MIAMI – The Sam Houston Bearkats scored eight runs with two outs in the ninth inning and used an epic final-frame rally to score a 16-13 win over FIU on Saturday at FIU Baseball Stadium.
The Kats (29-21, 9-11 CUSA) fell behind in the opening inning and trailed the entire way before entering the ninth inning down 11-8 to the Panthers (25-23, 11-12 CUSA).
FIU had stopper Ryan Cabarcas on the mound in his third inning of work, but Sam Houston loaded the sacks with two outs on walks to Jake Tatom and Easton Loyd and an infield single from Blake Brown. Caleb Cotton then delivered a 2-out, 2-run double to quickly cut the lead to 11-10.
The Panthers then chose to reload the bases by intentionally walking Walker Janek to face Hunter Autrey. The Kats' first baseman made the Panthers immediately pay by chopping Cabarcas' first pitch up the middle for a go-ahead, 2-run single.
Jeffrey David immediately followed with a 2-run double and Tatom put an exclamation point on the inning with a 2-run blast to center field, his second longball of the night.
FIU got two more back on a 2-run homer by Armando Becerra in the ninth, the home team's fourth 2-run shot of the game, but Chandler David handled the rest and made a winner of Malachi Lott who had pitched a scoreless bottom of the eighth.
Cotton turned in a big game for the Kats, reaching four times and doubling twice. He had two RBI and was one of five Bearkats with at least a pair of runs driven in. Autrey led all players with four RBI, coming on 2-run singles in fourth and ninth innings.
Tatom blasted his second and third homers of the season while David had two hits and three RBI, extending his hit streak to 21 consecutive games. Additionally, Janek hit a solo homer for the second straight day and Brown had two hits, including opening the SHSU scoring with a 2-run homer in the third.
FIU made it a rough day for Bearkat starter Michael Watson, getting to him for eight runs in just 2.2 innings before the Kats went to the bullpen. But the Kats got solid bullpen work on an otherwise offensive evening as four arms combined to allow five runs in 6.1 innings.
Miles Hellums finished with 2.1 innings of relief work, while Rome Shubert also turned in 2.0 scoreless frames.
FIU wasted no time jumping out to an early lead, plating three runs in the top of the first inning, capping the frame with a 2-run homer from Alex Ulloa.
Watson worked out of a jam in the second and got some offensive support when Blake Brown blasted a 2-run homer of his own out to right field to cut the lead to 3-2.
But the Kats were not able to put together a shutdown bottom half of the frame as FIU put up six runs on six hits in the bottom of the third, getting a 2-run homer from Brylan West to up the lead to 9-2.
Sam Houston was able to chase FIU starter David Eckaus in the fourth with four 2-out runs on singles by Cotton, Autrey and David. The Kats had a chance to cut into that lead even more in the fifth, but FIU reliever Zac Lampton struck out the side and left the bases loaded to keep the lead at 9-6.
He was rewarded an inning later with a 2-run homer from Ryne Guida in the bottom of the fifth, runs which were matched by solo homers from both Janek and Tatom in the top of the sixth.
Shubert then held FIU right where they were with scoreless innings in both the sixth and seventh, and Lott did the same in the eighth, setting the table for the Kats' ninth-inning rally.
UP NEXT
The Kats will once again go for the series clincher on Sunday at 11 a.m. CT in the weekend finale. The game will be aired on ESPN+.
POSTGAME NOTES
- The win lowers the Kats' magic number for clinching a spot in the CUSA Tournament to just one. Either a win on Sunday vs FIU, or a loss by Jax State to Middle Tennessee would secure the bid.
- Jake Tatom hit two home runs, marking his first multi-homer game of his career.
- In all, the Kats had four home runs in the game, a season high.
