Ty Cobb Posted March 26, 2007 Report Posted March 26, 2007 Game OneSam Houston 3, TAMUCC 0NCAA Box Score, Play by play Game Two Sam Houston 17, TAMUCC 6 NCAA Box Score, Play by play Game ThreeTAMUCC 2, Sam Houston 0NCAA Box Score, Play by play Sunday Game ThreeJason Graham and Jon Kourie hit solo home runs in the first and seventh innings, respectively, to pace Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to a 2-0 victory over Sam Houston State in the final contest of a three-game Southland Conference baseball series Sunday at Don Sanders Stadium.Sam Houston State (18-9, SLC 4-2) took the series with victories on Friday and Saturday. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (15-13, SLC 2-4) got outstanding pitching from starter and game winner Matt Wilson (5-2) and reliever Trey Maldonado, who picked up the save. The pair limit Sam Houston State to five hits and struck out eight Bearkats.The Bearkats left 10 men on base. Keith Stein went 2-for-4 and Jeremy Holzbach, Heath Pugh, and Nick Zaleski each had a hit. Tim Gray (2-2) was the loser, giving up five hits and two walks while striking out four in seven innings. Saturday Game Two Have mercy! The late, great James Brown sang it and the Bearkat baseball team showed it Saturday, but not before exploding offensively in a 17-6 seven-inning victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Don Sanders Stadium. Sam Houston State (4-1 in Southland Conference play, 18-8 overall) banged out 21 hits, including eight for extra bases against four Islander pitchers. Senior Karl Krailo led the hit parade, going 3-for-4 with a double and four RBIs. Three other Bearkats — Clint Mann, Keith Stein and Nick Zaleski — collected three hits apiece, while Jeremy Holzbach, Austin Boggs, Todd Sebek and Heath Pugh each had two hits. After A&M-Corpus hung five runs on the board in the top of the second off SHSU starter Jacob Howard (5-2), the Kats got untracked, scoring four runs in the second, one run in both the third and fourth frames, three more in the sixth and eight in the seventh. Mann's two-run double in the bottom of the seventh, which put the Kats ahead by more than 10 runs, brought to an end an already lengthy game that lasted just short of three hours. “We got down by five early, but we came back and scored what, 17 runs,†Krailo said after the Bearkats notched their ninth win in the last 11 games. “We've been doing that all season. If we get behind, we come back and fight. “We knew we were still in the game. We can get down by 10 and still be in the game.†After the Islanders (1-4 in SLC, 14-13 overall) sent 10 runners to the plate in the top of the second, Sam Houston put together a similar rally. Boggs and Sebek got the scoring started with back-to-back doubles. Pugh followed with an RBI single to center. With one out, Mann and Stein delivered consecutive singles, and Holzbach beat out an infield single with two outs that made it 5-4. The Bearkats tied the score in the third when Zaleski slapped a single to right to score Sebek. Stein put SHSU on top in the fourth, tripling to right-center and scoring on Bobby Verbick's groundout. Corpus' Bryan Gerondale's solo homer in the fifth knotted the score at 6, but his liner over the left-field fence also seemed to wake up the Bearkats. Zaleski started the bottom of the sixth with a solo homer, and before the inning was over, SHSU held a 9-6 lead. Verbick ripped an RBI double to left that scored Mann, and Krailo smoked a shot off third baseman Martin Parra's glove for an RBI single. “We're confident when Jacob's on the mound,†said Zaleski, who went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored. “He had one rough inning when they strung together some hits, but we knew we were going to get ours. Five runs, we knew we could overcome that.†After taking a three-run lead, the Kats continued to bombard Islanders relievers Brian Anderson (1-1) and Trey Maldonado, turning what was a close game into an extended batting practice session. Krailo cranked a three-run double in the seventh, Boggs drove in a run, then Pugh and Mann drilled two-run doubles that gave the Kats the runs necessary for the umpires to call the game early due to the 10-run mercy rule. In the final two innings, SHSU scored 11 runs on 10 hits, five of them for extra bases. “We're always trying to get into a team's bullpen,†said Krailo, who has gone 5-for-7 and raised his batting average to .379 in the first two games of the weekend series. “Once you get into the bullpen, you don't know where the ballgame is going to go. “(The relievers) were just kind of throwing it up there. Their curveballs weren't breaking much and they weren't hitting the corners like the starter does.