MIAMI – The Sam Houston Bearkats used a 5-run sixth inning to surge past FIU and secure a weekend sweep with a 10-6 win over the Panthers on Sunday afternoon at FIU Baseball Stadium.
Brady Christensen had a team-high three hits and a pair of RBI and Walker Janek homered for the third straight day as the Kats (30-21, 10-11 CUSA) ran their win streak to six in a row, picking up a sweep for the second straight weekend.
The win also secures a berth in the Conference USA Tournament, which is coming up in less than two weeks in Ruston, La.
The Kats pieced it together on the mound with Marshall Wales being the first of four arms to see the mound, but it was freshman Ryan Peterson who got his second win of the season with 3.0 innings of relief where he retired 10 of the 11 batters he faced.
Wyatt Tucker and Chandler David came on to fire 2.0 innings apiece and close it out, combining for seven strikeouts between them.
FIU (25-25, 11-13 CUSA) also used four arms, starting with Joel Pineiro who did not make it out of the fifth. Jaydon Bishop took the loss, allowing all five runs in the breakout sixth inning.
Offensively the Kats made things difficult on the Panthers all day, finishing with 14 total hits and drawing three free passes. Sam Houston also took advantage of three wild pitches, and Caleb Cotton finished his breakout weekend with two more steals to cap a day which saw him reach base in three of his five plate appearances.
Sam Houston used hits in the first inning from Cotton and Hunter Autrey to set up a sacrifice fly from Jeffrey David to take an early 1-0 lead. Wales then retired the first five hitters he faced before running into a 2-out dilemma in the second inning by surrendering a single to Brendan Roney which was followed by a 2-run homer by Kishon Frett which put FIU ahead 2-1.
FIU added a run in the fourth, but the Kats got it back a half inning later on a wild pitch. It stood there until the sixth when the Kats struck for five scores to go up 7-3. Sam Houston had four straight singles to open the inning, going ahead on a 2-run chopper up the middle by Easton Loyd.
Cotton got another home on a sacrifice fly and one batter later Janek left the yard for the third straight day, blasting a 2-run homer to left-center field to cap the scoring.
FIU responded with solo homers by Jeff Liquori and Hector Candelas in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings, but the Kats kept them at arm's length thanks to an RBI single by Christensen in the top of the seventh.
The Kats added two more in the eighth and ninth innings, the last coming on another RBI single from Christensen.
UP NEXT
The Kats will close out the non-conference portion of the 2024 schedule on Tuesday with the final midweek game of the year vs Houston at Constellation Field in Sugar Land. The game will serve as the rubber match of the annual Don Sanders Cup series vs the Cougars and can be heard on the Bearkat Sports Network.
POSTGAME NOTES
- Walker Janek's 2-run homer in the sixth marked the third time this season he has homered in three or more consecutive games. He had a pair of stretches earlier in the season in which he homered in four straight games.
- Janek's blast was his 17th longball of the season, which ties him with Richard Johnson's 1984 season for the third most in a single season in Bearkat history. Only Johnson's 18 blasts in 1985 and Kelly Eddelmon's 28 in 1999 are more.
- Janek also now has 51 RBI and is the first Bearkat since Nick Zaleski in 2008 and 2009 to post consecutive seasons with 50+ RBI.
- Jeffrey David singled to lead off the top of the seventh, extending his hit streak to 22 games. That streak is one shy of the long by a Kat this year, a 23-gamer by Janek to open the season.
