HUNTSVILLE – The Sam Houston Bearkats got a trio of 3-hit games and erased an early deficit to even the series with UTRGV with a 10-7 win over the Vaqueros on Saturday at Don Sanders Stadium.
Walker Janek tied the game up with a 2-run homer in the second inning on his way to a 3-hit day, and the duo of
Clayton Chadwick and
Justin Wishkoski also had three hits apiece with a combined seven RBI to pace the Bearkat (16-11, 7-4 WAC) offense.
Chadwick finished with a pair of doubles and a career-best four RBI, while Wishkoski drove in three runs, including a key 2-run single in the eighth that provided necessary insurance.
On the mound,
Steven Beard evened his record at 2-2 with the win, allowing just two runs through 5.0 innings before getting touched up for three in the sixth.
Coltin Atkinson provided 1.1 innings of relief before handing it off to
Lance Lusk, who allowed a run in 2.0 innings for his fourth save of the year.
The Bearkat effort was enough to hand UTRGV starter Colten Davis his first loss of the year, dropping him to 4-1 after the Kats got to him for eight runs in 5.1 innings of work.
An RBI and a double steal had the Vaqueros up early on in the first inning before Janek's opposite-field blast knotted it up in the second. RBI hits from both Chadwick and Wishkoski followed in the inning, giving the Kats a 4-2 lead.
Two innings later the Kats tacked on another on an RBI single from Chadwick, and then made it 6-2 when
Easton Loyd doubled and scored on a pair of wild pitches.
Beard was cruising up to that point, but ran into trouble in the sixth when Bryan Sturges and Freddy Rojas each brought runs home before an RBI grounder by Jacob Sanchez cut the lead to 6-5; however, Atkinson came in and ended the jam and the Kats answered back with a 2-run double by Chadwick in the bottom of the inning to push the lead back to 8-5.
UTRGV cut it back to 8-6 an inning later on another RBI single by Sturges, and might have tied it up on a wild third strike on the final hitter of the inning if it weren't for a key defensive play from Janek behind the plate.
From there the Kats turned it over to Lusk who sat the Vaqueros down in order in the eighth and got two more insurance runs on a single by Wishkoski before finishing things off in the ninth.
The Kats and Vaqueros will close out the series on Sunday in the finale. First pitch is set for 1:00 p.m. and will be aired on the WAC Digital Network.