†Howard pitched six innings, allowing eight hits, two walks and five earned runs, while striking out three. Stephen Price relieved and got into a slight jam in the seventh, but Kats coach Mark Johnson elected to bring his closer, Luke Prihoda, out of the pen to stop the threat with the tying run at the plate. Prihoda struck out cleanup hitter Jason Graham with two men on base for the final out in the top of the seventh. “Howard may have had his worst outing of the year, but it's the mark of a good pitcher if he can keep you in the game without his best stuff,†Johnson said. “They are a good-hitting ballclub, and when the tying run came to the plate (in the seventh), we started thinking, who knows, it may rain tomorrow. Luke is the best guy for the job, so we brought him in.†On four pitches, Prihoda retired Graham and set up the Bearkats' biggest offensive inning. The teams conclude the weekend series today at 1 p.m. with senior righty Timothy Gray (2-1) slated to pitch for SHSU. Senior right-hander Matt Wilson (3-3) is the Islanders' likely starter. Friday Game OneSam Houston State senior Karl Krailo was sure glad to see the home-plate umpire twirl his finger and signal a home run in the first inning of Friday's game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Krailo's classmate Jesse Marshall was even more thrilled. That early 2-0 lead on Krailo's towering fly ball that may have been foul allowed Marshall to settle in and pitch 8 1/3 innings of three-hit ball against a team that was leading the Southland Conference in hitting. Closer Luke Prihoda relieved Marshall in the ninth and nailed down his eighth save in the Bearkats' 3-0 win over the Islanders at Sanders Stadium. “I was a little antsy in the first inning, but I relaxed after we scored those two runs and started throwing my game,†said the southpaw Marshall, who improved to 5-1. “I just tried to hit my spots, and pretty much everything was working. My curveball wasn't working at first, but I felt good after Karl's home run.†With a snicker, Krailo talked about Friday's blast, his third of the season. “It might have been foul, but I'll take it,†the senior slugger said. “Those ended up being insurance runs, and you've got to take whatever you can get. “Their pitcher tried to sneak a fastball in on me. He had been consistently throwing me changeups away, and on the fastball, I just turned on it and let my hands get to work.†Krailo's high fly went over the foul pole in left field and landed on the Bearkats' softball field. But the ball was hooking down the line as soon as it left Krailo's bat. Corpus Christi coach Gene Salazar bolted out of the visitors' dugout and argued his case for a foul ball with the plate umpire, but after a brief meeting with the base umps, the original call stood. “We saw it a lot different,†Salazar said. “I didn't want to be a burden on anybody or be the bad guy, but we saw it foul. Regardless of that, their pitcher threw a gem. He kept us off balance all night, throwing his changeup away, and we were chasing. We didn't adjust. We got runners on base, but we didn't get them in. They got theirs in.†Actually, the Bearkats scored two in the first on Krailo's home run and added a single run in the second on a double by Todd Sebek, a groundout by Heath Pugh and a sacrifice fly from Nick Zaleski. After that, SHSU left six men on base and collected just six hits. Islanders left-hander Will Norman (3-4) matched Marshall from the third inning on, but the damage had already been done. Marshall walked five and struck out eight, while Norman walked two and struck out two. “This was a typical Friday night game,†Bearkats coach Mark Johnson said. “Runs were hard to come by. We hit the ball pretty good for a Friday night against a pretty good left-hander. That's one of our shortcomings. We don't have anybody on this team who can throw left-handed except Jesse Marshall, so that hurts us, especially our switch hitters. “I told the guys before the game, they better play good defense. Jesse had to pitch out of a couple of jams, and I thought we made some nice defensive plays. (Austin) Boggs and (Jeremy) Holzbach made some good plays in the infield, and we made a couple of nice plays in the outfield.†SHSU improved to 3-1 in SLC play and 17-8 on the season, while A&M-Corpus fell to 1-3 and 14-12. Led by Boggs, Krailo, Keith Stein and Todd Sebek, who had two hits each, the Bearkats collected 10 hits off Norman. Trae Williams, Chase Williams and Martin Parra had one hit apiece for A&M-Corpus, which stranded eight runners.
Recommended Posts