SAN MARCOS – Lane Brewster drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs in the eighth inning to push home the winning run as the Sam Houston Bearkats picked up a 3-2 win over Texas State in the series opener on Friday night at Bobcat Ballpark.
Coltin Atkinson allowed just one run in 6.0 innings of his start, but it was Wyatt Tucker who picked up his first win as a Bearkat (9-5) with 2.0 frames of solid relief before Chandler David tossed a perfect ninth to give Sam Houston its first win in San Marcos since 2017.
The win came in the third straight one-run game the Kats have played in, one which was played in windy conditions which featured gusts nearing 40 miles per hour.
Sam Houston out-hit Texas State by a 9-5 margin, getting two hits apiece from Malachi Lott and Jeffrey David. Daylan Pena had a pair of doubles for the Bobcats (7-6), each resulting in runs for the home team.
Right-hander Austin Eaton got the start for Texas State, but it was reliever Jonathan Martinez who took the loss, falling to 1-1 on the year.
The Bearkats left a pair of runners on base in each of the first two innings, but Atkinson did his part, retiring the first 11 Bobcats he faced until a 2-out single by Chase Mora in the fourth. That base hit ignited a Texas State rally which included a walk to August Ramirez and an RBI double by Daylan Pena which gave the home team a 1-0 lead.
But that lead lasted just two batters into the fifth as Lane Brewster led the inning off with a double and came in to score one batter later when Jace Martinez snuck an RBI single just inside the first-base bag. Two batters later Malachi Lott lined a single into left-center field off reliever Rhett McCaffety to give Sam Houston a 2-1 lead of its own.
Atkinson made that stand up through the sixth before exiting with that 2-1 advantage. Tucker then entered for the seventh and immediately fell into a bit of tough luck on a second double of the night by Pena on miscommunicated pop up just off the infield. Texas State took advantage of the opportunity, bunting Pena to third before Aaron Lugo knotted the game at 2-2 on a grounder to the left side of the infield.
But, again, the Kats answered as Lott and David each singled to open the inning and Hunter Autrey drew a walk to load the sacks with nobody out; however, Texas State reliever Matthew Tippie recorded consecutive strikeouts of Blake Brown and Jace Martinez before walking Brewster on four straight pitches out of the zone to force home the winning run.
That was all Tucker and David needed to get the Kats back in the win column as Tucker responded with a shutdown eighth before David went 1-2-3 in the ninth, ending it with a strikeout of Lugo.
The Kats will try to clinch the series on Saturday in the middle game of the series, a game set for 2:30 p.m.
Miles Hellums is slated to get the start for the Kats in a game set to be aired on ESPN+.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Walker Janek's single in the first inning extended his season-opening hit streak to 14 games. He is still the lone Kat to have hit safely in all 14 games this year and has hit in 18 consecutive games overall, dating back to the end of the 2023 season.
- His hit streak is the longest such streak by a Bearkat to open a season since Todd Sebek hit safely in 18 consecutive games to start the 2008 season.
- Coltin Atkinson kept the Bobcats off balance throughout his fourth start of the year, exiting after a season-long 6.0 innings. He had a pair of strikeouts, giving him 193 for his career and leaving him just seven short of reaching 200 for his career.
