This is your SLC recap for April 23.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 10 #20 Southeastern Louisiana 5
It took a solid start on the mound from Jake Liedka, a family visit for Chris Vergne, a record-breaking performance by Trey Hernandez and several other key performances for the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team to hand No.-20 Southeastern Louisiana a 10-5 loss in the series opener at Chapman Field on Friday. The series continues on Saturday at 2 p.m. with finale on Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Islanders moved to 15-23 on the season and 7-12 in the Southland Conference picking up their third-ever win over a nationally-ranked team. The others were a 5-0 win over No. 1 Texas to open the 2003 season and 2-1 victory over No.-25 Oklahoma State in 2005 in extra innings.
The Lions fall to 12-7 in the Southland Conference and 29-11 overall.
The game was tied at 0-0 until the Lions scored twice in the fourth breaking up Liedka’s no-hit bid. With two away, Jeff Harkensee walked and moved to third on a ground-rule double by Cody Gougler. Joe Sparacino, who added a solo home run to start the seventh, drove in both with a single through the right side of the infield.
A&M-Corpus Christi, who had missed some early opportunities to the take the lead, answered with five runs in the bottom of the inning off Brandon Efferson (7-2). With one away Weston Montgomery singled and went to third on base hit by Bobby Buckner to right. After Epperson walked Jeramie Marek, freshman Roman Madrid, who would finish with a career-best four hits, singled to drive in both. FULL STORY
UT Arlington 4 Central Arkansas 3
Jordan Vaughn’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 13th inning gave UT Arlington a 4-3 victory over Central Arkansas in the Southland Conference series opener Friday at Clay Gould Ballpark.
The Mavericks (18-21, 11-8 SLC), who trailed 3-2 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, were guided into extra-innings by Vaughn’s RBI single to right field to score the game-tying run as the Bears (12-25, 4-15 SLC) let their lead slip away.
Brian Watson was dominating in relief of UTA starting pitcher Jason Mitchell. Mitchell lasted 8.0 innings and struck out 12 batters. Watson finished the game on the hill for the Mavericks tossing 5.0 innings of near perfection, as the only base runner he allowed reached base due to a fielding error.
Watson sat the Bears down in order in the ninth, 10th, 11th and 13th innings while what would have been the third out in the 12th inning reached on a fielding error, but then Watson retired the next batter on a swinging strikeout.
The victory was the Mavericks second this season when trailing after eight innings, with the first coming in a 7-6 win in game one of the Southeastern Louisiana series (4/9).
Central Arkansas scored a run in the top of the first inning on an RBI double by first baseman Clay Washington and later UTA took the lead on a pair of sacrifice flies by Cody Dyvig and Jesse Payne in the fifth inning to give the Mavs a 2-1 lead. FULL STORY
Stephen F. Austin 2 McNeese State 1
Jarid Scarfiotti hit a walk-off single off the wall with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 12th inning to give SFA a 2-1 comeback win over McNeese State on Friday at Jaycees Field.
SFA (25-11, 12-6 Southland) trailed 1-0 entering the ninth inning, only mustering five hits off of McNeese (20-17, 10-9 Southland) starter Dustin Lloyd, but the `Jacks pounded out eight singles in the final four innings to not only tie the game in the ninth, but win it in extra innings.
It was the longest game played by SFA since a 6-5 loss to UTSA in 2006, and the first time in nine tries that SFA has won a game when trailing entering the ninth inning.
Scarafiotti’s hit was one of three on the day for him as he, Bo Coffman and Tanner Hines all finished with three hits. Hines extended his hit streak to 24 games with a trio of infield singles, while Coffman’s second hit may have been the most important as his one-out single in the bottom of the ninth off of Lloyd drove in the tying run and kept SFA’s hopes of a win alive.
