By Cheval John

Sam Houston State and Dallas Baptist came into this matchup undefeated.

It was only a matter of time before one of these teams etched their first loss of the season.

That time came for the Bearkats as they suffered a 5-1 loss to Dallas Baptist at Don Sanders Stadium in Huntsville, Texas.

The Patriots (5-0) got a quality outing from Paul Voelker.

Voelker went seven innings, giving up a run on 9 hits and struck out 6 batters.

He silenced the Bearkat offense, who came into the matchup outscoring opponents 43-11 in their first five games, to only one run.

“I thought they really pitched and played defense better than us tonight,” Bearkat coach David Pierce said. “They won the 90 foot game today.”

The Patriots offense were in the zone.

Mike Wesolowski went 2 for 3 with an RBI while K.J. Alexander was 3 for 4 with an RBI.

Dallas Baptist had runners on first and second with no outs in the top of the second due to back to back singles by Alexander and Knight.

Tyler Eppler, who went 4 1/3 innings and suffered the loss, got the first two outs courtesy of a fly out by Wall and a force out at second base.

Courtesy of the Bearkats Sports Network

He wasn’t out of the woods yet as he walked Camden Duzenack to load the bases.

But he settled down and got R.J. Talamantes to ground out to end the threat.

Sam Houston State (5-1) had their chance to capitalized in the bottom of the second inning.

Ryan O’Hearn led off with a single and advanced to second on a infield bunt single by Corey Toups.

Both runners advanced to second and third, respectively on a ground out by Dirk Masters.

With two outs, Ryan Farney issued a walk to load the bases.

However, the Bearkats came up short as Luke Plucheck struck out to end the inning.

The Patriots capitalized on their opportunity with two runs in the top of the third for a 2-0 lead courtesy on a RBI ground out by Daniel Salters and an RBI single by Alexander.

Wesolowski led off the top of the third with a double. Austin Listi followed with a walk.

Both runners advanced to second and third, respectively on a wild pitch by Eppler.

Wesolowski’s RBI single in the top of the fourth increased the lead to 3-0 and Trevin Connier’s RBI single in the top of the fifth made it 4-0.

Hayden Simerly’s RBI single in the bottom of the fifth inning cut the lead to 4-1.

However, Dallas Baptist added another run in the top of the seventh inning for a 5-1 lead.

The play of the game came in the top of the eighth.

With one out and a runner on second, Wesoloski hit a drive to left field and Plucheck leaped at the wall, robbed him of a home run and threw out Talamantes at first for the double play.

The Bearkats tried to mount a rally in the bottom of the ninth inning when Shea Pierce issued a walk with one out and Farney followed with a single that advanced Wyatt Powell, who pinched ran for Pierce, to second.

But Sam Houston couldn’t make it happen as reliever Brandon Koch got Plucheck to fly out for the second out.

Then with Simerly on deck as the potential tying run, Koch struck out Colt Atwood to end the game.

The Bearkats left 10 runners on base.

“We chipped away one base runner at a time,” Farney said. “We were close to get him (Hayden Simerly) up there and see what he can do. It didn’t work out.”

Sam Houston looks to tie the series later today at 4 p.m.

By Cheval John

Sam Houston State head coach David Pierce couldn’t ask for a better way to start the season after his squad swept Northern Colorado with a 7-1 victory at Don Sanders Stadium in Huntsville, Texas.

This makes it the first time that the Bearkats started the season at 4-0 under coach Pierce.

Sam Houston got a quality start from red shirt freshman pitcher Sam Odom.

Odom went six strong innings, giving up only a run on 6 hits and got the victory.

The Bearkats got solid pitching from the bullpen as freshman reliever Seth Holbert went two innings while Jordan Church pitched the ninth inning to seal the victory.

Northern Colorado (0-4) could not take advantage of opportunities when it counted as they left 39 men on base for the series.

Eight men were left on in today’s matchup.

The Bears had gotten a hit in each of the first three innings.

One of those innings (second), they had a player in scoring position.

But the stout pitching by Odom was able to neutralized the offense of Northern Colorado that kept them off the scoreboard.

On the other hand, the Bearkats were able to take advantage of their opportunities at the right time.

Hayden Simerly went seven for fifteen with 5 RBIs in the series.

Carter Burgess had a good day with a two for four performance and two RBIs.

Ryan Farney went three for three with an RBI and two runs scored.

Sam Houston struck first in the bottom of the second inning for a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly by Jake MacWilliam.

Burgess singled with one out in the bottom of the second.

He advanced to second on a balk by starting pitcher Nick Miller, to third on a pass ball and scored on the sacrifice fly.

Finally, the Bears were able to capitalized on their opportunity in the top of the fifth inning when Ryan Yamane hit a two out single that scored Nick Tanner to notch it up at 1.

Tanner hit a one-out single in the top of the fifth and advanced to second on a error by Odom after he tried to pick him off at first.

