HUNTSVILLE – The Sam Houston Bearkats finished off a massive offensive weekend with a 19-7 win over Texas Southern, completing a 3-game sweep of the Tigers at Don Sanders Stadium.
Sam Houston (7-5) crushed four home runs in the game, including a pair in a 7-run first inning that set the tone early on for the afternoon. The Kats had 11 runs on the board after just three frames and continued to add on, fishing up the weekend with 50 total runs scored in the 3-game set.
Carlos Contreras once again led the way, capping off a huge weekend with a 3-for-5 day that saw him drive in four more runs, giving him an astounding 15 RBI in the series. His 2-run triple in the first inning put the Kats in front, and he was followed by plenty more offense, including a 3-RBI day from
Trent Touchet.
TSU (6-7) had scored first off of SHSU starter
Steven Beard in the opening inning, but
Christian Smith wasted no time in tying it up with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first. Contreras followed with his triple and after RBI from both Touchet and
Jacob Guerrero,
Walker Janek blasted his first collegiate homer out to left field to give the Kats a 7-1 lead.
Touchet picked up another RBI in the second on a double and two batters later Guerrero got in on the power surge with a 2-run homer of his own. An RBI from
Justin Wishkoski in the third made it an 11-4 ballgame and saw the Kats turn it over to the pen with
Cole Wesneski entering for what would be 3.0 innnings of strong relief.
He picked up his second win of the season with his effort, allowing just one earned run on one hit in his span, punching out four Tigers before giving the ball to
Alex Havlicek who tossed a scoreless seventh.
Meanwhile, the Kats added on with RBI from
Clayton Chadwick and Wishkoski in the fifth, and then three more runs in the seventh on RBI from Contreras and Touchet again. Freshman
Hunter Autrey then capped the scoring in the eighth with a pinch-hit, 2-run homer over the left-field wall in his first collegiate at-bat.
Needless to say, that effort was more than enough for
Lance Lusk who finished things off by tossing the final 2.0 innings in his first appearance of the weekend.
The Kats do not have a midweek on the slate for the upcoming week, but will open up WAC play on Friday when it hosts Tarleton in the opener of a 3-game set. It will be the first time Sam Houston and Tarleton have met on the diamond since 1969.
