Gene Schallenberg
CORPUS CHRISTI — A lot of great things come in threes.
There’s the Three Stooges, a three-ring circus and three-legged races. Sam Houston State now can add its name to the list after defeating Texas State 7-1 in the Southland Conference tournament championship game on Saturday at Whataburger Field to win its third straight title and punch its ticket to the NCAA regionals.
In the top of the ninth with the bases loaded, Bearkats relief pitcher Ryan Tepera struck out pinch hitter Cody Gambill and the dogpile ensued.
“I don’t know what to say. We just keep coaching and the guys keep pushing,” Sam Houston State head coach Mark Johnson said. “The guys just keep fighting through adversity. I don’t have any secrets.”
Now that the Bearkats have clinched a berth to the NCAA regionals, all they can do is wait.
The selection show will be held Monday on ESPN at 11:30 a.m. and the Bearkats will find out where they will be playing and can start making plans.
In his second straight appearance, Sam Houston State reliever Matt Shelton, who came in for starter Jacob Howard in the fourth inning, dominated and frustrated Texas State (41-15), who had scored 32 runs and had 38 hits in its three previous games in the tournament leading to Saturday’s championship game.
“It really came down to the guys on the bump,” Johnson said. “Jacob Howard gave us three strong innings. That’s all we were thinking we were going to get out of him if he had his stuff. He’s had kind of a dead arm. He felt good in the bullpen. We had quite a few pitchers ready to go. I told the guys that when you get into a tournament, every once in a while a guy will come out of nowhere, so they needed to be ready in case they would have their moment.
“We haven’t asked Matt to go that long and be that effective and he did both of those things. He gave us distance in the tournament. I thought mentally he was very strong. His stuff was deadly as night. It was discouraging to our opponents.”
Shelton, the tournament’s most valuable player, pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings with no walks, eight strikeouts and four hits Saturday.
“I’ve never gone that long, obviously,” Shelton said. “I haven’t thrown 77 pitches in a while. I had a blast.”
After Bobcats third baseman Lance Loftin homered to give Texas State a 1-0 lead in the second inning, the Bearkats (36-22), with their season on the line, stepped up in a big way.
Designated hitter Heath Pugh got things started for the Bearkats with a hard-hit ball to second base. Sophomore Braeden Riley then hit a deep fly ball, which bounced off the bottom of the left-field fence for a triple, and Pugh motored around to score, tying the game at 1.
First baseman Ryan Mooney hit a sharp ground ball to first base that Texas State’s Paul Goldschmidt couldn’t field in time to make a play toward home, so he touched first to get the force out as Riley scored to give Sam Houston State a 2-1 lead.
The Bobcats looked to threaten once again after Goldschmidt led off the fourth inning with a walk. But Shelton (7-0) came in to relieve Howard and took care out of business. Shelton forced designated hitter Keith Prestidge to ground out into a 5-4-3 double play and then got left fielder Spenser Dennis to fly out to center to end the frame.
The Bearkats built on their lead with a flurry in the home half of the fourth. Sam Houston catcher Mark Wyatt launched a towering bomb that hit halfway up the foul pole in left field for a solo home run, which ignited the Bearkat offense.
“I had a feeling (Texas State starting pitcher Garrett Carruth) was going to throw me a curveball,” Wyatt said. “He had thrown me some curveballs earlier and made me look kind of foolish. I was just looking to put it into play. Fortunately, I got it into the air and it stayed just fair.
“It definitely gave us a cushion for the time being. From there on, we just started hitting a little better.”
First baseman Daniel Nottebart singled to left field and later scored on a base hit by center fielder Adam DeLaGarza. Mooney knocked in DeLaGarza on an RBI single through the right side of the infield, which extended the Bearkats lead to 5-1.
“We’ve got so many guys that can hit so many different pitches,” said Riley, who went 4-for-5 with two RBIs. “Mark (Wyatt) hit a breaking ball out of the park. Nick Zaleski always hits every pitch. Just to see guys have great approaches like that, I’m really excited about going into the regionals. I don’t think it can end here. We have a lot left in us. The bats can still get hot from here.”
The Bearkats added on two more insurance runs in the fifth and seventh innings. Right fielder Tyler Knight, who was on second base with two outs, scored when Goldschmidt misplayed a ground ball by Nottebart.
Then in the seventh inning with runners on first and second with two outs, Riley singled to center field to bring in Pugh.
Shelton tried to finish the Bobcats in the top of the ninth, but Texas State loaded the bases with two outs. Johnson made a call to the pen to bring in Tepera, and the junior righthander got Gambill swinging to push the Bearkats’ SLC tournament record under Johnson to 12-0 the past three seasons.