The Cowboys only managed four hits – all singles – off of SFA pitchers Tyler Herriage, Brad Oates and Jason West, but still managed to strand 13 runners on the day thanks to a bevy of walks issued. The majority of those free passes came from Herriage, who despite only holding the Cowboys to a run on one hit in 5.2 innings, struggled with his control throughout the day and issued a season-high eight walks. FULL STORY
Sam Houston State 11 Nicholls State 5
Fighting for position against Nicholls to get into the Southland Conference tournament, the Bearkats knew they needed to get off to a good start.
Sam Houston got plenty of early offense and a solid outing from starter Dallas Gallant as the Bearkats topped Nicholls 11-5 on Friday.
“It’s getting to get into crunch time with just a few more weeks left in the season. It’s time to step it up, that’s what good teams do,” SHSU designated hitter Chris Andreas said. “We did a good job today. The hitting really came through in the clutch. Dallas did a really good job on the mound, too.”
After keeping the Colonels (8-11 in Southland play, 18-19 overall) off the board through the first three innings, the Bearkats got a big boost in the third inning, scoring five runs to jump out to a 6-0 lead.
With a 2-0 lead, Andreas blasted a three-run shot off Nicholls left-handed ace, Jarret Dunham (4-4) that sailed just passed the right side of the center-field wall. After that, Taylor Davis launched a shot of his own that cleared the left-field wall.
“(Dunham) threw well but he was always getting behind in the count. Everyone seemed to sit on a fastball with a 3-1 count,” said Andreas, who hit 3-for-3 with five RBIs. “That’s what I had on that homer to center field. He kind of developed a trend and we picked up on that. FULL STORY
Texas State 5 Northwestern State 3
Carson Smith threw the first nine-inning complete game for the Texas State baseball team this season, striking out a career-high 10 batters in the Bobcats 5-3 win over 30th ranked Northwestern State Friday night at Bobcat Field.
After giving up a home run in the fourth inning to Chase Lyles that pushed NSU’s lead to 2-0, Smith allowed just one earned run off five hits en route to claiming the first win of the three-game series.
“We battled and worked hard, so I’m happy with that, but the story of tonight was Carson Smith,” said head coach Ty Harrington. “We needed and challenged him to throw a complete game, which is something we need our Friday night starter to do and he did that tonight.”
The win improves the Bobcats record to 23-12 overall and 14-5 in the Southland Conference, increasing its lead in the league standing to 1.5 games over NSU and Stephen F. Austin.
Texas State was aided by three Demon errors, giving the Bobcats three of its five runs.
Texas State catcher Andrew Stumph started the comeback for Texas State in the fifth-inning with a single to right field, off of Ryan Zimmerman. Stumph and Shaun Garcia would go on to score after a routine double play got by the first baseman. Stump finished the night 1-for-4, with one RBI.
“They made some mistakes today that allowed us to score, but you still have to put it in play to make things happen,” said Harrington.
The Bobcats tacked on three more runs, one in the sixth and two more the seventh off RBI singles from Jeff McVaney and Kyle Livingstone. FULL STORY
Lamar 4 UTSA 2
Lamar University’s baseball team ran its winning streak to a season-long six games by defeating UTSA 4-2 in a most meaningful Southland Conference encounter Friday night.
And for the third-consecutive time this week, the Cardinals did it in come-from-behind fashion.
After trailing by 2-1 in the sixth inning, the Cardinals scored the game’s final three runs – one each in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. They also benefitted from a sharp starting performance from right-hander Matison Smith and a strong relief effort by Garrett Steward.
The Cardinals scored the tying run in the sixth inning when outfielder Ted Zentek drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs. They snapped the tie an inning later when a hard-hit, bases-loaded grounder back to the mound by Kevin Roebuck deflected off UTSA relief pitcher Taylor Walton’s glove, enabling Andy Mena to score from third base.
The Cardinals added an insurance run in the eighth inning on a walk to Zentek, consecutive bunt hits by Joey Latulippe and Aaron Buchanan and a sacrifice fly by Quentin Luquette.
In improving his team-best record to 7-1, Smith threw 115 pitches (74 for strikes) over seven-plus innings. The senior from Nederland gave up seven hits, struck six and walked two. FULL STORY
