Sam Houston Wins Championship with 9-4 Win Over Central Arkansas
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SUGAR LAND, Texas - Sam Houston State defeated Central Arkansas 9-4 in Saturday night's Southland Conference Baseball Tournament championship at Constellation Field.
The Bearkats led from the beginning and rolled to a convincing win to claim the league's automatic berth in next week's NCAA Baseball tournament. Indications were that Sam Houston State needed to win the league tournament to play in an NCAA Regional for the fifth time in six years. They removed all doubt as they staked themselves to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning and never gave it back, capping a week that saw them lead for 31 of 34 innings played.
"This group is tenacious," said Bearkats head coach Matt Deggs. "At moments like this, you like to look back at the journey and where you've come from. This group has had a lot of ups and downs. All we've done all year is respond and continue to get up and work. We never flinched or backed up. The team stayed together. We're playing really good baseball."
Sam Houston starter Dakota Mills got his team off to a roaring start on the mound, retiring the first 13 hitters he faced on his way to pitching 5 2/3 innings for his seventh win of the year. Meanwhile, tournament Most Valuable player Robie Rojas put the Bearkats on the board first as the number three seed capitalized on two early Bears miscues to score three unearned runs and establish a lead they would never relinquish.
In the top of the first, Bryce Johnson worked a walk before moving to second on a fielding error on Andrew Fregia's ground ball. Rojas then stepped in and delivered a single to left field, scoring Johnson.
Sam Houston pushed two more across an inning later. Hunter Hearn's smash to third base leading off the inning was misplayed, and two batters later Taylor Beene hit into a fielder's choice to bring Hearn home to make it 2-0. Later that same inning, Johnson singled to center driving home Beene to put the score at 3-0.
The Kats scored again in the fourth when Beene's ground ball to second brought it Hearn. Meanwhile, Mills had things on cruise control until running into Justin McCarty with one out in the fifth. The Central Arkansas catcher worked a 12-pitch at-bat against Mills before launching a 3-2 pitch into the left-field porch for the first Bears hit of the night to cut the score to 4-1.
An inning later, the Central Arkansas cut into the lead again when Jansen McCurdy doubled to the wall, scoring Keaton Presley to make it 4-2.
But Sam Houston State blew the ballgame open in the seventh frame, scoring three runs on four hits. The first came courtesy of a Hearn RBI single through he left side that allowed Clayton Harp to cross home plate. Beene then delivered a two-RBI single up the middle that plated Hearn and Blake Chisolm and making it 7-2.
The Bearkats added on in the eighth with a pair of runs, the first on Harp's single to right, scoring Rojas. Sam Houston's ninth and final run came two batters later when Blake Chisolm's single to right field scored Fregia.
Central Arkansas, who finishes at 34-26, managed two runs in the bottom of the eighth when a ball off the bat of Rico Aguilar was misplayed in the infield and McCurdy and Michael Haun scored.
Sam Houston will learn where it will go for NCAA Regional play on Monday when the baseball selection committee announces the field and brackets on ESPN2 Monday at 11 a.m. CST. This will be the Bearkats 11
th NCAA Regional appearance.
Sam Houston now stands at 40-20, giving them back-to-back 40-win seasons for the first time as a Division I program.
Southland Conference Tournament Honorees
Tournament Most Valuable Player
Robie Rojas - Sam Houston State
All-Tournament Team (position players)
Robie Rojas - Sam Houston State
Blake Chisolm - Sam Houston State
Brooks Balisterri - Central Arkansas
Hunter Hearn - Sam Houston State University
Hezekiah Randolph - New Orleans
Keaton Presley - Central Arkansas
Spencer Halloran - Houston Baptist
Eddie Sanchez - Central Arkansas
Christian Thames - Houston Baptist
All-Tournament Team (pitchers)
Heath Donica - Sam Houston State
Brandon Hagerla - Central Arkansas
Zach Carter - Houston Baptist