LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Liberty Flames scored six times in their final two innings at the plate to erase a 4-0 deficit and pick up a 6-4 win over the Sam Houston Bearkats in the opener of a three-game series on Thursday at Worthington Field.
Sam Houston (17-10, 3-4 CUSA) scored in the first inning and added three more in the sixth and got 5.2 shutout innings from starter Coltin Atkinson, but struggled to put an end to both the seventh and eighth innings as the Flames (11-14, 3-1 CUSA) scored five of their six runs in those innings with two outs.
Logan Hewitt got the Kats out of a key jam in the sixth, but the Flames were able to get to him for all six of their runs over the next two innings to hand him his first loss of the season. Liberty freshman Ben Blair got his third win of the year with 1.2 scoreless innings, leaving the bases loaded as well in the ninth when he punched out Hunter Autrey for his only strikeout of the game.
It was the first time in the game Autrey had been retired as he finished 3-for-4 with an RBI and an HBP, but he was the only Kat to register a multi-hit game. Sam Houston finished with nine hits, but none for extra bases while the Flames finished with six doubles out of their 14 htis in the game.
Macaddin Dye and Cam Foster had three hits apiece for Liberty, with Dye's 2-out double in the eighth inning plating the go-ahead run for the Flames.
Sam Houston made it interesting in the ninth when Jace Martinez and Caleb Cotton each singled to start the inning, but Blair was able to get a ground ball off the bat of Walker Janek and after an intentional walk to Malachi Lott to load the bases, proceeded to retire both Jeffrey David and Autrey to seal the comeback win.
It took just three batters for the Bearkat offense to give Atkinson a lead to work with as Cotton started the game with a 4-pitch walk and moved to third on a stolen base and a fly ball before scoring on an RBI single by Lott.
Atkinson proceeded to strike out a pair in a shutdown bottom of the first and worked out of a couple of jams and had seven punchouts threw five innings. He then got three more runs of cushion in the sixth when the Kats batted around and upped the lead to 4-0.
Singles by Walker Janek and Jeffrey David set the table for Hunter Autrey who lined his third single of the day up the middle to increase the lead to 2-0. Jake Tatom followed with an RBI single of his own to right field and Easton Loyd was right behind him, picking up an RBI with a well-placed sacrifice bunt which scored Autrey.
Liberty put together a threat in the bottom of the sixth, but Logan Hewitt came on to get the final out of the inning and leave the bases loaded; however, he was not so fortunate in the seventh when the Flames finally ignited for four runs to even things up. Macaddin Dye's RBI single seemed harmless enough when it got the first run home, but Camden Troyer and John Simmons each delivered 2-out singles to score three more and bring Liberty all the way back.
UP NEXT
The Kats and Flames will square off again on Friday at Worthington Field. First pitch for Game 2 vs the Flames is set for 3:00 p.m. CT with the game to be streamed on ESPN+.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Caleb Cotton walked in each of his first two at-bats of the game and has now reached base in 11 consecutive games. In the six games since moving into the leadoff spot vs Baylor, Cotton has drawn eight walks and scored seven runs.
- Hunter Autrey singled in each of his first three at-bats of the day, securing his ninth multi-hit game of the year and fourth 3-hit game.
- Coltin Atkinson had seven strikeouts and finished with eight for the game, one shy of his career high set two weeks earlier at NM State. It was his sixth career game with eight or more strikeouts, while the 122 pitches thrown were the most in his career.
- Liberty struck for four runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie it up. It is only the fourth game this season in which the Kats have surrendered an inning of four or more runs, and only the second since February 20.
