Bearkats battle back

By Tom Waddill
Sports Editor

April 30, 2008 01:02 am

— Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, Bearkats win.
Sam Houston State and Dallas Baptist played a wacky weekday game Tuesday night at Sanders Stadium in Huntsville. The Patriots and Bearkats traded the lead four times, they combined for 26 hits, 10 errors and five hit batters. In the end, the Kats scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth, then reliever Zac Baker made short work of the Patriots in the ninth, helping Sam Houston State hold onto a 10-8 victory.
“It was kind of like a heavyweight fight,” first baseman Nick Zaleski said after collecting three of the Bearkats’ 17 hits. “One time they’d go up, then we’d go up. Fortunately, we got to throw the last punch.”
The Bearkats (27-18) fell behind 8-7 in the seventh inning, but they scored the game’s final three runs. SHSU tied the score at 8 on Ryan Weber’s single in the bottom of the seventh. The Kats tacked on two more runs on RBI singles by Seth Hammock and Zaleski in the eighth.
That made a winner of SHSU senior Casey Springer (1-1), who pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings before handing the duties over to Baker. A senior from Nacogdoches, Baker struck out two of the four batters he faced in the ninth and picked up his third save this season.
“We hung in there offensively and threw good pitches at key spots,” SHSU coach Mark Johnson said. “We created some opportunities for them, but Baker, Casey and Matt Shelton pitched pretty well. The big thing tonight, though, was our hitters. They came up with lots of key hits and they battled with two outs.
“If you’re going to be sloppy, you’d better hit the ball, and we did tonight.”
Keith Stein, Bobby Verbick and Zaleski had three hits each for the Bearkats, who play at Baylor tonight at 6. Jaime Rohlmeier and Weber added two hits each, and Heath Pugh drove in a pair of runs with a single and a groundout.
Dallas Baptist (29-13) was led offensively by Trevor Head (2-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs), Nick Santos and Brandon Bantz, who had two hits apiece. The Patriots, who may be in line for an at-large spot in an NCAA regional, left 14 men on base against five SHSU pitchers.
“This is a huge win for us after losing (three games at Texas-San Antonio) last weekend,” Johnson said. “Dallas Baptist has a heck of a ballclub. They only had 12 losses coming in, so this is good for our RPI.”
The win was also good for the Bearkats’ psyche. They fought back from an early 3-0 deficit with five runs in the fourth. They added a pair of runs in the fifth, then after Dallas Baptist grabbed an 8-7 lead, Johnson’s hitters kept going to the plate with an aggressive attitude.
Rohlmeier’s single and subsequent steal of second started the game-tying rally. Then Stein started the eighth-inning rally by reaching out and looping a single to left off freshman reliever Chris Haney (6-3). Verbick dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move Stein into scoring position. Stein raced to third on a groundout by Ryan Trevino.
Hammock drove a single past a diving Head at third base to plate Stein. After Hammock moved to second on a wild pitch, Zaleski lined a single to right that gave SHSU a little breathing room.
“Hitting’s contagious, especially when you start at the top of your lineup,” Zaleski said. “We got those two hits in the first inning and that kind of set the tone. We didn’t catch a break and score a run in that inning, but we knew we were putting some good swings on them. “
After leaving a pair of runners on base in the first two innings, the Patriots finally got on the board in the third, thanks to two hit batters and a rare error by Stein in center field. Sam Houston State starter Cody Springer plunked both Austin Knight and Evan Bigley to lead off the inning, then Andrew Pirtle singled to right to load the bases.
Johnson brought freshman lefty Spencer Parish out of the bullpen to face Head, Dallas Baptist’s most potent hitter. A right-hander from Colleyville, Head (.333, 12 HRs, 39 RBIs, .629 slugging) lifted a high fly to left that Stein raced over to grab. The fly ball hit in, then bounced out of Stein’s glove, allowing two runs to score.
Dallas Baptist added a run in the fourth on a double by Knight, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter Bradshaw Perry.
The Bearkats came alive in the bottom of the fourth, sending 10 men to the plate and scoring five runs. Verbick began the rally when he slapped a single to right. Two consecutive errors by Knight at shortstop led to the Kats’ first run and opened the floodgates for a big inning. Pugh had an RBI single, Rohlmeier delivered a sacrifice fly and Stein plated two more runs with a single to right that put Sam on top 5-3.
Dallas Baptist came back with single runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Head cranked a solo homer in the fifth that soared over the scoreboard and tied the game at 5.
SHSU scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth on hits by Rohlmeier and Weber. The Patriots responded with two runs and tied the score again in the sixth inning.
After tonight’s game at Baylor, the Bearkats return home Friday for the start of a three-game series against Northwestern State. Game time Friday is 6:30 p.m.
SHSU (12-9 in Southland play) currently sits in third place in the West Division, behind Texas-San Antonio (17-4 in SLC, 32-12 overall) and Texas State (14-7 in SLC, 24-18). Texas-Arlington and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (both 11-10 in SLC) are hot on the Kats’ heels. Stephen F. Austin (6-14 in SLC) sits in the cellar.