The Bearkats retook the lead at 2-1 on an infield RBI single by Atwood.
Farney started the rally with a two out single. Plucheck followed with a walk.

Both runners stole second and third, respectively, that put both of them in scoring position.

The Bears had an opportunity to tie the game when Miller hit a one out single and stole second base.

But Northern Colorado couldn’t capitalized as Odom got Ben Vaughn, who went 0-3, and Cody Harrison, who went 2 for 4 to ground out to end the threat.

That allowed the Bearkats to explode for five runs in the bottom of the 6th inning for a 7-1 lead courtesy of a two-run double by pinch hitter, Ryan O’Hearn, an RBI double by Shea Pierce, a RBI single by Farney and a RBI single by Atwood.

The Bearkats aim to keep their win streak alive when they go to Lake Charles and face fellow Southland Conference member, McNeese State tomorrow in a non-conference matchup at 6 p.m.

The Cowboys are currently 3-0 for the season after winning the Lake Area Classic with victories over Southeastern Conference (SEC) member Missouri, Conference USA member Southern Mississippi and Chicago State.

By Cheval John

A five-run sixth inning propelled Sam Houston State to a 5-0 victory over Northern Colorado at Don Sanders Stadium in Huntsville, Texas.

The win secured the series for the Bearkats.

Dylan Ebbs, who started the game as a designated hitter, threw 1 2/3 innings in relief of starter Dirk Masters and got his first win of the season.

Though Ebbs went 0-2, he also walked twice and scored a run.

Luke Plucheck, who came into the game with .429 batting average after going 3 for 4 last night, went one for three with 3 RBIs.

Northern Colorado (0-3) loaded the bases four times, but could not capitalize on their opportunities as the Bearkats defense was able to shut them down.

In addition to the strong pitching by Masters and Ebbs, Jason Simms, who is on the Baseball Writers Association of America’s Stopper of the Year watch list, threw one inning in relief.

The Bears had their best chance in the top of the fourth inning when Nick Miller led off with a double down the left field line and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Brandon Vaugh.

Colby Harrelson followed with a walk to make it first and third.

After Masters struck out Ben Netzel for the second out, he walked Bryan Tibbetts to load the bases.

However, Masters settled down and struck out Nick Tanner to get out of the jam.

Then the Bearkats (3-0) exploded for five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to break the scoreless tie at 5-0.

Jake MacWilliam, who went 2 for 4, lined a one out single to left field that plated Anthony Azar from second for a 1-0 lead while Hayden Simerly, who had a single after Azar, advanced to third.

After Ebbs issued a walked with two outs to load the bases, Plucheck hit a double to left field that scored all three runners to increase the lead to 4-0.

Plucheck advanced to third on the throwing error and scored the fifth run on a error by Vaugh that allowed Dalton Perry to reach first.

Azar started the rally with a singled to right field.

The Bears had a chance to make something happen in the top of the seventh when Jake Ekman hit a one out single and Ryan Yamane followed with a single.

After Corey Fujimoto’s sacrifice bunt advanced both runners to second and third, respectively, Miller was walked to load the bases.

However, reliever Jason Simms got Vaugh to ground out to end the threat.

The series finale will take place tomorrow at 4 p.m.

By Cheval John

Sam Houston State starting pitcher Andrew Godail started off the game by walking lead-off hitter Ryan Yamane.

That led to Northern Colorado’s first run of the game after Nick Miller’s RBI single.

It could have gone downhill from there.

Instead, Godail settled down and pitched a solid game which allowed the Bearkats offense to string together some runs that led to the 9-1 victory over the Bears at Don Sanders Stadium in Huntsville, Texas.

Godail went 5 2/3 innings for his first win of the season.

Offensively, Sam Houston (2-0) got timely hits when it counted.

Hayden Simerly went 3 for 5 with two RBIs.

Luke Plucheck contributed big time with a 3 for 4 night and scored three runs.

With the Bearkats trailing 1-0, they responded with three runs in the bottom of the first inning for a 3-1 lead.

Simerly hit a two run, triple that scored Corey Toups and Anthony Azar to make it 2-1.

Toups led off the inning with a walk and stole second base.

A batter later, Azar followed with a walk and then both scored on Simerly’s triple.

Simerly scored the third run on Ryan O’Hearn’s sacrifice fly.

Sam Houston increased their lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning on a RBI single by Ryan Farney.

It seemed as if the Bears (0-2) was going to make a game out of it in the top of the fifth inning.

With two outs, Brandon Vaugh hit a single to left and advanced to third on a single by Colby Harrison, who advanced to second on the throw to third base.

However, they did not capitalized when reliever Ryan Brinley, who came in the game in place of Godail, struck out Andrew Coffman to end the threat.

That was all the Bearkats needed as they scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth to increase the lead to 6-1.

Sam Houston added two more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning for an 8-1.

The Bearkats have a chance to win the series tomorrow at 1 p.m.

Game 4 will take place on Monday at 4 p.m.