Texas State’s Kane Holbrooks allowed just one run in 8.0 innings to improve to 2-0 on the season as the Bobcats took a 9-6 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.-Courtesy: Southland.org
Texas State 9 at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 6
The Texas State baseball team held a 9-1 lead over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with Kane Holbrooks on the mound, but costly relief in the final frame nearly saw the win disappear, but the Bobcats managed to hold off the charge for a 9-6 win at Whataburger Field Saturday afternoon.
Texas State improves to 5-2 on the season and 2-0 in league action, while A&M-Corpus Christi falls to 1-6 and 0-2, respectively.
Holbrooks faced 32 batters in eight innings and allowed just one run off eight hits to earn his second win of the season. The senior retired the side in the fourth and seventh and grabbed four strikeouts.
Brett Carnline took the loss for A&M-Corpus Christi after allowing six runs, three of which were earned, off six hits in 4.0 innings. The Islanders went through five pitchers in today’s losing decision.
Columbia 0 at Lamar 12
Columbia 4 at Lamar 16
Taking advantage of the wind blowing out, Lamar University played long ball belting nine home runs en route to a doubleheader sweep of Columbia University Saturday afternoon at Vincent-Beck Stadium.
Lamar (9-0) won game one 12-0 and followed with a 16-4 win in game two. Both games ended in the seventh inning due to the 10-run rule. The Cardinals and Lions will conclude the four-game series with a 12 noon game Sunday. This is the best start to a season in school history, surpassing the 8-0 start by the 1968 team.
As impressive as Lamar’s hitting was Saturday, the pitching staff continues to keep the opposition off the scoreboard. After shutting out the Lions 3-0 on Friday and 12-0 in game one Saturday, Columbia didn’t score its first run until the top of the seventh inning of game two. That ended a stretch of 30 consecutive scoreless innings by the Lamar pitching staff dating back to Wednesday’s win over Siena.
The top of the order provided plenty of offensive punch for the Cardinals in the doubleheader sweep. Tyler Link went a combined 5-for-7 with four runs scored, a triple, a home run and four runs batted in from the leadoff spot. He also extended his hitting streak to eight games. Two-hole hitter Brian Taylor was 4-for-7 with two runs scored, a home run and five RBI.
Houston Baptist 0 at Northwestern State 4
Northwestern State got another stellar pitching performance on Saturday when starter Kyle Broughton threw seven scoreless innings and allowing just five hits as the Demons blanked Houston Baptist 4-0 for their second consecutive shutout.
The Demons improve to 4-3 on the season while Houston Baptist falls to 0-5.
Broughton (1-0) followed the footsteps of Jimmy Heard to threw eight shutout innings and striking out 14 on Friday night. Broughton whiffed eight batters on Saturday in blustery cold conditions and walked just three.
“He did a nice job for us,” Northwestern coach J.P. Davis said. “He made some mistakes early on, but he’s been here a while and has a lot of experience.
D.D. Lott pitched the final two innings allowing just one hit while striking out two.
Offensively, the Demons had just six hits but managed to get them when needed.
Louisiana Tech 5 at McNeese State 10
Louisiana Tech 6 at McNeese State 16
McNeese State used a sterling pitching effort by Tyler Davis in the first game and then ran the boards in the second for a twinbill baseball sweep over Louisiana Tech here Saturday.
With Davis hurling 7.1 innings of two hit, one run ball, the Cowboys posted a 10-5 first game victory and came back with a 16-6 second game triumph, scoring 10 runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.
The two teams will meet up in the third game of their series on Sunday at 1 p.m., righthander Jonathan Conrad (1-0) set to be on the mound for the Cowboys.
The double win knocked Tech from its undefeated seating and gave the Cowboys six wins in seven outings. Tech is now 4-2.
McNeese head coach Terry Burrows said that he felt there were some good pitching efforts by the Cowboys during the twinbill, noting Davis’ first game performance and then relief efforts by Todd Fontenot and Jordan LeGros in the second game.
The Cowboys also collected some timely hits. They rapped Tech pitching for 26 hits and shortstop Shon Landry had a bundle of them.
Nebraska 8 at Sam Houston State 1
Nicholls State 8 at Mississippi State 10
Nicholls State 3 at Mississippi State 6
Nicholls State dropped both games of a doubleheader at Mississippi State Saturday afternoon, falling 10-8 in game one, and dropping a 6-3 decision in the second game.
The Colonels (3-4) and Bulldogs were schedule to play Friday night, but due to inclement weather in the Starkville area, the game was changed to a doubleheader Saturday afternoon.
