Sam Houston State baseball dropped its weekend series 1-2 against Central Arkansas.
In Sunday’s decisive series finale, the Bearkats never held a lead in the Bears’ 6-4 win.
The Bears scored a run in each of the first two innings as the Kats could not find a way to overcome their deficit and take the lead. SHSU put a run in the fourth inning to join the Bears on the scoreboard, but the Kats gave up three unearned runs in the fifth inning and another run in the sixth. The Kats added three runs in the final two innings, including a home run from junior Spence Rahm, but the Bears’ lead was too much to overcome.
Despite the Kats outhitting the Bears 10-8, two errors on the SHSU scoreboard were the difference in the finale.
The Kats and Bears opened the series Friday with a come-from-behind 4-3 win for UCA.
The Kats scored three runs in the second inning but could not record a hit for the rest of the game. UCA junior Connor Gilmore pitched a complete game for the Bears, giving up four hits and three runs all in the first two innings. The Bears answered the Kats in the second with a run of their own and added another three runs in the sixth to finish their comeback.
It took 13 innings to complete Saturday’s game between the two Southland Conference foes as the Kats took the extra innings win 6-3.
SHSU junior Ryan Brinley and senior Wyatt Powell delivered the winning runs for the Kats. Brinley knocked a two-run double, and Powell an RBI fielder’s choice to give the Kats their lone win in the series.
UCA trailed SHSU 3-0 in the eighth inning but three runs in the final two innings forced the game to go into extra innings. SHSU junior Logan Boyd delivered seven strong innings on the mound, giving up only three hits. Sophomore Sam Odom allowed three runs on four hits in his relief of Boyd, and junior Greg Bolton received the win allowing only two hits in the final four innings.
Following the weekend series, SHSU moves to 14-16 for the season and 7-5 in the SLC.
The Kats travel to College Station today for a non-conference game against Texas A&M. The 27-2 Aggies won two-of-three games against Missouri this past weekend, including their first home loss of the season. The Aggies began the season winning their first 24 games and have gone 3-2 since.
First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Blue Bell Park where A&M currently holds a 21-1 record.
