Sam Houston Opens 2014 Season With A Win

By Cheval John

The Sam Houston State baseball team started the 2014 season on the right foot.

The back-to-back Southland Conference regular season champions defeated the University of Northern Colorado 5-3 at Don Sanders Stadium in Huntsville, Texas.

This was the first time that the Bearkats have won an opening season game under head coach David Pierce.

Hayden Simerly went 2 for 3 with two runs batted in.

Colt Atwood got two hits out of four at-bats with an RBI.

Though starting pitcher Chris Hammer shut down the Bearkats’ offense for the first three innings, Tyler Eppler equaled his counter part with four shut out innings.

That allowed Sam Houston to strike first in the bottom of the fourth with two runs to give them a 2-0 lead.

The Bearkats played small ball and got some offensive production from the veterans on the squad at the right time in the fourth.

Atwood jump started it with a double down the right field line and advanced to third on a ground out by Anthony Azar.

Simerly’s sacrifice fly scored Colt Atwood from third that made it 1-0.

After Carter Burgess hit a long double to left field, he scored from second on a single by Ryan O’Hearn.

The Bears cut the lead to 2-1 on a RBI single up the middle by Jake Ekman.

Sam Houston created some cushion after scoring two runs in the bottom of the fifth for a 4-1 lead.

Ryan Farney started the party after reaching first on an error by Brandon Vaughn.

He advanced to second on a single by Corey Toups.

Atwood’s RBI single scored Farney from second base while Toups advanced to third and Atwood advanced to second on the throw home to the plate.

Then Toups scored from third on Azar’s RBI ground out.

It appeared as if the Bearkats were in control when they brought in reliever Alan Scott in place of Eppler in the sixth inning.

After getting the first two outs, the Bears strung together some runners and then
Ben Netzel hit a two out, two-run triple to pull them within 4-3.

The Bearkats didn’t panicked and increased their lead to 5-3 on an RBI single by Simerly.

Scott settled down and shut down the Bears in the final three innings to get the save.

Eppler went five innings and got the win.

Scott was only supposed to pitch up to the eighth inning, but he told his coach that he was responsible for giving up those two runs and wanted to make it up to the team.

That alone shows that they understand that they are playing for each other and are determined to start the season off right.

Game 2 of the four game series will be tomorrow at 6:30 p.m.

About Cheval John

Cheval John is the Founder and CEO of Vallano Media, LLC, a marketing agency which helps small to mid-sized businesses use social media correctly to build a loyal following and in the process become more profitable. Cheval is also the host of "What's The Word?" a podcast about finding out what inspires people to choose their respective careers and how social media impacted their lives and business. He is the author of two books including the Amazon Best-Seller, "8 Lessons Every Podcaster Needs To Learn." He has spoken at Social Media Week Lima in Ohio and at Social Media Day Houston 2017 about topics around live streaming and podcasting. Cheval has been featured in media outlets including Ebony Magazine, Social Media Today and Forbes. He was named a Houston Top 25 Social Media Power Influencer (2016 and 2017) and a Twitter Top 50 Influencer by Onalytica in 2018.

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