Published: May 16, 2008 12:52 am            

Kats rally back, down Jacks 10-4

Verbick, Hammock account for 7 of SHSU’s 16 hits in win over rival SFA

It may seem odd for an All-American outfielder to be talking about his team’s “biggest weakness” moments after a convincing victory. But that’s exactly what Bobby Verbick did Thursday night following the Bearkats’ 10-4 win over longtime rival Stephen F. Austin at Sanders Stadium.

Verbick collected three of the Bearkats’ 16 hits in the opening game of the final Southland Conference series of the regular season. A first-team All-American last spring, Verbick drove in a pair of runs and scored three times Thursday.

After the game Verbick didn’t talk much about his latest offensive production. Rather, he spoke of his team’s slow start against SFA ace Lance Luetge.

The Bearkats waited until they fell behind 4-1 before exploding for nine runs in the game’s final four innings.

“Sometimes it’s a matter of us not doing what we need to do early in games,” Verbick said. “That’s one of our biggest weaknesses, not setting the pace.

“We’ve got a ton of confidence and that’s why we come back when we’re down.”

The Bearkats, who improved to 17-11 in SLC play and 32-22 overall, came back in a big way Thursday. Verbick’s double in the fifth plated both Todd Sebek and Keith Stein, then Seth Hammock tied the game when he rolled a seeing-eye single through the infield to drive home Verbick.

Two innings later, the Kats pounded out five more hits and scored three more runs. Verbick and Hammock got that rally started with a pair of singles. Nick Zaleski and Ryan Trevino followed with RBI singles; Heath Pugh lifted a sacrifice fly to make it 7-4.

The Kats got three more runs in the eighth. Stein singled, stole a base and scored on a wild pitch. Later, Verbick and pinchrunner Braeden Riley scored on Zaleski’s single to left.

Hammock went 4-for-4 Thursday with two RBIs, Trevino added three hits and an RBI, Zaleski drove in three runs with a pair of hits and Sebek scored twice and had two hits.

“This is a fun lineup to be a part of,” said Verbick, who upped his season batting average to .360 on Thursday. “Everyone swings it great and pitchers have to go after every hitter. This is definitely one of the best lineups I’ve ever been a part of.”

Freshman right-hander Dallas Gallant (7-3) hung tough through some early trouble and picked up his seventh Southland win. Gallant gave up six hits, four runs and three walks in eight innings of work. He struck out six, including Lumberjacks leadoff man Neal Trevino with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the second.

“I didn’t have my best stuff at first,” said Gallant, who improved to 7-1 in SLC games. “Our offense got us back in the game tonight. Once we got that momentum back we had to keep it. I kept telling myself just to keep us in the game because I know you can’t keep our offense down. We can hit the ball, so it was just a matter of time before we scored some runs.”

Once the Bearkats busted out the bats, Gallant got stronger and the defense improved dramatically behind him. Gallant retired nine batters in a row after SFA scored three runs in the fifth. Freshman Justin Jackson came out of the pen and pitched a perfect ninth inning for Sam Houston State.

In the field, the Bearkats buckled down after making three errors in the first three innings. Late in the game, coach Mark Johnson’s team made two terrific plays. First, left fielder Ryan Trevino ranged into foul ground and reached over the fence to track down a fly ball. An inning later Zaleski made an acrobatic over-the-shoulder catch on a Matt Whatley pop.

“It took us a while to get going tonight,” Johnson said after a long talk with his team. “I thought Dallas gave us a chance to come back, but we can’t wait to see what the other team is going to do. We’ve got to jump on teams early in the game, especially with our tournament coming up. In tournaments there is no tomorrow.”

The Kats have two more games with SFA — today at 3 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m. — before turning their attention to the Southland Conference Tournament, which is coming to Huntsville next week.

SHSU currently sits in fifth place in the Southland standings, but the Bearkats only trail fourth-place Northwestern State by half a game. Lamar and Texas State, both winners on Thursday, remained tied for second at 18-10. Texas-San Antonio (21-7) has already clinched the top spot in the tournament.

Stephen F. Austin dropped to 11-16 in Southland play Thursday and fell out of contention for a spot in the eight-team tourney.

        

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