Ty Cobb Posted March 22, 2007 Report Posted March 22, 2007 Sam Houston 13, Prairie View 0 March 20, 2007NCAA Box Score, Play-by-play From The Huntsville ItemBy Tom Waddill, Sports EditorMark Johnson summed it up nicely. Tuesday was a good day for the Bearkats. Actually, it was almost perfect. Sam Houston State pitchers Casey Springer and Jon Lindenberger came within one out of throwing a combined perfect game in a 13-0 victory over Prairie View A&M. In his first outing of the season, Springer (1-0) threw five perfect innings, retiring all 15 of the batters he faced with one strikeout. Lindenberger relieved and did not allow a baserunner until Panthers center fielder Greg Ford lashed a two-out single to right in the top of the ninth. Lindenberger, who retired 12 of the 14 batters he faced, earned his first save as a Bearkat. Led by Keith Stein, Jeremy Holzbach, Heath Pugh and Nick Zaleski, the Bearkats (16-8) banged out 17 hits against five Prairie View pitchers. Stein, Holzbach and Zaleski had three hits each and combined for seven RBIs. Pugh added a pair of hits and scored three runs. And defensively, SHSU was superb. Stein and Todd Sebek made a few terrific grabs in the outfield for the Bearkats, while Clint Mann, Jamie Rolmeier and Holzbach turned in some outstanding plays in the infield that kept the no-hitter intact for 8 2/3 innings. “Casey was really impressive,†Johnson said, “and Lindenberger threw lots of hard stuff — unhittable stuff. It was a great day for the Bearkats. “We hit the ball, made some good defensive plays and got two outs in the ninth with a perfect game going. To be disappointed about not getting the perfect game tonight would be pretty short-sighted. That's not a bad ballclub. They're 16-8 and they're 6-0 in the SWAC. They've beaten some good ballclubs.†Again, Johnson was correct. The Prairie View team (16-9) that came to Don Sanders Stadium on Tuesday is a far cry from Panther teams of the past. Last season, Prairie View went 33-22 and won the Southwestern Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles. In the postseason, the Panthers nearly upset top-ranked Rice in the opening round of the NCAA regional in Houston. On Tuesday, Springer and Lindenberger dominated pretty much the same lineup that lost a heartbreaker to the Owls 6-5 last June. “Jon pitched well and our defense did great,†Springer said humbly. “The defense needs to be congratulated. It would be different if Jon and I had punched out 26 or 27 guys, but it was our defense that really shined tonight. We also are hitting the ball really well. The guys are finding their swings and our pitching staff seems to be getting in a groove. “Really, I just threw strikes and let my defense work tonight. They did a masterful job.†The Bearkats scored a pair of runs in the first inning. Coming off a sizzling weekend in which he went 7-for-11 with three home runs and 12 RBIs in three games, junior Bobby Verbick crashed an RBI double off the center-field fence to get the rout started. Holzbach added an RBI single in the first. SHSU added single runs in the second, third and sixth innings. The Kats turned a 5-0 contest into a laugher when they hung four runs on the board in both the seventh and eighth innings. Austin Boggs delivered a two-run double, while Zaleski plated another run in the seventh with a double to right. Tyson Mire had an RBI single in the eighth and Zaleski drove in three more with his second double in as many innings. “Everything feels like it's really starting to click,†said Zaleski. “Everybody's doing their part. We're playing small ball with bunts and hit and runs, and we're doing all the little parts of the game well.†The Kats are also hitting a ton. They brought a .326 team batting average into Tuesday's game, and by the end of the night, they were hitting .331 as a unit. SHSU has scored 198 runs in its first 24 games. That's an average of 8.25 runs per game. “We're a great hitting ballclub this year, one through nine,†Zaleski said. “Even the guys on the bench can really hit the ball. “This is great. I love it.†The Bearkats will try to make it four wins in a row when Texas A&M-Corpus Christi comes to Huntsville on Friday to start a three-game Southland Conference series. First pitch on Friday night is scheduled for 6:30.
JMay Posted March 23, 2007 Report Posted March 23, 2007 Cobb, were you there? The closest thing to EL Perfecto I have seen was Ohka from the Expos shutting down the Astros for 5 innings a few year back.
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