Ty Cobb Posted March 8, 2007 Report Posted March 8, 2007 Sam Houston 9, Dallas Baptist 6 Heath Pugh March 6, 2007BOX SCOREFrom THE HUNTSVILLE ITEMBy Tom Waddill, Sports EditorThese Bearkats have a little pep in their step. On Tuesday night at Don Sanders Stadium, Sam Houston State made the most of nine hits, two steals and five Dallas Baptist errors in a 9-6 victory over the Patriots. The Bearkats (11-6) didn't hit the ball that hard. In fact, all nine of their hits were singles, but they put together a five-run third inning to take a 6-1 lead. Then after Dallas Baptist roared back to tie the game at 6, SHSU tacked on two runs in the bottom of the fifth and added an insurance run in the eighth. “I've been really pleased with our guys,†Bearkats coach Mark Johnson said. “They continue to have quality at-bats. We had two productive at-bats, a high hopper to third base in the third inning that (Nick) Zaleski gets in play and Jeremy (Holzbach) hitting one up the middle with the bases loaded.†The Patriots (8-7) made errors on both plays. Three runs scored on Zaleski's slow roller to third, and the Bearkats took the lead for good when Dallas Baptist shortstop Austin Knight could not handle the bouncer up the middle off Holzbach's bat in the bottom of the fifth. “We're trying to get them to battle to the end of every at-bat,†Johnson said. “We gave up a comfortable lead tonight, but we didn't get down. We got some help from our opponents, but I felt good that we able to scrap through it and when we got opportunities, we responded.†Stephen Spaugh pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings in relief of starter Stephen Price and picked up his first win. Closer Luke Prihoda pitched the ninth and notched his fifth save of the season. Catcher Heath Pugh led the Bearkats with a pair of hits and two RBIs. Todd Sebek and Zaleski also had two hits apiece, while Clint Mann, Bobby Verbick and Austin Boggs each added one hit. In the fifth, Boggs drew a one-out walk. Sebek singled to left and Pugh singled to right. With the bases loaded, Holzbach bounced a hot shot up the middle that ate up Knight. Two runs scored on Knight's error, and Spaugh, Jacob Howard and Prihoda pitched well enough to make that lead stand up in front of 196 fans. “I was pleased with our pitchers,†Johnson said. “Dallas Baptist is a very good offensive ballclub. Spaugh got hit around, but in a key situation (in the sixth, he gets out of a jam by striking out one of their best hitters. Price gives up an early home run, but he settled down and gave us a few good innings. “We're going to keep battling, scratching and believing.†The Bearkats added a single run in the eighth when Verbick lined a single into center to score Mann. Verbick continued swinging a sizzling bat. He brought a .478 batting average with 32 hits, eight doubles, four homers and 23 RBIs into Tuesday's game, the 17th of the season. As a team, the Bearkats are hitting .345. This weekend, SHSU hosts Louisiana Tech in a three-game series starting Friday at 6:30 p.m.
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