Published: June 01, 2008 01:32 am            

Unhappy ending

HOUSTON — A battle-tested Texas team took advantage of a green Sam Houston State pitching staff Saturday afternoon at the NCAA’s Houston Regional.

Back-to-back home runs by center fielder Jordan Danks and right fielder Kyle Russell off Bearkat sophomore Ryan Tepera in the first inning set the tone early as the Longhorns coasted to a 13-3 elimination-game victory at Reckling Park.

A day after freshman Dallas Gallant came close to leading Sam Houston (37-25) to a win over Rice in the regional opener, Texas (38-21) jumped all over Tepera and freshmen Brent Powers and Zach Neal, who were all pitching in the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

The Longhorns scored 12 runs in the first two innings, while Texas ace Chance Ruffin (8-3) shut down the Bearkat offense, striking out 10 and only allowing one run in six innings to earn the win.

“Obviously it was a tough day for the Bearkats to give up a 12 spot in the first two innings,” SHSU coach Mark Johnson said. “It makes it a lot tougher in a game when you lose your short game and other stuff when it gets away from you that much. We just didn’t match up early and I thought Ryan was up with it and he just didn’t match with them real good.

“We went through quite a few pitchers and put up some goose eggs as we got going. But it’s typical in a game like that — a blowout that early — it is very tough to make a comeback.”

The Longhorns scored three runs in the first. Michael Torres, who went 4-for-5 with four RBIs, led off with a single to left on the first pitch of the game. Danks followed with a shot down the right-field line that stayed fair long enough to get out of the park for a two-run blast.

Russell followed with a solo homer to right before Tepera (3-3) could get out of the inning, but Texas was just starting to heat up.

With one out in the top of the second, Travis Tucker ripped a blast to left that SHSU left fielder Ryan Trevino went all-out for, but the senior banged into the wall and the ball dropped out of his glove for a triple. Torres made it 4-0 with an RBI single and Danks drew a walk to keep the rally going.

The Kats brought in Powers to try to get out of the jam, but after working a full count, he surrendered a monster three-run bomb to Russell, his second of the game, that sailed over the center-field wall to make it 7-0. Texas went on to score five more runs, highlighted by a two-run single by third baseman Preston Clark and a two-run triple by Torres before Neal closed out the inning.

“It’s like I always say, and I said yesterday, that we have our backs against the wall. We have had our backs against the wall the whole entire year,” Russell said. “We have actually came through with our adversity and been able to play better baseball. We showed that today.”

The Bearkats got runners on in the first two innings but couldn’t find a way to answer the Longhorns’ rapid-fire start.

Sam Houston finally got on the board in the bottom of the third when third baseman Seth Hammock laced a double down the left-field line to bring in shortstop Ryan Weber, who singled to begin the frame.

That was all the damage the Kats could do with Ruffin mowing down batters left and right. Sam Houston got seven hits off the freshman right-hander, but a strikeout here and a ball hit directly at someone ended any threat of a possible comeback.

“(Ruffin) established two pitches and he was hitting his spots real well,” SHSU center fielder Keith Stein said. “That helped him out a lot but whenever we hit the ball it was either right at them or didn’t fall for us today.”

A prime example of the Kats’ inability to produce runs came in the top of the seventh when Texas reliever Kyle Walker walked the bases load to begin the frame. The Longhorns quickly brought Keith Shinaberry out of the bullpen and he gave up a sacrifice fly by Stein, but Bobby Verbick hit into a 5-4-3 double play to get out of the jam.

Neal kept the Longhorns off the board in the fourth and fifth innings before giving up a run in the sixth on a double by Torres. Matt Shelton, Adam Albright and Zac Baker each tossed a scoreless inning to close out the game, the Bearkats just never could cut into Texas’ commanding lead.

Stein finished the scoring for the Bearkats with an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth. The senior from College Station went 2-for-4 with two runs driven in. Trevino and Weber each recorded two hits, while senior Todd Sebek and freshman Braeden Riley also added singles in the loss.

“The first two innings we obviously got off to a good start,” Texas head coach Augie Garrido said. “We hit the ball hard and often and scored a lot of runs. It controlled the momentum of the game and we kind of got into a rhythm. We settled into the lead that we had and we scored one more run and that was it. The game was pretty much decided in the first two innings.”

        

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