AUSTIN – The No. 22 Texas Longhorns wasted no time on Tuesday night, scoring seven times in the first inning on their way to a 9-2 win over Sam Houston at Disch-Falk Field.
The Longhorns (36-17) were coming off an off weekend and put their first seven hitters of the game on base, including back-to-back home runs by Ivan Melendez and Murphy Stehly to stake itself to a 7-0 lead that was never threatened.
Bearkat (29-22) starter
Matt Rudis surrendered all seven of those runs before settling in to throw scoreless frames in both the second and third innings. He took the loss on a night that saw the Kats use five pitchers in the final midweek contest of the year.
Carlos Contreras drove in the first run of the game with an RBI double in the fourth, notching his 88th RBI of the season. The hit scored
Lane Brewster who had led off the inning with a single, extending his on-base streak to 21 games.
The Kats also added a run on an RBI single by
Anthony MacKenzie in the seventh. He was one of five Kats to pick up a base hit in the game, with
Walker Janek leading the way with a 2-for-3 night that included a pair of singles and a run scored.
For Texas, Zane Morehouse got the start and earned his third win of the year, striking out five hitters in 5.0 innings before four Longhorn arms threw from the pen.
The Kats will now return to Don Sanders Stadium for a 3-game series with Abilene Christian beginning Thursday night on ESPN+.
Sam Houston enters the weekend on the verge of clinching the WAC Southwest Division title and the top seed on that side of the bracket for the upcoming WAC Tournament. The Kats would need either a pair of wins against ACU, one win over ACU and a loss by Lamar at Tarleton or two losses by Lamar to Tarleton to clinch.