Sacred Heart 13 at Southeastern Louisiana 8
The Southeastern Louisiana University baseball team (3-3) scored five times in the final three frames and sent nine men to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, but it was too little too late for the Lions to overcome a strong early showing from the Sacred Heart Pioneers (1-1) in a 13-8 loss in game two of this three-game weekend series on Saturday.
The Pioneers jumped out to an early lead, like they did in Friday’s series opener. Sacred Heart plated three in the first and one in the second.
Southeastern answered, however, as an RBI single by Jordan D’Arensbourg in the second got the Lions on the board and a two-run third kept Southeastern within one of Sacred Heart at 4-3 after three.
Unfortunately, for the Lions, the Pioneers began pulling away with a three run fourth inning, five more in the fifth and one more in the seventh to claim a 13-3 lead at the stretch.
The Lions began mounting a comeback effort in the home half of the seventh by sending seven men to the plate. Southeastern took advantage of some costly Pioneer miscues as sophomore center fielder Cass Hargis and senior shortstop Ty Summerlin reached on consecutive errors. An RBI groundout from senior left fielder Brandon Street and a squeeze bunt from sophomore catcher Josh Cryer brought the Lions to within 13-5.
Sam Houston State 15 vs Missouri State 11
South Dakota State 7 at Central Arkansas 8
The University of Central Arkansas Bears rallied with five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday to take an 8-7 victory over South Dakota State at a snowy Bear Stadium.
UCA (4-3) got help from the Jackrabbits (1-4) in the seventh, contributing three errors to go along with UCA’s three hits. The Bears trailed 7-3 heading into the inning but senior third baseman Jonathan Yerby started it with a one-out infield single. Back-to-back errors loaded the bases before Bobby Pritchett walked to score the first run.
SDSU brought in reliever Kirby Morsching and Tye Throneberry greeted him with an RBI single to deep second base, making it 7-5. Dillon Smith then hit a ground ball to shortstop Scott Hood, who forced Throneberry at second but then threw wildly to first, allowing two runs to score and tying the game.
Sophomore outfielder Casey Cooper then gave the Bears the lead with a single up the middle that scored Smith with the go-ahead run.
Junior Bobby Pritchett left his shortstop spot to close it out for the Bears and struck out two of the three batters in the ninth for his first save.
Stephen F. Austin 2 vs Illinois 4
One day after scoring a dozen runs and registering 14 hits, the SFA bats were held in check by Illinois’ Aaron Martin, who tossed eight innings as Illinois defeated the ‘Jacks 4-2 on Saturday at the Al Ogletree Classic.
SFA (2-4) got a good outing from starter Erich Lehmann, who was coming off a disappointing first start of the year a week ago at Louisiana-Monroe. But the senior took the loss despite responding with his longest start since March of 2008, going 6.2 innings with seven strikeouts and no walks. He allowed all four runs, however only two were earned.
Martin earned the win for the Illini (4-1) and has yet to allow an earned run in a 12 innings this season.
In addition to Martin’s performance, Illinois also capitalized on four Lumberjack fielding errors. It was already the second time this season in only six games that SFA has committed four miscues.
Adam Bosley gave SFA hope in the ninth inning with an RBI-single with two outs to get SFA to 4-2, but with runners at first and second Illinois reliever Nick Chmielewski registered the save by striking out Gabriel Garcia-Serrano.
In all, SFA only managed seven hits on the day with Joe Staley and Brian Ferguson being the only ‘Jacks to pick up multiple hits. Sean Meyers also got a single in the sixth, extending his hit streak to nine games dating back to last season.
UT Arlington 4 at UT Pan American 0
UTSA 2 at Oral Roberts 7
Oral Roberts right-handed starter Jerry Sullivan limited UTSA to just one run on one hit, a senior Michael Rockett home run to lead off the fourth, and struck out nine in a dominant seven-inning performance, as the Golden Eagles ran their home winning streak to an NCAA-best 25 games with a 7-2 victory on Saturday at J.L. Johnson Stadium.
The Roadrunners, who had just two hits on the windy, 35-degree afternoon, dropped to 4-3 in losing their second contest in a row, while Oral Roberts extended its perfect run to open the spring to five games.
Sullivan (2-0) was effectively wild in his 118-pitch performance (70 strikes) despite walking four and hitting three batters. He struck out two hitters in each of the first three innings, one in the fourth and another pair in the sixth.
Seth Furmanek put ORU in front with his two-run home run to center with one down in the first frame. Juan Martinez extended the lead to three when he led off the third with a long ball down the right-field line and his homer to right center to lead off the fifth pushed the advantage to 4-1. The Golden Eagles tacked on two more one frame later and another in the seventh to complete their scoring.
