STEPHENVILLE – The Sam Houston Bearkats handled their business in expedient fashion on Saturday, completing their second sweep of Tarleton with a 6-4 win over the Texans in the series finale at the Tarleton Baseball Complex.
The Kats (22-17, 13-5 WAC) kept its hold on sole possession of first place in the WAC Southwest Division with the three victories and will now battle Texas A&M on Tuesday in College Station in a non-conference game before returning to WAC play with a crucial 3-game series vs Lamar at Don Sanders Stadium beginning Friday.
Carlos Contreras finished with three hits and drove in four runs to push his NCAA-leading total to 71 through just 39 games, and the Kats needed it to help build up a 6-0 lead that had to stand up.
Coltin Atkinson retired the first 12 hitters he faced on his way to going 6.0 innings with six strikeouts without a walk. He then turned it over to the relief duo of
Braden Davis and
Lance Lusk who combined to slam the door emphatically, retiring all nine hitters they faced in the final three frames.
Atkinson moved to 4-0 on the year while Lusk picked up his sixth save.
Sam Houston got out to an early lead in with a run on an error in the opening inning and then added three more an inning later off of Tarleton starter Kyler Mentzel on an RBI single by
Lane Brewster and a 2-run hit from Contreras.
Contreras doubled home two more in the fourth to push the lead to 6-0 before the Texans finally began to put together a rally, scoring twice in both the fifth and sixth innings to get back in the game.
But Atkinson was able to minimize the damage in both innings to keep the Kats out in front and then handed it off to Davis and Lusk who made that effort stand up despite the offense finishing with just six hits for the game.
