HUNTSVILLE – The Houston Cougars scored in four straight innings and got a strong start from Derrick Cherry to take down the Sam Houston Bearkats, 9-1, on Tuesday night at Don Sanders Stadium.
The game was the first of three contests between the schools in the resumption of the Don Sanders Cup series, a series that has not been played since the 2019 season.
Sam Houston (12-9) got three shutout innings from starter
Matt Rudis before Houston (14-7) put up two runs in the fourth to start its scoring stretch. Rudis took the loss, despite going a career-long 5.0 innings and allowing just the three runs on four hits.
But that was not enough in the duel with Cherry who earned his second win of the year, throwing 121 pitches to complete 7.0 innings with eight strikeouts.
Carlos Contreras had a pair of hits for the Kats and
Easton Loyd drove in the lone Sam Houston run with an RBI ground out in the sixth. The Kats also got a pair of scoreless innings of relief from
Alex Havlicek, who struck out a pair in his stint.
Rudis looked to be in control before a pair of walks came back to bite him in the fourth on a 2-out, 2-run single by Cameron Nickens. One inning later Zach Arnold singled home another run, but it was the sixth inning where things unraveled for the Kats when a single off the bat of Malachi Lott was compounded by an error in right field, allowing two runs to score. Lott came home one batter later on a sac fly from Ian McMillan, putting the Cougars up 6-0.
The Kats got consecutive singles by
Justin Wishkoski and Contreras to open up the home half of the inning, btu were only able to push across one run on Loyd's grounder. UH then put the game away in the seventh when Alex Lopez and Ryan Hernandez each smashed home runs off the Bearkat bullpen to up the lead to 9-1.
Sam Houston will now return to WAC play on Friday to open a 3-game series at Stephen F. Austin. First pitch of the series opener is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and is slated to be aired on ESPN+.
