RUSTON, La. – The Sam Houston Bearkats could not get the offense going and the top-seeded Louisiana Tech Bulldogs eliminated the Kats from the Conference USA Tournament with a 5-3 win Friday night at JC Love Field.
Sam Houston (34-24) stayed alive in the tournament earlier in the day with a 2-0 win over Middle Tennessee and were matched up with the Bulldogs (43-16) after LA Tech dropped their earlier game to Liberty.
LA Tech will move on to face Liberty on Saturday and will need to defeat the Flames twice to advance to Sunday's CUSA Championship game.
The Kats were unable to take advantage of four walks in the first four innings from LA Tech starter Grant Hubka, but got a pair of hits and an error to set up a 3-run inning that tied things up after LA Tech had put up three runs of its own in the bottom of the third.
But LA Tech's Dalton Davis homered twice, the second coming to lead off the seventh inning and put the Bulldogs ahead for good. That swing made a winner of reliever Sam Brodersen who minimized the damage in the fifth and went on to throw 3.1 shutout innings with five strikeouts to move to 8-1 on the year. Ethan Bates came in with the tying run at the plate in the eighth and went the rest of the way to earn his 16th save of the season.
Sam Houston turned to Gavi Coldiron for the start and the lefty got through the first two innings unscathed, before running into trouble in the third. He allowed just two runs in 2.1 innings but took a no-decision after the Kats tied it up in the fifth. Logan Hewitt retired the first five hitters he faced before surrendering the eventual winning run on Davis' solo blast in the seventh, saddling him with his second loss of the season.
At the plate the Kats finished with just five hits for the game, including a triple by David in the fourth.
The third-inning trouble started when Kasten Furr led off with a free pass and Dalton Davis followed with a 2-run homer to put the Bulldogs in front. Wyatt Tucker came in and was quickly greeted by an RBI single from Michael Ballard, but limited the damage and kept the Kats within striking distance at 3-0.
Sam Houston had a chance to answer back in the top of the fourth when Jeffrey David got into scoring position with a stand-up triple off the center field wall with one out, but Bulldog starter Grant Hubka responded with a strikeout of Easton Loyd before getting Jake Tatom to fly out to end the threat.
An inning later the Bulldog starter was not so fortunate as singles from Malachi Lott and Jace Martinez was followed by a miscue by Hubka on a sacrifice bunt attempt to load the bases with nobody out. LA Tech then turned to Brodersen who walked Janek to force in a run, but minimized the damage with RBI ground balls off the bats of Hunter Autrey and Jeffrey David, tying it at 3-3.
LA Tech threatened to retake the lead in the bottom half of the inning by getting runners to second and third base with nobody out, but the Kats turned to Logan Hewitt in a leverage situation and he responded loudly, stranding both runners and striking out Adarius Myers on three pitches to end the inning.
But two innings later Davis struck again with a leadoff homer to left field to put the homestanding Bulldogs ahead for good. They added another run later in the inning on consecutive doubles by Jorge Corona and Michael Ballard.
POSTGAME NOTES
- The Kats finished the 2024 season with 34 wins, marking the 13th consecutive season they have put together a winning season. Of the 17 schools playing Division I baseball in the state of Texas, only Texas A&M (17) has more consecutive winning seasons.
- Caleb Cotton had a stolen base in the first inning and finished the year with 18 successful steals in 21 tries, the most swipes by a Bearkat since Bryce Johnson's 33 steals in 2017. In all, Sam Houston finished with 99 stolen bases as a team, giving them 199 over the past two seasons. It is the most steals by the Kats in a 2-year span since the 1986 and 1987 teams combined to steal 278 bases in those seasons.
