By Cody Stark
Caught in a downward spiral, the Sam Houston State baseball team needed a huge boost to stay in the race for the Southland Conference championship.
After opening conference with a 5-1 record, the Bearkats lost five of their next six league contests heading into last weekend’s crucial series at McNeese State. It wasn’t pretty, but Sam Houston State found a way to sweep all three games from the Cowboys to move within a game of first place at 9-6.
With new life having been pumped into its championship hopes, Sam Houston State (18-12) has the chance to add more fuel to the fire Thursday when Lamar comes to Don Sanders Stadium for a three-game SLC series.
But the big question is how is the Bearkats starting pitching rotation going to hold up?
Sam Houston State has started five different pitchers in 15 SLC games and four have an earned run average of more than 8.00.
“Looking at the statistics, it is kind of interesting,” Bearkats head coach Mark Johnson said Wednesday. “We are being outscored 149-91 in the first five innings. We are outscoring our opponents 109-64 in the last four innings and 22-9 in extra innings and have won all the extra-inning games.
“Our starters are getting hit and our relievers are giving us a chance. It is starting the game that has been our nemesis so far.”
Those numbers are the reason Johnson and his staff have decided to shake up the rotation. Last weekend in the second game against McNeese State, the Bearkats started reliever Sean Weatherford, and the freshman responded by tossing seven strong innings with one earned run and six strikeouts to earn the win.
Weatherford was one of Sam Houston’s top bullpen guys with a 2-1 SLC record and three saves before getting the start against the Cowboys. Now, he’s the guy the Kats are trotting out today to open the series with Lamar (9-6 in SLC, 22-11 overall).
“I started my whole high school career, so it isn’t much of a change,” said Weatherford, who has a 3.44 ERA in 18 1/3 innings of work in conference play. “The only difference now is that as the closer, I only threw 40 pitches coming out of the pen, so it was a little hard on my arm. But I’m doing more long toss and I’m ready to go out and pitch seven innings.”
The Bearkats are going to stick with starter Jacob Howard to toss the second game on Friday. Howard has been up and down this season and has had some rocky starts in league action. He is 1-2 with an 8.87 ERA in five SLC outings, but does have 20 strikeouts in 22 1/3 innings.
To break it down, take a look at Howard’s first SLC start and his latest.
In the conference opener against Texas-Arlington, he allowed only two earned runs while throwing 7 1/3 innings and struck out seven in an 8-2 victory.
Last Friday against McNeese State, Howard had seven strikeouts in the first four innings, but gave up five earned runs on six hits.
“I think everyone goes through some spells sometimes, and here lately, that is what we have been doing with our pitching,” Howard said. “I think we are catching back up. We just need to get ahead of people because when you fall behind any pitcher gets hit then. We need to start better. That’s the problem.”
That has been the case all season and the Bearkats have won 12 games by coming from behind. But Sam Houston State is trying to fix that problem because before rallying to beat the Cowboys 7-5 last Friday, the Kats had lost five straight when trailing after five innings.
So that is what has led to the changes. Brent Powers is going to start the third game on Saturday. He has yet to record a decision in four SLC starts and has an 8.80 league ERA.
“There’s a good part and a bad part,” Johnson said. “The good part is that we are a never-say-die team, and I love that about this group. The bad part is that we are getting off to slow starts and that comes down to the other teams getting more hits than we are. We have to change things up. It’s not a panic move, we are just looking at matchups more now.
“Lamar has a heavy left-handed lineup, so we are going to throw Weatherford, Howard and Powers. A little freshness might help us, but I do feel that our other guys like Dallas Gallant and Ryan Tepera are going to help us down the stretch.”
Today series opener begins at 6:30 p.m.
