Sam Houston State Wins Third Consecutive Southland Baseball Tournament Championship
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas ? Sam Houston State defeated Texas State 7-1 in the championship game of the 2009 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament Saturday at Whataburger Field to become just the second team to win three consecutive Southland tournament championships. The win also secured the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA tournament, which begins Friday.
Trinity University won the first three conference tournament titles in 1964, 1965 and 1966 and no university has been able to do it since. That is, not until Mark Johnson became the head coach at Sam Houston State in the summer of 1996. The Bearkats have not lost any of the 12 Southland tournament games under Johnson and Saturday’s win netted the school’s fourth tournament championship. That figure leads all Southland programs, breaking a tie with Trinity and Texas State.
This year’s Bobcats entered the tournament as the league’s top seed. Sam Houston State, came into the tournament as the No. 7 seed, and was not intimidated by an early home run by Lance Loftin that put it in a 1-0 hole.
Sam Houston (36-22) answered the call in the bottom of the third inning, turning a lead-off single by Heath Pugh into the tying run when Braeden Riley tripled to the gap in left center. Riley scored on a ground out by Ryan Mooney to give the Bearkats a 2-1 lead.
Bearkat catcher Mark Wyatt, who gave his team a walk-off victory over UTSA on Thursday, led off the fourth inning with a solo home run off the left-field foul pole. Sam Houston added two more runs in the inning to take a 5-1 lead. With two outs, Adam DeLaGarza singled to shallow center field to score Daniel Nottebart and then Ryan Money singled to right to plate DeLaGarza.
The sixth Sam Houston run scored in the fifth and it came on the only error of the game. Tyler Knight doubled into the right-field corner and was able to score on a Daniel Nottebart grounder to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. The Southland Conference Player of the Year could not come up with the ball and Knight was able to score from second base.
Then the rain and lightning came, forcing a 44-minute delay, an out before the game could become official. Only one more run scored the rest of the way. The Bearkats tagged on a run in the seventh on Riley’s second RBI of the game.
Texas State struggled against Sam Houston pitching. Starter Jacob Howard was touched for one run on two hits in three innings before handing the ball over to Matt Shelton, who tried to take the Bearkats the rest of the way. He lasted 5 2/3 innings keeping the Bobcats off the scoreboard. Of the four hits he allowed, three came in the ninth inning, loading the bases for Texas State with two outs. Ryan Tepera came on to record the final out of the game.
Shelton improved to 7-0 with the win, his second of the tournament. He struck out eight and did not walk a batter in 77 pitches. The other win came against UTSA on Thursday. In 9 1/3 innings he pitched in the tournament, he did not allow a run and finished with 12 strikeouts, including eight in the title game. His efforts earned him Most Valuable Player honors for the tournament.
Riley finished the game 4-for-5 with a pair of RBI while DeLaGarza was 3-for-4 with an RBI. Knight also had multiple hits, going 2-for-4, in the Bearkats’ 14-hit effort. The Bobcats finished with six hits, getting a hit from six different players. Garret Carruth took the loss for Texas State, allowing five runs on seven hits in 3 2/3 innings.
Sam Houston State, which will be playing in the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive season, is making its fifth appearance overall. It will find out where it will go when the field of 64 is announced on ESPN Monday at 11:30 a.m., CDT.
Texas State, which entered the conference tournament with an RPI of 31, will remain hopeful for an at-large berth. The Southland has had multiple teams in the NCAA tournament four times, including three teams in 2000. The last time the conference placed more than one team in a regional was in 2005 when both UTSA and Northwestern State were selected.
The All-Tournament Team including three players from Sam Houston State. In addition to Shelton, the MVP, Wyatt, DeLaGarza and Sean Weatherford also received mention. Texas State had Goldschmidt, shortstop Jason Martinson and outfielder Bret Atwood named to the list. Third baseman Chris Dunkin and outfielder Anthony Moore from Lamar were selected to the team as were Southeastern Louisiana second baseman Ty Summerlin and designated hitter Brian McCants.
2009 Southland Conference Baseball All-Tournament Team
Catcher: Mark Wyatt, Sam Houston State
First Base: Paul Goldschmidt, Texas State
Second Base: Ty Summerlin, Southeastern Louisiana
Shortstop: Jason Martinson, Texas State
Third Base: Chris Dunkin, Lamar
Outfielder: Adam DeLaGarza, Sam Houston State
Outfielder: Anthony Moore, Lamar
Outfielder: Bret Atwood, Texas State
Designated Hitter: Brian McCants, Southeastern Louisiana
Pitcher: Sean Weatherford, Sam Houston State
Most Valuable Player: Matt Shelton (RHP), Sam Houston State
Texas State Head Coach Ty Harrington
Opening Statement
“Our offense has been really good for us all year long. It is a credit to the Sam Houston State Matt Shelton, nobody usually holds this club to six hits. We barreled up on some balls early and they got caught, we hit into two double plays where we barreled up and they just made plays on the ball. I didn’t know that young man had so much ability to stay in the game that long after pitching so much already. On a given day, it just is what it is. That young man was the difference in the ball game.”
“We hit a few balls well in the first two innings. Once they got ahead, they were probably thinking they got three innings out of the starter and to move on to the next best guy in the bullpen. They did what we anticipated them to do.”
