This is yours SLC recap for April 24th.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 11 #20 Southeastern Louisiana 5
The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball team jumped out to a 7-0 lead Saturday at Chapman Field and never looked back handing Southeastern Louisiana an 11-5 defeat.
It was the third-straight win for the Islanders as the battle to stay in the hunt for the Southland Conference Tournament at Whataburger Field in late May. The Islanders are now 16-23 overall and 8-12 in the Southland Conference. Southeastern Louisiana which entered the weekend ranked as high as 20th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Poll.
“We knew to be successful against one of the top teams in the league we would have to come out and out-hit them,” said Islander head coach Scott Malone. “I felt for the second time in two days that we flexed our muscles offensively. I think the offense overshadowed our defensive play, which kept them from getting things going. I was really proud of our defense.
“They had five errors today and it seemed like every time they had one we pounced on it and turned it into three-or-five runs.”
With one away, the Islanders got the offense moving. A Chris Vergne walk followed by back-to-back singles by Trey Hernandez and Matt Holland loaded the bases. Weston Montgomery followed with a three-run double down the line in left. Jeramie Marek followed with an RBI single.
The Islanders chased Tyler Watkins from the game in the bottom of the second inning. Roman led off the inning with a single and went to second on a grounder by Caleb Marx. Vergne then reached on a catcher’s interference. After advancing a base on a groundout by Hernandez, both scored on a single through the left side of the infield. After stealing second, Holland scored on Montgomery’s fourth RBI in two innings. FULL STORY
UT Arlington 8 Central Arkansas 3
Eight Maverick position players had multi-hit games and Rett Varner struck out 10 batters in 7.0 innings during UT Arlington’s 8-3 victory over Central Arkansas in game two of the Southland Conference series at Clay Gould Ballpark Saturday afternoon.
The Mavericks (19-21, 12-8 SLC) pounded out 17 base hits, led by junior All-American Michael Choice’s 3-for-4 effort with two runs, a walk and two RBI. Saturday’s victory clinches the Mavs’ fifth conference series of the season.
Central Arkansas (12-26, 4-16 SLC) drops its fifth straight game against the Mavericks in the loss.
Varner (5-4) was dominating throughout the game while only running into brief trouble in the fourth inning. He struck out a pair of batters in the second, third and fifth innings while giving up three runs (two earned) on six hits with three walks in the game.
The Bears scratched away three runs in the fourth inning on three base hits. Varner escaped the inning with runners at the corners striking out second baseman Jordan Getchell.
The Mavericks jumped out to a 6-0 lead with three hits in the first inning that scored two runs and with four hits in the second inning which plated four runs.
Catcher Chad Comer started the scoring with a two-run single through the left side in the first inning. Logan Bawcom scored a run with an RBI single and Choice followed with a two-run single up the middle. Designated hitter Steffan Guest scored Choice with a sacrifice fly to right field. FULL STORY
Stephen F. Austin 10 McNeese State 6
The Lumberjacks pounded out 13 hits that included a pair of home runs in taking its second straight win over McNeese State on Saturday at Jaycees Field, putting itself into sole possession of second place in the Southland Conference race.
Garrett Smith and Bobby Loveless each homered for the `Jacks (26-11, 13-6 Southland) and were two of five SFA hitters that finished with a pair of hits off McNeese (20-18, 10-10 Southland) left-handers Phil Parcell and Tyler Davis.
SFA got all 10 of its runs in the middle innings of the game, putting together a pair of four-run frames in the fourth and fifth innings to pull away from the Pokes, playing solid defense behind a trio of pitchers.
Jared West again worked around a slew of walks, going 5.2 innings while allowing six hits and three runs to go with his five walks and one strikeout. But the `Jacks turned a pair of double plays behind him after turning four in his start last week against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and got the benefit of a call on an appeal play on a sacrifice fly in the third inning to keep him out of major trouble and push his record to 3-1. FULL STORY
Nicholls State 15 Sam Houston State 12
The Colonels scored four times in the top of the ninth to rally past the Bearkats for the win in a wild 15-12 victory for the Nicholls State University baseball team (19-19, 9-10 Southland Conference) on Saturday. The win over the Bearkats evened the three-game series with Sam Houston State (16-24, 9-11 Southland Conference) and put the Colonels back into a tie with the Bearkats for the eighth and final Southland Conference Tournament spot.
