HUNTSVILLE – Freshman Ryan Peterson struck out seven in his first collegiate start to set the pace for the Sam Houston Bearkats in a 6-2 win over Rice on Tuesday night at Don Sanders Stadium.
The Bearkats (17-9) only mustered four hits, but took full advantage of a pair of miscues by the Owls (9-16) while getting sparkling pitching performance from the trio of Peterson, Marshall Wales and Miles Hellums.
The three SHSU arms scattered just six hits to the Rice lineup and struck out 11 to secure the Kats' first win over the Owls since 2021. Offensively, Blake Brown picked up a pair of RBI and Jake Tatom scored twice as the Kats used three consecutive scoring innings in the middle portion of the game to account for all six runs.
Peterson was making his fifth appearance as a Bearkat, but toed the rubber as a starter for the first time. The freshman allowed a hit and a walk to the first two hitters of the game then proceeded to retire each of the next 15 Rice hitters he faced before exiting with a 3-1 lead to get in line for his first career win.
The Owls took advantage of those early base runners to plate a run in the first and starter Robert Fernandez, who fell to 0-3 with the loss, was doing his part for the Owls and retired each of the first 11 hitters he faced until a 2-out walk of Malachi Lott in the fourth. That walk was followed by a stolen base and a throwing error on a strikeout, allowing Lott to score the tying run.
Sam Houston kept the pressure on in the fifth, getting two runners on the sacks thanks to another Owl error and a bunt single by Brewster. The Kats then took the lead on a sacrifice fly from Brown and tacked on another thanks to a wild pitch from Rice reliever Garrett Stratton.
Wales came on to throw 3.0 shutout innings, striking out four before handing it off to Hellums for the ninth.
He got three more runs of support in the sixth when the Kats struck again, getting RBI hits from both Brown and Tatom.
UP NEXT
The Kats will now head east for a weekend series at Liberty, beginning Thursday at Worthington Field. It will be the first ever meeting between the Bearkats and Flames on the diamond and will open a stretch of seven straight games away from Huntsville. First pitch for Game 1 vs the Flames is set for 3:00 p.m. CT on Thursday with each game to be streamed on ESPN+.
POSTGAME NOTES
- The win moves Sam Houston to 5-0 in home midweek games.
- The win snaps a 5-game losing skid to the Owls dating back to the 2021 season.
- The win is the first win over Rice at Don Sanders Stadium since 2019.
- Ryan Peterson punched out seven Rice hitters in his first career start. The strikeout total is the most by a Bearkat freshman since Coltin Atkinson had four games of 7+ strikeouts in 2021.
- The seven strikeouts are also the highest total by a Bearkat freshman making his first career start since Kyle Backhus struck out seven Buffalo Bulls in 3.2 innings of work in 2017.
