by Cheval John

Houston, Texas- The Sam Houston State Bearkat baseball team defeated Prarie View A&M Panthers by the score of 4-2 to advanced to the third round of the NCAA Baseball Championships Houston Regional.

The win was their first in the tournament since 2007 when they eliminated Troy in comeback fashion in the Oxford Regional.

The Panthers took advantage of two Bearkat errors and struck first in the bottom of the second on a sacrifice fly by Andre Oliver that made it 1-0.

The Bearkats had an opportunity to tie the game in the top of the third when Jesse Plumlee led off with a double.

He advanced to third on a fly out by Colt Atwood, but was left stranded as Luke Plucheck struck out to end the inning.

Their best chance came in the fourth inning when Jake Arrington reached first on a error by Oliver with one out in the inning.

He advanced to third on a single by Kevin Miller.

However, Stef Hernandez struck out Ryan O’Hearn to get the second out and Arrington was thrown out at home to end the inning.

They finally capitalized in the top of the fifth inning by scoring three runs to take a 3-1 lead.

Atwood’s bases clearing, two-run single put the Kats in front 2-1.

John Hale started the rally by reaching second on a two-base error by James Fontenot and advanced to third on a bunt single by Plumlee.

Corey Toups reached first on an error by Dominiq Harris to load the bases.

Hale and Plumlee scored on Atwood’s single.

Toups scored the third run on a fielder’s choice that allowed Plucheck to reach first.

The Panthers would not go away as they cut the lead to 3-2 on a one out, bases-loaded walk to Darryl Johnson.

With the bases still loaded, starting pitcher Justin Jackson got Oliver to ground into an inning ending double play to avoid any further damage.

Plumlee scored the insurance run in the top of the ninth inning to increase the Bearkat lead by the score of 4-2.

That run turned out to be huge as the Panthers had something going in the bottom of the ninth when they registered two base runners on a pair of singles by Fontenot and Brett Valley.

Brad Benes followed with a walk to load the bases.

But reliever Michael Burchett came through in the clutch as he got the final three outs to seal the victory for the Kats.

Jackson pitched eight solid innings and got the win while Burchett earned his ninth save of the season.

The Bearkats will play tomorrow at 1 p.m against the loser of the Rice/Arkansas match up that will take place tonight at 6 p.m.

The winner of Sunday’s game will move on to the championship round of the Houston Regional later that night.