Peterson hits milestones, but Kats drop series opener

Thursday, May 14

Ruston, La.

6:00 PM

23-31, 12-16

Louisiana Tech

32-22, 18-10

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Sam Houston	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	0
Louisiana Tech	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	X	2	7	1

Photo by: Grant Sides

Peterson hits milestones, but Kats drop series opener

5/14/2026 9:27:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

RUSTON, La. – Ryan Peterson reached a pair of career strikeout milestones on Thursday night, but the Sam Houston Bearkats fell in its series opener at Louisiana Tech, 2-1, at JC Love Field.

With a spot in next week's CUSA Tournament already secured, Peterson logged 4.0 scoreless innings on exactly 75 pitches before exiting with a 1-0 lead. He surrendered a pair of singles and walked two but also racked up a trio of strikeouts in the no-decision.

The strikeout total pushed him to 102 for the season and 201 for his career, making him the sixth Bearkat in program history with 100 strikeouts in a single season and just the 10^th to reach 200 for a career.

Bearkat (23-31, 12-16 CUSA) pitching held the Bulldogs (32-22, 18-10 CUSA) to just seven hits in the game, but the home team pitching trio of Declan Dahl, Luke Nichols and Thomas Allen followed script and struck out 13 Bearkats while allowing just a solo homer and three total hits.

Dahl took a no-decision after logging seven of those strikeouts in 5.0 innings of 2-hit baseball on the mound, exiting with the game even at 1-1. Nicholls earned his third win of the year with three in 2.0 innings of relief before handing it off to Allen who retired six of the seven hitters he faced in 2.0 frames of work to earn his fifth save.

The Kats struggled to handle Dahl the first time through the lineup, but Jeric Curtis took advantage of his second look at the righty by giving Sam Houston a 1-0 lead with an opposite-field solo home run with one out in the third inning.

Peterson made that lead hold up through the fourth before being lifted due to pitch count, and the Bulldogs took immediate advantage of his exit when Casey McCoy led off the fifth with a solo homer of his own to straightaway center field off reliever Connor Mondey who was ultimately saddled with his third loss of the season.

The leadoff hitter proved to be an issue again in the sixth when Wesley Scott doubled to open the frame and came in two batters later on a sac fly from McCoy to put LA Tech ahead 2-1.
Bearkat reliever Jonathan Anders entered and was stellar with 3.0 scoreless innings of his own to hold the home team where they were; however, the Bulldogs sat down 11 of the final 12 Bearkat hitters of the game to not allow a threat the rest of the way.

UP NEXT
The Kats will look to even the series with LA Tech on Friday night in the second game of the series. First pitch is set for 6:00 p.m. from JC Love Field and is scheduled to be aired on ESPN+.