Nicholls had built an 11-2 lead after six and a half innings. However, Sam Houston State exploded for eight runs in the bottom of the seventh to make it 11-10 before taking a 12-11 lead after a two-run eighth.
Fortunately, for Nicholls, the Colonels answered in a do-or-die top of the ninth. Bear Comer’s RBI single tied things up and Keith Kulbeth’s three-run homer (part of a two-hit, two-run, five-RBI day) put Nicholls out in front for good. Brent Bonvillian came on in relief for the Colonels in the bottom of the ninth and pitched around a leadoff walk for his first career save.
The Colonels had to play from behind early on after Sam Houston State scored a pair in the bottom of the first to take a 2-0 lead. However, Nicholls soon got to Bearkat starter Brent Powers by plating six runs over the next three innings.
The Colonels tied things up in the second on a two-run double by Keith Kulbeth. Nicholls plated three in the third thanks to RBI base hits by Brady Bourque and Kevin Schlegel and a bases loaded balk by Powers. An RBI single by Chase Jaramillo put Nicholls up 6-2 in the fourth and chased Powers from the game. FULL STORY
Texas State 7 Northwestern State 3
The Texas State baseball team claimed its sixth Southland Conference series of the season behind strong offensive performances from Kyle Livingstone and Shaun Garcia, downing the No. 30 Northwestern State Demons 7-3 Saturday afternoon at Bobcat Field.
“Winning the series is a great thing, but we try to take it one moment, one game at time,” said head coach Ty Harrington. “You have to focus on the moment in front you and we did that today.”
Texas State improves to 24-12 on the season, 15-5 in conference play. The win stretched the Bobcats lead to 2.5 games over the Stephen F. Austin for first place in the league.
The Bobcats started out slow for the second-straight game and fell behind 1-0 to the Demons on an unearned run. Shaun Garcia evened the rift with an RBI double to right field in the second.
The scoring continued in the fifth when Jason Martinson scored on a throwing error to second base went to right field. Kyle Livingstone who singled through the left side to reach base, moved into scoring position on the error and took third on a wild pitch. Garcia, who finished 3-for-4 on the day, pushed the senior across in his next at-bat.
Livingstone and Bret Atwood also finished with three hits in Texas State’s 14-hit outing.
Errors plagued NSU in today’s game as well and a pair of miscues in the seventh led to the Bobcats seventh run of the game. McVaney scored the team’s only earned run in the three-run inning on an RBI single from Martinson. NSU scored its final two runs on a solo home run from Colin Bear in the fifth and an RBI single from Will Watson in the sixth. FULL STORY
Lamar 13 UTSA 9
Although it got there in somewhat bizarre fashion, Lamar University’s baseball team is now in position to duplicate last weekend’s feat of sweeping a Southland Conference series.
The Cardinals moved to 2-0 on the weekend against UTSA by coming within one of their season hit high with 16 Saturday afternoon and by surviving an impressive five-home-run barrage by the visiting Roadrunners in a wild 13-9 victory witnessed by a crowd of 518 in Vincent-Beck Stadium.
The Roadrunners, who lost their sixth-straight game, matched the Cardinals’ 16 hits as they added four doubles to their five homers, one each by Ryan Rummel, Ryan Dalton, Ryan Hutson, Daniel Rockett and Brett Aquilar.
The Cardinals, who stretched their season-long winning streak to seven games, did not go deep, but they did benefit from one double each from Quentin Luquette, Cameron Campbell, Kevin Roebuck and Ryan Meade and a triple by Roebuck to go along with 11 bases on balls issued by six Roadrunner pitchers.
Luquette finished with three hits for the Cardinals, while Andy Mena, Campbell, Roebuck, Pablo Salinas and Ted Zentek had two hits each. Mena drove across three runs, and Luquette had two RBIs. FULL STORY
