Kats cash in win over Cardinals

Tuesday, March 17

Beaumont

4:05 PM

9-11

Lamar

12-9

Sam Houston

Lamar

Photo by: Grant Sides

Kats cash in win over Cardinals

3/17/2026 8:28:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

BEAUMONT, Texas – The Sam Houston Bearkats got a 4-run sixth and made the plays when needed in picking up a 7-4 win over Lamar on Tuesday at Vincent-Beck Stadium.

Cade Corcoran homered and reached base three times to lead the Bearkat (9-11) offense that finished with seven total hits and took advantage of seven walks and a pair of hit batters by the Cardinal (12-9) pitching staff. Caleb Cotton also delivered a pair of singles, including a key 2-run single with two outs in the sixth that gave the Kats a 5-2 lead.

Zak Johnson earned his second win of the season with 2.1 innings of relief, while freshman Cooper Harris became the third Bearkat this year to earn a save, logging the final 1.2 frames of the night.

Lamar used eight pitchers on the night with reliever Joshua Shimmin falling to 0-2 after allowing three of the four runs in the go-ahead sixth inning.

Corcoran got the Kats out in front in a loud way with a solo home run in the second off Gage Burdick, the second Cardinal pitcher of the game. Gabe Winans went on to throw up three zeros in his first career start for Sam Houston, but the Cardinals scrapped across single runs in both the fourth and fifth against reliever Noah Kendrick to go up 2-1.

But the Kats responded in the top of the sixth with four runs, tying it up on an RBI single from Easton Dean and going ahead two batters later on a 2-run single by Cotton. Hunter Alvord made it a 5-2 game with a sacrifice fly to cap the inning, scoring Blake Brown.

Lamar took advantage of an error to get a run back in the sixth, getting the score back to 5-3 on an RBI single from Hector Rodriguez before Johnson stopped the rally one batter later. The Kats responded in kind, plating two more runs to up the score to 7-3 in the bottom half of the inning on a ground ball by Brown and a wild pitch that brought home Cotton.

Things got dicey in the eighth when Lamar got a run home and eventually loaded the bases with just one out and the score at 7-4; however, Harris entered in the tough situation and got Braden Benton to ground into an inning-ending double play that killed the rally and got the Kats back to the dugout with a 3-run lead.

Lamar tried to put pressure on the Kats again in the ninth when Beau Durbin led off the inning with a double but Harris was nails the rest of the way, striking out two of the next three hitters he faced to leave the runner stranded.

UP NEXT
Sam Houston jumps back into CUSA play this weekend when it travels to Miami for a 3-game series at FIU. The weekend set is scheduled to begin on Friday night on the Panthers' home field. All three games are scheduled to be aired on ESPN+