By Cody Stark
Dallas Gallant got his “groove” back Tuesday night.
The Sam Houston State sophomore looked more like the true freshman who pitched the Bearkats to the NCAA regionals last year by tossing 5 1/3 scoreless innings in an 11-2 victory over Houston at Don Sanders Stadium.
Gallant, who has struggled this season, gave up two runs in the first inning and allowed the first two Cougars to reach to start the second. Then something clicked. He retired 14 of the next 16 batters he faced to improve to 2-3 on the season.
“After the first inning I got in my groove that I have been barely missing,” said Gallant, who gave up three hits in 6 1/3 innings and struck out six. “Something just clicked and I finally figured it out. I got great defense from my teammates and we put some runs on the board. After that it was my job to keep putting zeros on the board.”
The Bearkats (21-13) had problems figuring out Houston starter Mo Wiley in the first three innings. But when the fourth frame rolled around, Sam Houston got things going at the plate.
Second baseman Braeden Riley led off the inning with one of his three hits and moved to second on a wild pitch. First baseman Nick Zaleski ripped a double into the right-field corner to make it 1-0.
Shortstop Jon Reed was hit by a pitch to setup an RBI single by right fielder Tyler Knight, who was 3-for-4 with four RBIs. Catcher Mark Wyatt followed with a monster two-run double off the right-field wall and later scored on a sacrifice fly by third baseman Ryan Mooney to put the Kats up 5-2.
“I really think that we have the potential to get more outings like this from our pitching staff,” SHSU head coach Mark Johnson said. “Dallas was really good tonight. Guillaume (Duguay) did a great job coming in and he was really working his changeup, and I thought Ryan (Tepera) did some good things.
“With the way we hit the ball, if our pitching can keep this up, we will be tough to beat.”
The Bearkats kept pouring it on and rocked the Cougars (15-20) for three runs in both the sixth and seventh innings.
Knight singled to start the sixth and Seth Hammock doubled to put runners in scoring position. Mooney singled off Houston reliever Chris Wright’s glove to stretch the lead to 7-2. Center fielder Justin Keithley hit an RBI triple for the other run.
Zaleski, who is batting .425 this season, and Reed hit back-to-back singles in the seventh. Knight then made it 11-2 with a three-run home run over the left-field wall.
The Kats collected 14 hits in the victory.
Duguay didn’t allow a hit in 1 2/3 innings and Tepera pitched a scoreless ninth to seal it.
“We did a good job moving the runners tonight,” Johnson said. “We swung the bats well against a good team and didn’t leave runners stranded at third. That took a lot of pressure off our pitchers.”
The Bearkats return to action tonight when they host Texas Southern in a make-up game at 6:30.
