HOUSTON – After Sam Houston State scored a run in the top of the first, HBU answered with four in the bottom half, then senior lefthander
Christian Thames blanked the Bearkats the rest of the way as the Huskies clinched the Southland Conference series with a 9-1 victory Saturday afternoon at Husky Field.
Thames (7-3) went the distance for the third time this season, allowing one unearned run on four hits with four strikeouts and no walks on 109 pitches.
Senior centerfielder
Zane Otten went 3-for-5 with a double and scored twice, while junior first baseman
Jake Pulcheon went 2-for-3 with a double, drove in two and scored a run for the Huskies (25-20, 17-9 SLC). Senior rightfielder
Brandon Brintz tripled and scored three times, junior leftfielder
Spencer Halloran went 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and scored twice and junior shortstop
Tyler Depreta-Johnson and senior designated hitter
Joe Van Marter each drove in two runs.
Kyle Backhus (3-4) took the loss for SHSU (32-19, 16-10), giving up six runs on five hits in 1.1 innings. Jordan Cannon tossed 3.2 scoreless innings in relief.
Andrew Fregia went 1-for-3 and scored the only run for the Bearkats, with Bryce Johnson driving him in with a single. Riley McKnight and Hunter Hearn, who doubled, had one hit each.
Fregia was hit by a pitch to lead off the game, went to second on a sacrifice bunt, then took third on a passed ball. Johnson then slapped a single to left to give the Bearkats an early lead.
Otten led off the Huskies' half of frame with a single to right, then Brintz was hit by a pitch. Halloran laid down a sacrifice bunt, but SHSU catcher Robie Rojas tried to force out Otten at third and the throw sailed into leftfield, allowing Otten to tie the game and put runners on the corners. Pulcheon followed with an RBI single to put the Huskies ahead. Senior catcher
Blake Thomas was hit by a pitch to load the bases with two outs, then Van Marter delivered a two-run single to right to extend HBU's lead to 4-1.
Hearn led off the second with a double to left, but was stranded there, then the Bearkats did not get another hit off of Thames until Fregia and McKnight's back-to-back singles with one out in the eighth.
Brintz tripled into the rightfield corner in the second, then scored on Halloran's RBI single. Senior third baseman
Austin Zillweger's RBI single up the middle made the score 6-1.
Halloran and Pulcheon had back-to-back doubles in the sixth, then Depreta-Johnson added a two-run single in the eighth to cap the scoring.
By virtue of its win, HBU clinched a spot in the Southland Conference Tournament May 24-27 at Constellation Field in Sugar Land, Texas.
The series concludes Sunday at 2 p.m. and will be the Huskies' final home game of the season. The video and Legacy Sports Network audio broadcasts with
Russ Reneau begin at 1:45 with the pregame show and are available on HBUHuskies.com.
