NACOGDOCHES – Carlos Contreras hit a pair of home runs and drove in six runs for the second time this year on Saturday in a 9-7 win for Sam Houston over Stephen F. Austin at Jaycees Field.
The Kats (13-10, 5-3 WAC) evened the series with the win and will have a chance to win its first road series of the season on Sunday in the finale.
Contreras was the cornerstone of a 1-2-3 punch that included
Clayton Chadwick and
Justin Wishkoski that combined for seven of the Kats' 10 hits in the game and seven of the runs scored.
Chadwick scored three times on a pair of hits, while Wishkoski hit safely three times, scored twice and drove in a run.
Steven Beard got the start and punched out five in 5.0 innings, but it was
Coltin Atkinson who picked up his second win of the year with an inning of relief, leaving the bases loaded in a scoreless sixth inning.
Alex Havlicek allowed one run in a bridge inning to
Lance Lusk who threw the final 2.0 innings to log his third save of the year.
Sam Houston got the bats going early, putting up three runs in the top of the first on an RBI double from Wishkoski and a 2-run homer to left field by Contreras. But SFA (5-15, 1-7 WAC) was able to answer back in the home half of the second, putting up three runs of their own to tie it up on a 2-run single by Kanin Dodge.
One inning later the Jacks went in front when Cameron Crawford launched a 2-run homer over the left-center field wall.
But Contreras cut the lead to 5-4 in the fifth with a sacrifice fly and after Atkinson worked out of a bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the fifth,
Wes Folse delivered a 2-out RBI single that knotted things at 5-5.
It stayed that way until the seventh when hits by Chadwick and Wishkoski set the table for Conrtreras, who blasted a 3-run homer out to center field off of reliever Grant Walters to surge the Kats in front 8-5.
Christian Smith added another run on a sacrifice fly later in the inning, pushing the lead to 9-5.
SFA managed to get a run apiece in the seventh and eighth, but no closer as Lusk handled the final two frames.
The Kats and Jacks will finish out the weekend series on Sunday at Jaycees Field. First pitch is set for 1:00 p.m. and will be aired on ESPN+.
