HAMMOND, La. – The Sam Houston Bearkats stayed alive in emphatic fashion at the Southland Conference Tournament on Friday morning, blasting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 14-2, in seven innings at Pat Kenelly Diamond.
The Bearkats now advance to take on top-seeded Abilene Christian on Friday at 4:00 p.m. Sam Houston will need to defeat the Wildcats twice in the next two days to advance to Saturday night's tournament championship game.
The Kats (28-24) scored five times in the first inning and had a 10-0 lead after just three frames, which was more than enough for freshman
Coltin Atkinson, who struck out six Islanders without a walk in going the distance to up his record to 7-1 on the season.
Sam Houston hit three homers in the game and finished with 14 hits, starting with
Jack Rogers' 3-run homer in the top of the first that put SHSU out in front.
Blake Faecher and
Jackson Loftin added 2-run homers later in the game.
Trent Touchet and
Wes Folse joined Rogers with 3-hit games, while Faecher finished with three RBI.
Colton Cowser reached base in three of his four plate appearances and had a 2-run double.
Folse's 2-run double in the first inning capped that scoring, and Faecher's homer came one inning later. Cowser's 2-run double got the lead to double digits in the third and the Kats put up four more in the sixth before AMCC was finally able to get on the board with a 2-run homer by Mike Williams.
