HAMMOND, La. – The night was supposed to belong to
Kyle Backhus and the Sam Houston Bearkats.
The senior left-hander turned in the game of his Bearkat career, but one swing just two batters into the game turned out to be just enough for the McNeese Cowboys as they held off the Kats, 2-1, to claim their second straight Southland Conference Tournament title.
The Kats had reeled off four straight elimination-game wins over three days and gave the ball to Backhus who, just two days after throwing 5.1 innings vs Lamar, turned in 8.0 innings with six strikeouts and no walks.
But McNeese's Clayton Rasbeary homered in the first inning to give the Pokes (31-28) a 2-0 lead and the Kats were only able to scrape together an RBI double from
Colton Cowser in the third inning against a trio of Cowboy pitchers.
As good as Backhus was, McNeese starter Will Dion – the SLC Pitcher of the Year – came back after starting on Wednesday and gave McNeese 3.0 strong inning, allowing just one run on three hits with seven strikeouts.
After reliever Bryson Hudgens went 1.1 innings, Cade Foster went the rest of the way, logging 4.2 innings with two hits allowed and four strikeouts for his fifth save of the year.
The Kats had six hits in total in the game, but stranded 10 runners on a night that saw all pitchers at their best.
Clayton Chadwick joined Cowser with two hits, while
Gavin Johnson and
Jackson Loftin added one apiece.
Despite the loss, the star of the night was Backhus, who retired 15 consecutive hitters after Rasbeary's homer. That streak ended with a leadoff error in the sixth, setting the table for the Cowboys to load the bases with nobody out; however, Backhus dug deep and got a strikeout of Nate Fisbeck and a double-play grounder from Tre' Obregon to get out of the jam unscathed and went on to retire each of the final eight Cowboys of the game.
Following the game,
Colton Cowser,
Jack Rogers,
Blake Faecher and
Lance Lusk were all named to the all-tournament team. Rogers finished the week setting a tournament record with 12 runs scored, while Faecher set a tournament record with 12 RBI.
