ARLINGTON – The Sam Houston Bearkats scored five times in the top of the 10
th inning to upset No. 4 Oklahoma State, 6-3, on Tuesday night at Globe Life Field.
The Kats (4-1) flirted with the lead throughout the night, holding just a 1-0 lead in the sixth before the Cowboys (2-2) tied it back up in the bottom half. The teams then traded blows until Sam Houston was able to deliver a knockout shot in extra frames, taking the lead on a 2-run single by
Carlos Contreras that was followed by RBI hits from
Walker Janek and
Brandon Pruitt.
Sam Houston racked up 14 hits against nine Cowboy pitchers with
Anthony MacKenzie,
Clayton Chadwick and Contreras all finishing with three hits apiece.
Lance Lusk picked up the win with 2.0 innings of relief work, finishing with four strikeouts, and leaving the winning runner on third base to force extra frames.
Roman Phansalkar took the loss for the Cowboys, who was coming off a road series win at No. 3 Vanderbilt over the weekend.
Lusk's effort was part of a stellar night for the Bearkat pitching staff, with seven arms holding down the OSU offense.
Cole Wesneski got it going, throwing 4.0 shutout frames and allowing just three hits before
Matt Rudis,
Logan Hewitt and
Gavi Coldiron bridged things to Lusk.
Tyler Davis and
Alex Havlicek then combined to get through the 10
th with OSU getting a pair of runs back on a 2-run homer by David Mendham with two outs in the inning.
OSU left the winning run on third base in the ninth and the Kats went right to work in the top of the 10
th with consecutive singles by MacKenzie and Chadwick putting runners on the corners. The Cowboys then elected to intentionally walk
Justin Wishkoski to load the bases, and for the second straight game Contreras made the opposition pay for that decision, lining a single off the glove of drawn-in second baseman Nolan McClean to plate a pair of runners.
The Kats went on to add three more in the frame, taking advantage of a second intentional walk when
Walker Janek shot a 2-run single up the middle before
Brandon Pruitt slammed an RBI double to left field in his first at-bat of the season to make it 6-1.
Sam Houston had initially taken the lead in the sixth when they loaded the bases on a double and a pair of walks, getting out in front 1-0 when Jimmy Ramsey uncorked a wild pitch to score
Trent Touchet. But OSU got that run back one inning later on an RBI triple by Griffin Doersching that just missed leaving the ballpark.
The Kats will return to the DFW Metroplex for a weekend series at Dallas Baptist, beginning Friday night at Horner Ballpark.
