hits go for extra bases, including each homer in the deciding fifth inning.
An RBI double by Rogers in the opening frame got the Kats out in front, but Nicholls immediately took advantage of a Bearkat miscue and tied it up on an RBI single from Dillon Belle in the bottom half of the inning.
Mason Schulz led off the second inning with a walk and worked his way around to score despite the Kats not getting a hit, scoring on a Nicholls error. But Belle got the Colonels back to even in the third and two batters later Greg Anderberg put them ahead 3-2 with an RBI single.
The lead stayed right there until MacKenzie led off the third with his second home run of the season. Three batters later Cowser got in on the action, crushing his 14
th homer of the season, a 2-run shot, over the right-center field fence to surge the Kats up 5-3.
Atkinson did his part and kept the Kats out in front on the mound, eventually handing it over to Lusk. The righty navigated an easy sixth, but ran into issues in the seventh when the Colonels got consecutive hits to open it up. Nicholls would push one across, but Lusk was able to dial up consecutive strikeouts, to keep the tying run stranded on second base.
Game 2
Nicholls 5, Sam Houston 4 (11 innings)
Sam Houston was in position to sweep the series until a late run by the Colonels, followed by an extra-inning run to give Nicholls its only win of the weekend.
The Kats held a 4-3 lead entering the ninth before Dillon Belle delivered a 2-out RBI single to extend the game to extra innings. Then, in the 11
th, Wes Toups finished it off with a single to right field.
Despite four strikeouts in just 2.0 innings,
Cole Wesneski took the loss in just 2.0 innings of work. Tyler Theriot was the winning pitcher with 1.0 innings himself.
Rogers got the Kats on the board in the third when he launched his 11
th home run of the season on over the right-field fence, but the Colonels were able to immediately answer with a run in the bottom half of the inning on a single by Austin Cain.
Nicholls surged in front on a leadoff homer by Wes Toups to open the fourth, but the lead did not last long as the Kats rallied in the fifth and got a key 2-run single by Rogers with two outs in the sixth to go back up 3-2.
A Colonel single and a Bearkat error helped Nicholls tie it back up in the bottom of the sixth, and that held up until Rogers struck again in the top of the eighth. The Bearkat left fielder put the Kats in front when he took his second home run of the game out to right field, putting Sam Houston back in front 4-3.
All looked well until the ninth when the Colonels were down to their last strike; but, Dillon Belle singled to left field to bring home Cain to tie it up and send things to extra innings.
Things were still all squared until the Colonels were able to take advantage of the third Bearkat error of the game in the 11
th. The miscue put the leadoff man on and a second error on a sacrifice try set things up for Toups who singled to right field to end the game.
