NACOGDOCHES – Carlos Contreras set a single-game school record with nine RBI to lead the Sam Houston Bearkats to a convincing 10-4 win over Stephen F. Austin in the series finale on Sunday afternoon at Jaycees Field.
Contreras hit a grand slam in his first at-bat of the game and followed up with a 2-run single and a 2-run double before launching a leadoff homer to open the sixth inning and break the Bearkat school record that had been held by Bobby Verbick since 2007.
The Bearkat (14-10, 6-3 WAC) slugger went 5-for-5 in the game, getting the Kats' first 5-hit game since 2018, and finished the series going 9-for-13 with four homers and 15 RBI to push the Kats to the series win after dropping the series opener on Friday night.
While he carried the load at the plate,
Matt Dillard was in control throughout the afternoon, logging 7.0 innings while setting a new career high by striking out nine Lumberjack (5-16, 1-8 WAC). He picked up the win to move his record to 3-1 for the year.
Justin Wishkoski and
Clayton Chadwick each scored three times with Wishkoski finishing with a pair of hits. In all, seven of the nine Bearkat starters picked up at least one hit in the game.
The Kats played from a head from the very start as the first four hitters reached base before Contreras' first big hit off SFA starter Peyton Parker had them up 4-0. One inning later the Kats tacked on three more on a 2-run single from Contreras and a wild pitch from SFA reliever Angelo Gennari to score
Justin Wishkoski.
SFA got a couple back on RBI singles by Kanin Dodge and Dillon Eatman in the third, but Contreras got those back just one inning later with a 2-run double off the wall in left-center field. Two innings later he came up with nobody on base, but still launched his second homer of the day over the center-field fence to snag the school RBI record.
That shot made it a 10-2 game, which was plenty for the Kats. Dillard kept things where they were through the seventh before
Blaine Romero and
Matt Rudis took it the rest of the way.
The Kats will now return home to face nationally-ranked Texas State on Tuesday before hosting UTRGV for a 3-game WAC series beginning on Friday.
