Sam Houston State Bearkat baseball head coach Matt Deggs accomplished a handful of milestones in the Kats’ 12-2 win over the Houston Cougars on April 25.
First, Deggs clinched a victory in the first annual Sanders Cup, and to top it off, he eclipsed the century mark in career wins as a head coach. Deggs joined the Bearkat coaching staff in 2014 to replace former head coach David Pierce, and ever since the baseball program has flourished with success.
“I guess that’s a pretty special night,” Deggs said on the night of his 100 win. “To reach a milestone like one hundred and to do it with this group is special.”
Deggs was the third fastest SHSU baseball head coach to reach 100 wins, doing so in just 164 games. Mark Johnson did it from 2007-09 in 162 games, and David Pierce reached 100 wins in 155 games from 2012-14. After going a modest 31-28 in his first year, Deggs has had nothing but success in years two and three. Last season, Deggs led the Bearkats to a 42-22 record and led the team to both a Southland Conference regular season and tournament championships in the same season for the first time in program history.
Currently, the Bearkats sit at a 30-15 overall record and rank second in the SLC with a 15-6 conference record.
Even with the milestone, Deggs did what everyone who has been around him knows he likes to do, and that is give credit to everyone else within the program.
“It’s a team effort, it’s not about me,” Deggs said. “There’s three coaches in that dugout that coach extremely hard and make a lot of sacrifices, and there’s 33 players in there that play extremely hard and make a ton of sacrifices that all come from great families, so this is team reaching the milestone, it’s not just me.”
Deggs now sits at 103 career wins after notching two victories against McNeese State over the weekend and a win over UH on Tuesday. The Bearkats will now travel to Hammond, La. to take on the Southeastern Louisiana Lions in a three-game series starting Friday.
First pitch for Friday’s game is set to start at 6 p.m.