Bearkats Run At NCAA’s Elite Eight Came To A Screaching Halt
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
CANTON, Mich — After a strong first day at the NCAA Bowling Championship, Sam Houston State couldn’t duplicate the same success on Friday afternoon.
They dropped a pair of matches to Arkansas State and Fairleigh Dickinson, eliminating them from the championship.
“It was a tough day for us,” said head coach Brad Hagen. “I thought we played pretty well, we just couldn’t come up with the big shots when we needed them. We had hoped to improve on our showing two years ago on Friday, but unfortunately it didn’t happen for us.”
The Kats entered the day as the No. 3 qualifier, following a 5-2 day during Thursday’s qualifying round.
Sam Houston defeated five of the eight seeded teams Thursday including wins over Central Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas State, Vanderbilt and Wisconsin-Whitewater to earn the No. 3 seed in Friday’s best-of-seven baker bracket play.
But the Kats got off to a slow start in the opening match against No. 6 Arkansas State.
Arkansas State came out hot and never slowed down, sweeping the Kats 4-0 in the opening round of the best-of-7 baker matches.
In the opening game, the Red Wolves started with three straight strikes while the Kats left the first two frames open.
A late charge by the Kats was not enough as they fell 210-192.
Game 2 was more of the same in a 210-192 loss for the Kats.
In Game 3 SHSU started strong, but an open frame in the fourth for the Kats, followed by four straight strikes by ASU lifted the Red Wolves to a 215-193 victory.
In the final game of the match, open frames once again cost the Bearkats, failing to pick up the spare in three of the first five frames and they couldn’t recover in a 193-172 loss.
“It is really difficult to try and come out of the losers bracket to get to the finals,” Hagen said. “We knew the importance of the first match, but just never could get anything going for us.”
In the final match of the day, the Kats fell 4-2 to Fairleigh Dickinson.
FDU built an early lead taking the first two games.
The Knights were hot in Game 1, hitting strikes in seven of the first nine frames, cruising to a 227-166 win.
In game 2 the Kats couldn’t hit consecutive strikes and FDU closed with six straight for a 205-178 win.
Sam Houston bounced back for a win in game 3, winning 201-195.
FDU left the sixth frame open and the Kats answered with three straight from the 5th-7th.
Erin Brown hit a strike in the 9th to lift the Kats.
In game four, the SHSU didn’t roll a strike until the ninth frame.
Michelle Secours closed with three strikes in the 10th, but it wasn’t enough in a 214-193 loss.
The Kats stayed in the match in the fifth, escaping with a 181-179 win.
They left the 10th frame open, but FDU came right back and did the same thing to give the Bearkats the win.
Needing a win to force a seventh game, the Kats had no answer for and FDU team that rolled their best game of the match.
The Knights closed with six consecutive strikes to win the game 247-197 and close out the match.
“They gave us an opportunity there in the fifth to get back in the match, but we couldn’t take advantage,” Hagen said. “Give credit to FDU, they finished strong.”
No.9 Aggies Streaking Over Bearkats
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Sam Houston was looking to return the favor against Texas A&M in College Station on Wednesday.
Even though they had a strong performance, it wasn’t enough as one big inning allowed the No. 9 ranked Aggies to win 8-3.
In the third inning of a scoreless game, Aggie catcher Nicole Morgan knocked in two runs with a double, the first baseman Cassie Tysarczyk blasted a three-run homer to right field as Texas A&M jumped in front 5-0.
Sam Houston got two runs back in the top of the fifth as third baseman Shelbi Tucker doubled to right field then scored on a ground ball by second baseman Alyssa Coggins.
Left fielder Jessica Slater scored Tucker with an RBI double.
Shortstop Cecilia Castillo hit a solo home run in the sixth inning for Sam Houston’s third tally.
The home run was Castillo’s third of the year.
Haley Baros was the losing pitcher for the Bearkats who now stand 7-10 for the year.
Texas A&M is one of only four undefeated softball teams remaining in NCAA Division I play this season.
The Aggies are 18-0, the best start in program history.
Sam Houston now heads to San Antonio for a weekend series with the University of Texas at San Antonio Saturday and Sunday.
Bearkat Wide Receiver Earns Invite From NFLPA
by Cheval John
With all the attention that the Sam Houston State Bearkat football team has received during their consecutive run at the FCS National Championship, many wondered could it get any better than this?
Well, it gets even better when Bearkat wide receiver Trey Diller received an invite to participate in the NFLPA All-Star Collegiate Bowl that’s set to be played in Carson, California on Jan. 19 on ESPN2.
Diller, who caught the ball 62 times for 927 yards and four touchdowns, became the first Bearkat to ever participate in the NFLPA.
The Woodlands, Texas native also was the return specialist, as he finished third in the Southland Conference with 354 yards in punt returns.
In addition, he became the first Bearkat to make the All-Southland Conference honors both as a wide receiver and a return specialist.
He played a huge part during the Bearkat playoff run at the FCS Championsip when in the quarterfinal round at Montana State, he caught a 56-yard pass TD pass from quarterback Brian Bell that allowed the Bearkats to blow the game wide open.
Diller completes his collegiate career with 1,190 receiving yards and seven touchdowns.
Bearkat Football Soars To New Heights Under Coach Fritz
by Cheval John
Though there is no such thing as moral victories, the Sam Houston State Bearkat football team have accomplished more under head coach Willie Fritz.
Before the arrival of coach Fritz, the Bearkats have made only four appearances in the NCAA FCS playoffs (1986, 1991, 2001, 2004) during their 26 years of competition at the Division I level.
But under Fritz, the Bearkats have made back-to-back appearances in the FCS National Championship game and brought pride to the city of Huntsville, the students and alumni of Sam Houston State.
In addition, the Bearkats have made more television appearances in the last two years either nationally or regionally and applications to the university has sky-rocketed over that same period of time.
Though they run to the FCS title game in 2011 was great, their 2012 run was even more impressive because they only had three regular season home games and had to go through three teams, who were the tri-champions in what is considered to be the toughest conference in the FCS, the Big Sky.
Ron Randleman, who was the head coach of SHSU from 1982 to 2004, is not surprised with the success of coach Fritz.
“Coach Fritz has a special way with people. Randleman said. ”
He’s put together a quality staff and these guys gave worked very hard to get to where we are today because it’s not easy to get there.”
Fritz played for Randleman while he was at Pittsburg State from 1979-82. and
He later served as a graduate assistant under Randleman in 1984-85 at SHSU and again in 1991-92 as as an assistant coach.
When he was hired as the head coach in December of 2009, the Bearkats was reeling from two consecutive losing seasons.
Many knew that coach Fritz was going to turn things around because of his reputation of turning programs that previously had losing seasons into winning teams.
After going 6-5, many believed that they were going to do better in the 2011 season by winning the SLC title.
The Bearkats exceeded their expectations and went 11-0 in the regular season and won the SLC title for the fourth time and won three straight playoffs games to make their first appearance in the FCS title game.
It seemed as they were not going to get back to the FCS title game because they only had three regular season home games and had brought in three new assistant coaches on the offensive side of the ball.
But coach Fritz and the Bearkats had other ideas as they went 8-3 and won their second consecutive SLC title and made it back to the playoffs and went through Cal Poly at home and defeated Montana State and Eastern Washington on the road to return to the title game.
Though they lost, one thing is for certain, the Bearkat football program has gone to new heights under coach Fritz.
But the most important thing is that coach Fritz is following in the footsteps of Coach Randleman because the players has conducted themselves with dignity and respect and have brought great pride to the university.
Maybe, that alone is a moral victory after all.
Overall Grade For The NCAA Tournament
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