HAMMOND, La. – Only hours after run-ruling Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the Sam Houston Bearkat bats were even hotter in the evening hours, but they had to hold on to take down top-seeded Abilene Christian, 14-12, to move on to the final day of the Southland Conference Tournament at Pat Kenelly Diamond.
The win pushes Sam Houston (29-24) into an if-necessary game vs ACU (36-20) on Saturday at either 9:00 a.m., or 1:00 p.m., pending the result of Friday night's game between Southeastern Louisiana and McNeese on the other side of the bracket.
Sam Houston tied a school record and was just one home run shy of tying a SLC Tournament record with five home runs, getting two apiece from
Jack Rogers and
Blake Faecher and one from
Mason Schulz.
Still, the Kats were just one run away from ending the game in run-rule fashion in the seventh, only to see ACU score seven times in the eighth inning to draw to within two runs before the Kats were able to hold in with
Lance Lusk nailing down a save with a scoreless ninth.
Matt Dillard got the win, making the early lead hold up through 5.2 innings, allowing just three unearned runs until a 2-run homer by ACU's Hunter Gieser in the sixth inning that cut the lead to 13-5.
Genner Cervantes was the losing pitcher for ACU, allowing 10 runs on nine hits in 2.1 innings to fall to 7-2 on the year.
Offensively, Rogers finished 3-for-4 with five RBI and now has four home runs for the tournament. Faecher is right there with him, going 3-for-5 with his third and fourth homers f the tournament, finishing with four RBI of his own.
Schulz also had an RBI triple to go with his homer and finished with three RBI, while
Gavin Johnson had three hits and a pair of RBI.
The Kats put up 10 runs in the first two innings on homers from Rogers, Faecher and Schulz, along with a 2-run single by Johnson and an RBI triple from Schulz.
The lead had risen to 13-3 on the strength of a solo homer from Faecher, his second of the game, to lead off the fourth and a 2-run shot by Rogers in the fifth.
Gieser's homer brought it back to 13-5, but Rogers' fifth RBI of the game made it 14-5 in the seventh. He made it all the way around to third base, just 90 feet away from closing things out, but ACU reliever Owen Cuffe was able to get a big strikeout of
Blake Faecher to extend the game and the ACU offense thanked him for it.
Brett Hammit got one back on the first pitch of the inning and a 2-run single by Colton Eager made it 14-8. Bearkat reliever
Cole Wesneski then got the ground ball he needed to get out of the inning, but the fourth error of the game by the SHSU defense allowed a run to score and extended the inning. One batter later Gieser blasted a 3-run homer out to left field that cut the lead to 14-12.
Sam Houston had a chance to re-extend the lead in the bottom half, but left the bases loaded. The Kats then turned to Lusk who retired the first two hitters he faced before Grayson Tatrow singled to bring the tying run to the plate. That brought up Eager, but Lusk was able to get him to fly out harmlessly to center field to close out his eighth save of the year.
