MIAMI – The Sam Houston Bearkats led wire-to-wire and kicked off their weekend series at FIU with a 7-1 over the Panthers on Friday night at the FIU Baseball Stadium.
Coltin Atkinson shut FIU (25-23, 11-11 CUSA) out for 6.0 innings and Logan Hewitt punched out five in 3.0 innings for his second save of the year to lead the Bearkats (28-21, 8-11 CUSA) to their fourth straight win overall.
Walker Janek homered and drove in a pair, swiping a pair of baes and scoring twice. He was one of six Kats with an RBI. Jeffrey David homered for the third time in six games and Brady Christensen had a pair of singles, including an RBI base hit to cap a key 3-run eighth inning.
The Panthers, who were coming off a midweek win at Miami on Wednesday, turned to right-hander Cameron Knox for the start and he lasted 4.0 innings before being lifted with the home team down 2-0. He took the loss to fall to 1-5 for the year.
It took just two batters into the game for the Bearkats to go in front when Janek capped a 7-pitch at-bat with a no-doubt solo homer to left field. David later led off the fourth with a solo homer of his own for a 2-0 lead.
Atkinson made stand up and got a huge relay from Jace Martinez to Janek at the plate to end the fourth and keep Kats in front. Sam Houston manufactured another run in the fifth on a ground ball from Janek, and Atkinson got a huge strikeout of Armando Becerra to strand a pair of runners in scoring position in the bottom of the inning.
The righty carried that lead through another inning before giving way to Hewitt in the sixth and the Panthers took advantage of the new arm to get on the board on a solo homer by Brendan Roney with two out in the seventh.
Sam Houston broke it open in the bottom of the eighth with three runs, all coming on 2-out RBI singles by Malachi Lott, Jake Tatom and Christensen. Hewitt responded by punching out the side in order in the eighth and Hunter Autrey got in on the offensive action in the ninth with a sacrifice fly to cap the scoring.
UP NEXT
The Kats will go for the series clincher on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. CT with lefty Michael Watson scheduled for the start. All games at FIU will be aired on ESPN+.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Jeffrey David's solo homer in the fourth extended his hit streak to 20 straight games. It was his third homer in his last six games.
- David's 20-gamer, along with Walker Janek's 23-gamer to open the season, marks the first time in program history there have been multiple hit streaks of 20+ games in the same year.
- Janek's solo homer in the first was the 35th of his career.
- The 3.0-inning save was Logan Hewitt's second of the season and his first since Opening Night when the Kats registered a 7-2 win over Oklahoma State. That night also came in a piggyback situation with Coltin Atkinson when he had gone 6.0 innings before handing it over to Hewitt for the final 3.0 frames.
- The Kats had the leadoff man on base in six of the first eight innings but were hitless in their first 13 at-bats with men on base until Malachi Lott's 2-out RBI single in the eighth, starting a string of three consecutive RBI singles to push the lead to 6-1.
- The Kats had four stolen bases in the game, marking the eighth time this season they have swiped four or more bags in a single game.
