No better time

Sports

Related Photos

Tom Waddill
Tom Waddill

Discussion

May 24, 2009

Pitching, hitting finally come together as Bearkats win third straight Southland Conference tournament title

By Gene Schallenberg The Huntsville Item Sun May 24, 2009, 11:27 PM CDT

Talk about everything coming together.

When Bearkat pitcher Ryan Tepera struck out Texas State’s Cody Gambill for the final out of Saturday’s Southland Conference championship game, Sam Houston State put the finishing touches on a conference tournament in which they finally had all the pieces finally fit into place.

This season, that wasn’t always the case.

Earlier in the season, the Bearkats’ offense was clicking on all cylinders after opening SLC play with wins in five of its first six games, sweeping Texas-Arlington and winning a series with Texas State in San Marcos. In the first two SLC series, Sam Houston averaged more than eight runs and 13 hits.

But then the starting pitching started to take its lumps and as a result, the Bearkats lost five of their next six conference games, getting swept at home by Texas-San Antonio and losing a series against Northwestern State.

At the midpoint of conference play, the Bearkats had started five pitchers with four of them having earned run averages of more than 8.00.

“We felt like we had real good ammunition out on the mound,” SHSU head coach Mark Johnson said late Saturday night. “We knew the guys were young, but we thought they were going to be good. I think in our first 18 wins, 14 of them we had to come from behind. We just gave up so many runs.”

After the starters found their groove and kept SHSU in games, the Bearkats seemed like a team that couldn’t be beaten. For a while they weren’t as they rattled off 10 straight victories.

With the season winding down toward the conference tournament, the offense started to lag while the pitchers maintained their solid performances.

“When the pitchers started going, we fell into a slump,” Johnson said. “We just could not get the bats going. So it was kind of peculiar in that regard.”

It’s not the typical way a team would prefer to enter the postseason, especially in a league where teams don’t often receive at-large bids to the NCAA regionals and have to rely on winning the tournament just to get in.

Then at a time when they desperately needed to, the Bearkats put everything together at the SLC tournament in Corpus Christi, culminating Saturday with an emphatic 7-1 victory over Texas State, a team that led the league in hitting and boasted one of the conference’s top pitching staffs.

The Bearkats’ pitching was impressive and their offense was explosive all tournament long.

Sam Houston State was consistent from top to bottom in the three previous tournament games leading up Saturday’s championship.

It was Sam Houston’s hitting and pitching performances against Texas State, a team that is expected to receive an at-large bid because of its 41 wins and key victories over Rice, Texas A&M; and Baylor, that showed what kind of team the Bearkats can be when everything works cohesively.

Bearkats sophomore pitcher Matt Shelton followed up his performance against Texas-San Antonio in the second round, in which he struck out four, allowed no walks, no hits and no runs in 3 2/3 innings, with a brilliant effort Saturday. Shelton entered the game — on one day’s rest — in the top of the fourth inning and humbled the Bobcats’ lineup. Shelton struck out eight and walked none in 6 2/3 innings. Texas State wasn’t able to get a hit off Shelton until the eighth inning. Shelton was so dominant that when he left the game, even Texas State fans couldn’t help but stand and applaud.

“It was pretty frustrating,” Texas State third baseman Lance Loftin said. “When you go up against good pitching, it’s definitely hard to score as many runs. We’ve been hitting the ball well as a team. We’re an offensive team. When we have the bats going, it’s hard to stop. They just put a guy out there that had the stuff to stop us. It was extremely frustrating.”

It wasn’t just the pitching that shined. The Bearkats’ bats went to town and collected 14 hits on the day. Sophomore Braeden Riley, who broke the Sam Houston State record for most hits in a season Friday night against Southeastern Louisiana, had another stellar game, going 4-for-5 with two RBIs. Riley now leads the nation with 108 hits.

When the Bearkats can get going like they were in the tournament, there’s no telling how well they can do in the regionals.

“The guys came out ready to play,” Johnson said. “We improved as a team. I like it when we’re strong during the stretch run. I was disappointed we weren’t stronger in the stretch run, but we’re getting ready to play in the (NCAA) tournament, so I like them a lot now.”

Text Only

Sports

Big week ahead for Bulldogs, Lady Bulldogs
To say that this is an important week for the Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs basketball team would be a big understatement. With the regular season winding down, much is at stake for the New Waverly boys and girls.

February 6, 2012 2 Photos
Bulldog lifters gain experience at Shepherd meet
Looking back on his lifters’ performance at last Saturday’s meet in Shepherd, New Waverly powerlifting coach Mike Carolan lauded his team’s efforts. Senior Tucker Saxton won the 220-pound classification and freshman Dillon Silvis took fifth in the 114-pound division.

February 6, 2012
Running Shorts: First 50-miler in the books
February 6, 2012
Hornet powerlifters fare well at Shepherd meet
February 5, 2012 2 Photos
Huntsville’s Thompson cruises at Willis tennis tourney, wins singles title
Hard rain, blustery wind and a change of venue could not stop Huntsville senior Kyle Thompson last Friday. The Hornets’ top tennis player cruised to three consecutive victories and earned the championship trophy in boys singles at a dual match in Willis.

February 5, 2012
Who ya got, Pats or Giants?
February 4, 2012
Bearkats back on top
The Bearkats got caught playing down to Southeastern Louisiana’s level in the first half, but a lights-out second half led to a 67-46 victory over the Lions on Saturday.
Sam Houston State turned the ball over 10 times, which resulted in nine Southeastern points at the break. That’s why the Lions trailed by only three at halftime, though they only shot 26.5 percent (9-of-34) from the floor.
Southeastern played even worse in the final 20 minutes, but most of that had to do with Sam Houston’s raised intensity level, thanks to a firm halftime message that stuck.

February 4, 2012 1 Photo
Hornet wrestlers make marked improvements at district meet
Exhausted but still exhilarated, the young wrestlers on the Huntsville High School team are already talking about what they can accomplish next year.
Last-place finishers at the District 20-5A meet last winter, the Hornets made a major move in 2012, finishing fifth in the 13-team varsity boys field at the district meet Friday.
Huntsville’s girls finished sixth in the team standings and Lady Hornets freshman Marissa Dixon won a district championship in the girls 128-pound division.

February 4, 2012
Hornets fall in OT, must win three in row now
The Hornets had their chances in regulation and in overtime, but they couldn’t quite get a much-needed win at Kingwood Park on Friday night.
In a basketball game that was slowed to a crawl, Huntsville dropped a 51-46 decision to the Panthers in overtime.
The pressure’s now on Huntsville in the final week and a half in order to get into the postseason.

February 4, 2012
Whispering Pines golf pro Rowe recognized as one of country’s top 50 kids’ teachers
Whispering Pines golf professional Chris Rowe is among the class of the Top 50 Kids Teachers for 2011, as selected by U.S. Kids Golf.
Rowe has been a junior golf instructor for 22 years and is currently the head professional at Whispering Pines Golf Club near Trinity. This is the first time Rowe has been named a Top 50 Kids Teacher by U.S. Kids Golf.

February 4, 2012
More Sports Headlines

Sports

Search Results

Related Photos

Discussion

No better time

Pitching, hitting finally come together as Bearkats win third straight Southland Conference tournament title

Site Map

Contact Us