Kats surge to Sunday sweep

Sunday, April 19

Las Cruces, N.M.

11:00 AM

17-23, 7-11

NM State

16-22, 7-11

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Sam Houston	0	0	3	1	3	2	0	3	0	12	18	2
NM State	3	0	1	0	0	3	0	0	3	10	11	2

Photo by: Grant Sides

Kats surge to Sunday sweep

4/19/2026 4:37:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Sam Houston homered four times and held off a late rally by NM State to complete a sweep of the Aggies with a12-10 win on Sunday morning at Askew Field.

Sam Houston (17-23, 7-11 CUSA) secured its first sweep of CUSA play and first-ever over NM State (16-22, 7-11) behind an offensive attack that produced 18 total hits and had four multi-run innings. It also secured the first road sweep for the Kats since taking three games from FIU in Miami late in the 2024 season.

Nathan Fink headlined the surge with three hits and a pair of 2-run homers, while Cade Corcoran finished with three extra-base hits of his own, including a 2-run blast in the sixth. Wes Baker also added a 3-run blast which gave the Kats a 7-4 lead in the fifth.

In all, seven Bearkats had multi-hit games as Sam Houston scored on each of the four pitchers used by NM State. That included starter Jack Turner, who struck out four in 4.1 innings, but allowed seven runs on 10 hits to fall to 3-5 with the loss.

Tate Hickman got the start for Sam Houston, but did not make it out of the third inning before handing it off to Collin Aloisio. The freshman followed with 3.0 innings of long relief, striking out three to earn his fourth win of the year. Cooper Harris nearly went the final 3.1 innings for a save, but ran into trouble in the ninth while Zak Johnson recorded the final three outs.

Johnson was called on after working 3.0 innings on Friday and found himself in a dicey situation with the Kats up 12-7, but the sacks loaded with nobody out. Tommy Meluskey then roped a 3-run triple into the right-field corner to make it 12-10, but that was as far as he got as Johnson proceeded to retire Dane Woodcook, Boston Vest and Steve Solarzano in order to close it.

The Aggies had led from the start after getting three runs in the opening inning, but Sam Houston tied it up with three runs in the third, evening it when Fink deposited his first homer of the day out to left-center field.

NMSU quickly took the lead back with a run in the bottom of the inning, but lead was short lived the Kats got a 2-out double from Jace Martinez and an RBI single from Ryan Franden in the fourth to draw even again at 4-4.

Aloisio then put up zeros in the fourth and fifth and got put in line for the victory when Baker launched an opposite-field homer in the fifth to plate three runs and put SHSU up 7-4. That chased Turner from the game, but wasn't the end of the Bearkat offense as Corcoran homered an inning later to push the lead to 9-4.

The Kats gave the Aggies a free out in the sixth and NMSU took advantage, scoring three times. They were also close to taking the lead when Easton Rulli lined a ball to center field that was caught on a dive by Jeric Curtis; however, the ball was initially ruled to have hit the ground and three runs having scored to put NMSU up 10-9. Fortunately, the umpires conferred and overturned the call to secure the third out.

Two innings later the Kats provided more cushion, getting the score to 10-7 on a 2-out Aggie error before Fink ambushed the first pitch thrown by new reliever Carson Timmons for his second 2-run homer of the day.

UP NEXT
Sam Houston will return home for a midweek game at Don Sanders Stadium vs Baylor on Tuesday before hosting a key CUSA series against Middle Tennessee on the weekend. All games are set to be aired on ESPN+.

All Bearkat Baseball games can be followed via live stats on Statbroadcast. Fans are also encouraged to follow @BearkatsBSB on X and Instragram for updates.