They kept the momentum in their dugout most of the night. After the rain delay, we tried to create some momentum to get it going, but we weren’t able to get it going.”
On the possibility of not getting an NCAA at-large bid
“That would be very frustrating, very disappointing, not only for Texas State but also for this conference. Our schedule is good, if that is what it comes to, I don’t even really want to think about it at this point. I think we have done enough wins wise, 41 wins and only 15 losses is pretty dad gum good. I think anybody that we have played would agree that we are a regional team. I hope the committee sees it that way. I felt like coming into this tournament, we were before we got here. Our schedule is good enough. It hovered between 27 and 32 RPI-wise. I know that some teams that aren’t scheduled to get in can get in, but the bottom line is that this is a great baseball conference. I hope that everybody recognizes that and give it the respect that it deserves and give this team the respect that it deserves.”
Whether the Southland Conference deserves two bids to the NCAA tournament
“I certainly believe that this year it does. My first year in the league there were three, we went, McNeese and Monroe went. The next year there were two and maybe two years later there were two and then two years after that were two. This conference deserves that, the teams have done a good job of going out and schedule. Teams in the lower half had big wins this year. UTA had some nice wins, Sam Houston had some nice wins, their RPI hovered around there too, and yet they finished seventh in the league. I’d invite anybody to come hang out in this league for awhile and see what it’s like.”
Texas State Third Baseman Lance Loftin
“Shelton hit his pitches really well. His slider was really good tonight, I couldn’t really tell the difference between his fastball and his slider. His off-speed was excellent and he kept us off balance.”
On the possibility of an NCAA at-large
“Just hope I guess. I think we have a really good shot with 41 wins, a school record. It is something that hasn’t been done here before but I’m just going to sit back and relax and hope and pray.”
“I actually like the one game playoff. Two-out-of-three after you play the tournament is kind of rough on the arms in your bullpen and the guys in the field. I would definitely like another shot at them.”
Sam Houston State Head Coach Mark Johnson
Opening Statement
“It was exciting tonight when we really got on it quick. The game of baseball is a little odd, the balls they hit well were right at us and we were able to get some double plays out of them while our hits fell through a little bit. I thought we attacked well, but it really comes down to the guys out on the bump. Jacob Howard gave us three strong innings, which is all we thought we would get out of him if he had his stuff working. He has been having a little dead arm, but he felt good in the bullpen so we went with him. We weren’t going to let him go too long because we had quite a few pitchers ready to go. I told these guys when we got into the tournament that there is always somebody that just comes out of nowhere to eat up some innings for you or swing the bat that hasn’t done it the whole time. Matt went out and we haven’t asked him to go that long and be that effective. He did both of those things for us, he gave us distance in the tournament and held them at bay while we gained the lead. I thought mentally he was very, very strong and his stuff was a discouragement. His stuff was deadly tonight so it was discouraging to our opponents.”
On Texas State
“I will say that Texas State earned the right to win the season championship, I think that they have a great team and I’m very proud that we were able to win tonight. The game of baseball goes different ways, we got on a roll but they were on a roll coming into the game too. Our pitchers were able to ground on them but they are certainly deserving of being in a regional. I’d be very disappointed if they weren’t in a regional but I don’t think there is a question that they won’t be in one. They are a very good team so we were very proud to be able to win the ballgame.”
On Adam DeLaGarza’s tournament performance
“We were talking about that outside about how he has done that more than once for us. After the rain delay, he came out and laid down a bunt to get on base and kind of ignited us to get us going again. Some of it is ugly but he gets it done. I was really proud of him, he is a spark plug for us and just keeps us going. He competes hard with his at bats and just puts the ball in play.”
Sam Houston State Pitcher Matt Shelton
“I don’t think they depended on me, we had plenty of guys there that could back me up at any time so I wasn’t worried about that. After the rain delay, I was really pumped and was thinking to myself that I would have to step it up. If I came out of the rain delay not doing so hot, it was going to hurt me. It hurt me a little bit because I was really up there emotionally. I was really ready to go and ready to rock. I came out of the rain delay and I was ready to rock again. I have never gone that long in time, since high school really. I had a lot of fun out there, it was really a blast.”
Sam Houston State Second Baseman Braeden Riley
On going 4-for-5
“If you look at my first at bat, I had to make an adjustment because it was probably one of my worst at bats of the year. I just went up there looking for the fastball and got it a few times where I was able to take advantage of it. We have so many guys that can hit so many pitches. Guys like Mark Wyatt that hit a breaking ball out of the park or Nick Zaleski who hits just about every pitch. Just to see guys having approaches like that, I am really excited about going into the regional.”
Sam Houston State Catcher Mark Wyatt
On his home run
“I believe it was a curveball kind of low. He threw me some curveballs early in the at bat that made me look kind of foolish, so I had a feeling that I had to be looking for it. I felt that I could still react to the fastball so I just widened up and looking to put it into play. Fortunately I got enough of it and it was able to just stay fair. It gave us a two-run lead and from then on we just started hitting a little better. The pitching staff from Texas State was some of the best guys we saw all year. Their whole staff is good, that is a great team and we are just proud to beat them.”