HUNTSVILLE – The Sam Houston Bearkats could not take advantage of a handful of scoring chances late in the game on Friday as they dropped the opener of Conference USA play, 6-5, to Louisiana Tech at Don Sanders Stadium.
The Bulldogs (13-9, 1-0 CUSA) were held off the board for the final five innings, but Sam Houston (6-16, 0-1 CUSA) was unable to fully erase a 2-run hole it found itself in after just three frames.
A pinch-hit RBI double from Marshall Hale in his first at-bat of the season had trimmed the lead to 6-5 in the eighth and SHSU had a golden opportunity to even things in the ninth, but a base running error on an infield hit off the bat of Blake Brown proved fatal to the Kats' comeback hopes.
It was the third scoring chance squandered by the Kats in the game after being unable to take advantage of runners in scoring position and less than two outs in both the fourth and sixth frames.
Devin Bennett got his first Friday start of the season and took the loss, despite working into the sixth inning. Noah Kendrick followed and continued his strong sophomore season, tossing 3.2 innings of 1-hit relief with one strikeout to hold the Bulldogs in check.
Meanwhile, LA Tech's Grant Hubka earned his third win of the season after 6.0 innings of work on his own. The Kats got to him for four runs in the first two innings, but the righty followed with four straight zeros and five strikeouts before handing it off to the pen, which ended with Blake Hooks' fifth save of the year.
Offensively, Sam Houston finished with 11 hits as eight of nine starters recorded at least one. Grant Nottlemann was one of two bats with multiple hits, going 2-for-3 with a solo homer in the second inning, his first blast of the year. He was joined by Jace Martinez and Hale with single RBI, while Addison Smith drove in a pair of runs on a 2-out single in the first inning which gave the Kats a 3-2 lead at the time.
UP NEXT
The Kats will try to even the score with the Bulldogs on Saturday in a game set to begin at 2:00 p.m. on ESPN+
