BEAUMONT – The Sam Houston Bearkats used a 7-run eighth inning to stave off a sweep by Lamar, taking down the Cardinals, 9-3, in the series finale on Sunday at Vincent-Beck Stadium.
Easton Loyd had four hits to lead a 16-hit attack by the Kats (12-8, 4-2 WAC) that saw six players pick up at least one RBI.
Logan Hewitt picked up the win with 0.2 innings of relief, but it was starter
Matt Dillard who did yeoman's work, despite not factoring in the decision, logging 6.1 innings and leaving with a 2-0 lead in the seventh.
That no-decision was due to a 3-run seventh inning by the Cardinals (13-7, 5-1 WAC) that saw them cut the lead in half on a bases-loaded walk by Josh Blankenship and then take a 3-2 lead on a 2-run single with two outs by Kelby Wyler.
But the Cardinals committed their only error of the game to open the top of the eighth and that was the spark the Kats needed to take the lid off of things as Loyd promptly tied it up with an RBI double and then came in to score the eventual winning run on a single by
Walker Janek.
The Kats went on to score five more times in the inning, getting 2-run singles by both
Lane Brewster and
Justin Wishkoski, along with a RBI single from
Clayton Chadwick.
Wishkoski and Janek each finished with three hits, while
Myles Jefferson returned to the lineup and delivered a pair of hits and an RBI.
Joe Buckendorff took the loss for Lamar, allowing five runs on four hits without recording an out in the eighth inning.
Singles by Loyd and Janek quickly had the Kats in business in the second, and after a sacrifice bunt from Jefferson, got on the board first on the strength of a sacrifice fly off the bat of
Anthony MacKenzie.
From there, Dillard stayed in control, working out of a jam in the second before getting key double-play grounders in both the fifth and sixth to finish off those innings as well.
Sam Houston was not able to take advantage of a golden scoring opportunity in the fourth, but managed to up its lead to 2-0 in the sixth when Jefferson shot an RBI single to left field with one out in the inning to score
Trent Touchet.
But the seventh inning was costly for the Kats as Lamar pushed home three runs in the inning, taking the lead on Wyler's single; however, that advantage was short-lived as the Kats responded in kind with seven runs of their own.
Sam Houston will now play host to Houston on Tuesday in the rekindling of the battle for the Don Sanders Cup, the first meeting between the schools since 2019. The Kats will then head to Stephen F. Austin for a 3-game weekend series against the Lumberjacks, beginning Friday in Nacogdoches.
