No. 20 Sam Houston Sweeps Matadors In Walk-Off Fashion

By Cheval John

Even though, No. 20 Sam Houston State took the series from Cal State-Northridge on Saturday, the Bearkats was focused on getting the sweep.

It wouldn’t be easy as both teams fought hard until a walk-off sacrifice fly by Ryan Farney gave the Bearkats a 3-2 victory in 13 innings at Don Sanders Stadium in Huntsville, Texas.

“It was pretty for our offense or defense but our pitching was outstanding all week and at the end of the day we got the sweep this weekend so we’re happy,” Farney said to SHSU’s athletics website, gobearkats.com. “You’ve got to love being in situations like that with the game on the line and a chance to win the game for your team.”

Ryan Brinley pitched 1 1/3 innings in relief and secured his second win of the season.

Sam Houston (13-3) jumped in front 2-0 in the bottom of the second when first baseman Ryan O’Hearn launched a two run, home run over right centerfield.

It seemed as if the Bearkats was going to cruise to the sweep because of the strong pitching of starter Dirk Masters, who went 6 1/3 innings with the no decision.

But that was not going to be the case as the Bearkats committed five errors with two of them leading to Cal State-Northridge (6-10) knotting the game at 2.

The first one came in the top of the third when Ranny Lowe reached first on a error by third baseman Carter Burgess that allowed catcher Dylan Alexander, who led off the inning with a single, to advance to second.

Another error by short stop Jake MacWilliam loaded the bases and Alexis Mercado issued the walk that scored Alexander from third to cut the lead to 2-1.

It got worse for the Bearkats in the top of the seventh inning when Lowe hit a one out single and advanced to third on an error by MacWilliam when he was trying to attempt the double play and threw it away that allowed second baseman Michael Livingston to reach base and advance to second.

The next batter, Pak hit a single to right field that scored Lowe from third to tie the game.

From there both teams battled that went into extras courtesy of strong pitching from both bullpens.

Then Sam Houston was able to get something going in the bottom of the 13th inning when MacWilliam led off with a single and advanced to third on a throwing error by reliever Shay Maltese when he was trying to throw out left fielder Luke Plucheck at first on a sacrifice bunt play that allowed him to advanced to second.

Though it was the Matador’s only error of the game, it turned out to be very costly as it allowed Farney to drive in MacWilliam from third for the walk-off win on the sacrifice fly.

Sam Houston prepares for a mid-week matchup on Tuesday as they host University of Texas-San Antonio on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m.