HUNTSVILLE – The Sam Houston Bearkats hit three home runs and got clutch pitching from the back end of the bullpen to secure its first series sweep of Stephen F. Austin since 2014 with a 12-9 win on Sunday at Don Sanders Stadium.
The Kats (27-19, 17-7 WAC) now hold a 3-game lead on Lamar and UTRGV for the top spot in the WAC Southwest Division with just six games to play and will head to Edinburg for a key 3-game series with the Vaqueros next weekend following Tuesday's game vs Houston at Constellation Field in Sugar Land.
Sam Houston built up an early 6-0 lead with two runs in the first and a second-inning grand slam from
Clayton Chadwick and looked to be on their way to another easy win before SFA (13-31, 7-17 WAC) began to answer back. The Lumberjacks scored four runs in the third and all nine of their runs between the third and sixth innings before the Kats were finally able to slow them down.
Home runs by
Myles Jefferson and
Justin Wishkoski in the bottom of the third still had the Kats at a 10-4 advantage before SFA turned to reliever Brooks Caple who threw 4.1 scoreless innings with five strikeouts until Sam Houston was finally able to get to him for insurance runs in the eighth.
Gavi Coldiron got the win for the Kats with 1.1 innings of relief, but it was
Braden Davis who entered in the sixth inning and stopped the bleeding, leaving the tying run on third base before throwing up a scoreless seventh inning. He then handed it off to
Lance Lusk for the final 2.0 innings with the SHSU closer notching his eighth save of the year.
For SFA, starter Joe Richter took the loss, allowing six runs in just 2.0 innings of work.
Offensively, Chadwick's slam gave him a team-best four RBI for the game to go with three runs scored, while Wishkoski also crossed home three times and drove in three on three hits.
Carlos Contreras added two more RBI to his total, giving him 81 for the year and tying Bobby Verbick for the second most in a single-season in SHSU baseball history. Meanwhile,
Walker Janek walked three times and had a sacrifice fly, finishing the series with three RBI in just three official at-bats for the weekend after drawing nine total walks.
