HAMMOND, La. – The Sam Houston Bearkats tied things up in the top of the ninth, but Texas A&M-Corpus Christi walked things off in the bottom of the ninth for a 4-3 win in the opening round of the Southland Conference Tournament at Pat Kennelly Diamond at Alumni Field.
Down 3-0 entering the ninth,
Blake Faecher tied things up with a 3-run homer off of Islander (25-27) reliever Jaime Ramirez, but the Islanders went right back to work in bottom half with all-SLC third baseman Itchy Burts playing the role of hero with a walk-off RBI single with two outs in the inning.
The loss drops the Kats (26-24) into the elimination portion of the bracket and into a 9:00 a.m. game on Thursday against the loser of No. 1 Abilene Christian and No. 8 Lamar.
Dominic Robinson kept the Kats in it with 7.0 strong innings, striking out four and allowing just two runs on five hits, but it was not enough to counter Islander (25-27) starter John Gaddis.
The AMCC lefty was nearly untouchable in his 7.0 shutout innings, striking out 13 with only three singles and one walk allowed for his sixth victory of the year.
He got a run in the second on a single by Leo Markotic and two innings later Markotic struck again with a solo homer to up the lead to 2-0.
The Kats, however, were unable to muster much offensively to make up the runs. The best chance came in the top of the eighth against the Islander bullpen with
Anthony MacKenzie and
Colton Cowser each reaching base with two outs; however, Itchy Burts made a diving stop to rob
Jack Rogers of extra bases, ending the inning and keeping SHSU off the board.
Josh Caraway got one more on the board for AMCC to lead off the eighth with a solo homer, an important run as SHSU got the first two batters of the ninth inning on with walks to
Trent Touchet and
Christian Smith. That set the stage for Faecher who launched his second homer of the season over the center field fence to tie it up.
