HUNTSVILLE – The Sam Houston Bearkats picked up where they left off over the weekend, scoring 16 unanswered runs to blast Houston Baptist, 19-3, on Wednesday night at Don Sanders Stadium.
The Kats (23-17) were coming off a 3-game weekend sweep of Tarleton and were originally scheduled to take on No. 21 Texas A&M on Tuesday before weather washed the game out, putting Sam Houston in position to add a home game against the Huskies.
Sam Houston pounded out XX hits against Husky (15-27) pitching, including five doubles.
Anthony MacKenzie had two of those doubles, driving in four runs on three hits.
Justin Wishkoski also drove in three, while
Hunter Autrey finished with three hits and reached safely in each of his first four plate appearances.
Matt Rudis got the start and logged 4.0 innings, but it was
Gavi Coldiron who got his second win of the season in relief, striking out the side in the sixth inning and finishing with 2.0 scoreless innings.
The Kats had an early 3-1 lead on back-to-back solo homers by
Carlos Contreras and
Walker Janek in the third inning before HBU knotted it back up in the top of the fourth; however, Sam Houston responded with a 6-run bottom of the fourth, retaking the lead on MacKenzie's first double and then getting RBI from
Clayton Chadwick, WIshkoski and Janek to up the lead to 9-3.
Wishkoski struck again with a 2-out RBI single in the fifth and MacKenzie added two more in the sixth when he doubled to the left field wall.
Sam Houston then put the game away in the eighth, scoring seven times with key RBI hits coming from
Jacob Guerrero,
Christian Smith and
Myles Jefferson.
The Kats will now return to WAC play for a key series against Lamar, beginning Friday night at Don Sanders Stadium.
