LUBBOCK — Sam Houston continued its home run barrage en route to a 9-3 pummeling of Texas Tech on Saturday at Rip Griffin Park.
The Bearkats (29-19) hit four more round trippers to even the series after dropping a 12-10 decision to the Red Raiders (31-16) in the opener Friday. Sam Houston broke the school record for most home runs in a single season with 66 in 48 games, besting the mark set in 1999 of 64 in 55 games.
Tyler Davis wasted no time launching the first ball over the wall on Saturday. For the second day in a row, he hit a two-run blast in the first inning to give the Kats a 2-0 lead.
Sam Houston basically put this one to bed with five runs in the fourth inning as Texas Tech only managed one run off starter
Steven Beard through the first seven innings.
Jake Tatom got the scoring started when he drew a walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch and came home on a throwing error on a groundball by
Clayton Chadwick, who moved over to second on the play.
Easton Loyd dropped an RBI single into center field to make it 4-0.
Wes Folse followed with a single then
Joe Redfield cleared the bases with the first inside the park home run for the Bearkats since Jack Rodgers hit one against Lamar on April 5, 2019. He laced a sharply hit line drive into center field that took a wicked hop over the defender's left shoulder and rolled to the wall to allow everyone to race home for a 7-0 lead.
Clayton Chadwick blasted a solo shot to right in the eighth. After the Red Raiders finally chased Beard, who struck out four over 7 1/3 solid innings to improve to 6-3 on the season, from the game with a pair of runs in the eighth,
Justin Wishkoski drilled a solo homer over the wall in left.
Logan Hewitt came on in relief of Beard and got a double play ball to end the Tech threat in the eighth and pitched a perfect ninth to lock down the victory.
The two teams will play the rubber match Sunday at 1 p.m.
