Sam Houston State baseball travels to Abilene Christian this weekend as the Bearkats ride a six-game winning streak.
“Out toughness is really starting to show right now,” SHSU head coach Matt Deggs said.
The 20-19 Kats come off a midweek 5-0 victory against the Texas Longhorns on Tuesday. The Kats currently sit fifth in the Southland Conference and own the longest current winning-streak in the conference.
The 8-26 Wildcats come off midweek losses against Texas Tech and Texas A&M. ACU sits in 10th place in the SLC and own a five-game losing streak.
The Kats are batting .288 at the dish, tied for third in the conference. SHSU also has five players batting over .300, including senior Travis Lee who is in the top-10 in the SLC in batting average.
The Wildcats own a .246 team batting average, 11th in the SLC. No ACU starter bats .300 or better and the Wildcats are dead last in runs, homeruns, RBIs and walks.
Pitching has been strong for SHSU this season as the Kats hold a 3.62 ERA. The Wildcats rank 10th with a 4.58 ERA in the SLC on the mound.
Senior Andrew Godail takes the mound for the Kats on Friday while junior Logan Boyd takes the mid-series start on Saturday. Sophomore Sam Odom finishes the series Sunday with the start for SHSU.
Deggs attributes the Kats’ recent success to his team’s pitching.
“Our starters need to continue to go out and set a great tone,” Deggs said. “Then we need to continue to get our swings off at the plate. We need to continue to play team baseball with a tough mindset.”
First pitch Friday is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Crutcher Scott Field.
The Kats won their sixth-straight game with a 5-0 victory over the Texas Longhorns on Tuesday in Austin.
“It was a good win for us from a standpoint of we’ve grinded all year long,” Deggs said. “It was good to be able to go on the road and all play together, execute together and enjoy a great team win together.”
SHSU shut out the Longhorns behind strong pitching from both senior Alex Bisacca and junior Jordan Church.
Bisacca took the mound for his first start of the season and delivered four innings allowing only one hit. Bisacca struck out three and walked none.
“Bisacca is what I call a utility guy,” Deggs said. “As you saw [Tuesday] night, he had no problem starting. We will continue to use him where we see fit.”
Church backed him up with five innings, allowing two hits and striking out four.
The Kats’ offense rode on a two-run fourth inning and a three-run seventh inning as SHSU recorded 12 hits in the game.
Junior Spence Rahm led the Kats going 3-for-4 at the dish with a pair of runs and an RBI. Lee added two hits for the Kats, joining Rahm as the only two Kats to record a multi-hit game.
The Kats scored three runs in the seventh all with two-outs. A pair of singles and doubles from the middle of the lineup produced the insurance runs for the Kats.
The Kats’ six-game winning-streak is the longest of their season.
“Over the last week and a half, we’ve started playing a good brand of baseball,” Deggs said. “We’ve started functioning really well together and the team is really meshing. I like the direction we are heading.”