EDINBURG – The Sam Houston Bearkats scored five runs in the top of the ninth inning to withstand a frantic rally from UTRGV and secure a series win with a 15-11 victory over the Vaqueros on Sunday afternoon at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
Sam Houston (29-21, 19-8 WAC) still leads Lamar by two games in the WAC Southwest Division standings with just three games remaining to be played. The Kats can secure the outright division title and a top seed in the WAC Tournament with as little as two victories over Abilene Christian, or one win over the Wildcats and one loss by the Cardinals against Tarleton.
The Kats had jumped out to a 10-2 lead over UTRGV (30-22, 15-12 WAC) on the strength of a 7-run second inning and three more runs in the sixth; however, consecutive 4-run frames by the Vaqueros knotted things up at 10-10 in the eighth and made for an intense final frame.
But it was Sam Houston that was able to respond, scoring five times with two outs before freshman
Braden Davis was able to get the final two outs to close it out in the bottom half of the inning.
Davis retired the only two hitters he faced to earn his first career save, while
Lance Lusk was credited with his fourth win of the year.
Coltin Atkinson looked to be in line for his fifth victory of the season until the Vaquero rally, striking out five and allowing just two runs through his first 6.0 innings before back-to-back homers by Freddy Rojas Jr. and Chris Mondesi tacked three runs onto his ledger in the seventh.
Offensively,
Carlos Contreras finished with three hits and four RBI to lead the way, while
Lane Brewster also picked up three RBI and had a pair of hits in seven at-bats in the game.
Easton Loyd hit safely four times and drove in three, while
Myles Jefferson turned in his first career 4-hit game and added three RBI to his total as well.
The Kats were menaces all day to the eight UTRGV pitchers who came to the hill, drawing 12 walks in the game, four coming from
Justin Wishkoski who also scored three times.
For the Vaqueros, Zach Tjelemeland took the loss, falling to 1-1 on the year after allowing all five runs in the ninth.
Despite an early 1-0 deficit after a solo homer by UTRGV's Brandon Pimentel in the first inning, the Kats got the bats going quickly, striking for seven runs in the top of the seventh with six of the seven runs coming with two outs.
Jefferson tied the game at 1-1 with an RBI single, but it was a 2-out, 3-run double by Brewster that broke the inning open and made it a 4-1 score. Three batters later Contreras matched the feat with a 3-run double of his own to cap the inning.
Atkinson allowed another run in the third, but from there had things on lockdown, cruising through the sixth inning while UTRGV found a stopgap in reliever JC Ariza who pitched 3.0 strong innings before running out of gas in the sixth. Back-to-back walks to Brewster and
Clayton Chadwick started that inning and then consecutive RBI hits from Contreras,
Walker Janek and Loyd followed to give the Kats a 10-2 lead going into the seventh.
But that was when the Vaqueros began to get going, cutting the lead to 10-6 on homers by Rojas, Mondesi and Cameron Blake. One inning later they were able to load the bases with two outs, forcing the Kats to go to Lusk with a 4-run lead; however, the Kats' closer surrendered a bases-loaded walk and then a 3-run double to Isaac Lopez that tied it up at 10-10.
UTRGV then went to Tjelmeland and he was his own worst enemy, issuing a pair of walks and hitting a batter to load the bases with one out. He managed to dial up a key strikeout of Contreras for the second out, but then issued a run-scoring walk to Janek to put the Kats up 11-10. Loyd and Jefferson then each followed with 2-run hits to once again give SHSU a 5-run cushion with three outs to go.
Unfortunately, Lusk struggled to find the zone in the final inning, loading the bases on free passes with one out before head coach
Jay Sirianni made the change to Davis. The freshman entered and promptly did his job, getting a weak ground out of Rojas and a fly ball off the bat of Mondesi to end things.
