No. 5 Sam Houston State Defeats No. 4 McNeese State
Southland Conference
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SUGAR LAND, Texas
– No. 5 Sam Houston State defeated No. 4 McNeese State 5-1 Wednesday night at Constellation Field for the final game for the first day of the 2015 Southland Conference Tournament.
Sam Houston State’s (28-26, 17-12 Southland) pitching staff gave up eight hits to the Cowboys, but held them scoreless through eight innings to advance to the winners bracket. The Bearkats’ offense picked up 11 hits against McNeese State (32-24, 18-12 Southland).
In the top of the second inning Sam Houston State freshman Bryce Johnson singled to pick up two RBI while advancing to second on the throw and moving a runner to third base. Senior Colt Atwood tripled to deep right field to give the Bearkats a 4-0 lead. Senior Jake MacWilliams doubled to score Atwood with two outs for a 5-0 margin.
McNeese State sophomore Matt Gallier tripled to right field to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning. Junior Billy Sommers drove a single passed the first baseman to drive in Gallier for the Cowboy’s first run of the game.
Left-handed senior improved picked up his fifth win of the season to improve to 5-6.
No. 5 Sam Houston State will face No. 8 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Thursday at 7 p.m. while No. 4 seed McNeese State will take on No. 1 seed Southeastern Louisiana at noon
Sam Houston State Coach Matt Deggs
“Now we turn around and face an outstanding A&M-Corpus Christi team. Don’t let their record fool you. They showed tonight they are a quality team. We’re going with Logan Boyd tomorrow and look to continue the momentum.”
Andrew Godail
“We came out ready to play. We’ve been waiting for this all week long. The defense did a great job tonight. They got me out of some jams. And the hitting came out hot. You put those two together it’s going to be a good day.”
McNeese State Head Coach Justin Hill
“I thought that their pitcher was really good for them tonight and I thought that our pitcher (Kaleb Fontenot) was good tonight. They snuck some hits in even though they really didn’t hit the ball that hard. We had some mistakes and we paid for with their big inning. That is baseball sometimes but we have to be able to put some pressure on them like we did towards the end of the game.”
“I thought Kaleb (Fontenot was really good on the mound tonight. For the most part, he was keeping it off of the barrel. Following Sam Houston State’s big inning, he only allowed them to barrel it up three times after and was great in really critical situations. The biggest thing that he did for us was save our bullpen. He was really effective despite the one inning.”