HUNTSVILLE – The Sam Houston Bearkats erupted for six runs in the final two innings to get past Tarleton and clinch the weekend series with a 9-3 win on Saturday at Don Sanders Stadium.
Bearkat (9-5, 2-0 WAC) starter
Steven Beard and Texan (3-11, 0-2 WAC) starter Isiah Campa were locked in a duel for four frames before the teams traded 3-run innings in the fifth and seventh; however, the Kats were able to re-take the lead on a Tarleton miscue in the bottom of the seventh and then put it away with five scores in the bottom of the eighth.
The win pushed the Kats' win streak to five in a row and has them in line for a possible sweep of the Texans to open up WAC play in the series finale set for 1:00 p.m. on Sunday at The Don.
Beard did not factor in the decision, but was in line for a win after he exited following 6.0 scoreless innings that saw him allow just four hits and set a new career best with nine strikeouts while not issuing a free pass.
Lance Lusk turned into the benefactor of the Kats' late scoring barrage, throwing 2.1 scoreless innings to close out the game, running his record to 2-0 for the year.
Offensively,
Easton Loyd led the 11-hit attack with three singles and an RBI, while
Justin Wishkoski and
Carlos Contreras continued to pile up numbers in the middle of the order. Wishkoski had just one hit, but made it count with a 2-run triple in the fifth and finished with three RBI for the game, while Contreras reached base four times with a pair of hits and two walks to go with two RBI.
Campa kept the Kats at bay through the first four frames before Wishkoski's 3-bagger in the fifth opened the scoring. Contreras pushed the lead to 3-0 one batter later with a single, but the Kats could not tack on anymore.
That advantage stood up until the Texans got going in the seventh, taking advantage of a 1-out double and a pair of walks when Alec Williams singled home a pair of runs. One batter later Kemuel Thomas-Rivera knotted things up when he lined a single back up the middle to score Williams.
But that lead was short-lived as
Myles Jefferson led off the bottom half of the inning with the second of his two doubles in the game, setting the table for the Kats to go back in front; however, it took some help from the Texans as Tarleton reliever Matthew Hickey looked to be out of the inning before Thomas-Rivera dropped a fly ball in left field that would have ended the inning off the bat of Contreras, allowing Jefferson to score the go-ahead run.
Lusk responded with a quick eighth and the Kats then went back to work to put the game away against the Tarleton bullpen, sending 11 batters to the plate in the inning.
