Houston Baptist Wins First Southland Baseball Title
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SUGAR LAND, Texas
– No. 7 Houston Baptist scored six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to claim the 2015 Southland Conference Tournament title Saturday night at Constellation Field, beating Sam Houston State 6-0.
Houston Baptist right-handed senior Curtis Jones pitched nine scoreless innings to shutout Sam Houston State. Jones faced 35 batters striking out seven to improve to 6-6 on the season.
With two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Houston Baptist (28-25) scored six runs off of six. Junior Greg Espinosa tripped to right field scoring junior Andrew Alvarez and senior Samm Wiggins for the first runs of the ball game. The Huskies continued to move runners as Espinosa scored on an infield single from junior Brandon Morones. Junior Justin Monsour tripled down the left-field line scoring Morones. Senior Clay Thomas singled to right field to score Monsour followed by a double to left center from junior Louis Payetta driving in senior Zach Nehrir for a 6-0 lead over the Bearkats.
Sam Houston State (20-28) had one inning to make a comeback, but fell short picking up three hits and leaving three runners started to end the game. The Bearkats are 4-2 overall in tournament titles games.
This marks the first Southland Conference tournament title for the Huskies as they this was their first postseason appearance. The Huskies had four batters with two hits and three batters with one hit to combine for 12 hits.
Jones was named the Tournament Most Valuable Player after throwing a shutout against the Bearkats in the title game. Houston Baptist placed three players on the all-tournament team with Greg Espinosa, Andrew Alvarez and Clay Thomas. Sam Houston State also claimed four spots with Jake MacWilliams, Hayden Simerly Bryce Johnson and Andrew Godail. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi placed Zacarias Hardy and Brett Burner on the team while Central Arkansas and Southeastern Louisiana each had one player. The Bears’ Ty Tice and the Lions’ Carson Crites earned a spot on the all-tournament team.
Houston Baptist Coach Jared Moon
“You can’t even describe it – you get four complete ballgames in the tournament, the stars just line up for you. That game right there was a great ballgame. We kept hitting the ball hard all night, right at somebody, the wind held a few up. I thought their guy did an outstanding job in pressure situations, we were able to steal some bags, but I told the guys late in the ballgame, he was starting to elevate pitches. Fortunately, for us, we came up with the two-out rally and it’s huge.”
“Going through the (NCAA) transition, you never realize that this is in the future. It was tough, I wouldn’t wish that on anybody, but to be where we’re at…I said it at our golf tournament last year, we’ve won every conference we’ve ever been in and it was only a matter of time before we won this one. How about that? We did it. This is probably the greatest win of my career right now and hopefully there’s more conference championships to come.”
“The defense was outstanding, with Samm, Espinosa, and Zach doubling the guy off at first, that’s what you have to do in championship ballgames. Pitching and defense was why we won this tournament, we able to scratch a few runs across when we needed them. Tonight was the best night we had – in one inning.”
“When they made the pitching change, I told Greg with runners on first and second, just nice and easy, punch something through there. I don’t know if he was beat or if he drove the ball that way, but I thought the rightfielder diving for that play, if he stayed up, he might have thrown Samm out, but I’m glad he dove.”
Houston Baptist Senior Pitcher Curtis Jones
“To tell you the truth, I was feeling the pressure going into this one, after three really good complete games. I came out here with confidence and competed within the strike zone, just trying to stay low in the zone and get all of my offspeed pitches working. The defense helped me out a lot, making plays behind me, just trying to throw strikes and make them put the ball in play, because I know I have the best defense behind me. I don’t know what I would do without Samm (Wiggins) back there, Samm is just one heck of a player, he’s something else, and it’s been an honor to have him as my catcher and I love him to death.”
“That (six-run rally) was huge, I think it all came with two outs. We just had timely hitting, we’ve had it all tournament, just great execution and Greg (Espinosa) came up with a huge hit. It just all built up from there.”
“It feels awesome (to be named MVP and go to a regional), I’ve worked hard since day one just to come out here and do the best for my team.”
Houtson Baptist Junior Second Baseman Greg Espinosa
“I saw that he was throwing gas, hitting 93-94, so I just told myself, ‘he’s not going to beat me with a fastball, he’s not going to beat me with a fastball’ and sure enough, he threw the first one down the middle and I hammered it to right field. I told a few of the guys that when I was rounding second, I couldn’t feel my body, just sliding into third with the crowd going crazy was one of the greatest experiences.”
“I’m just trying to do it for my guys, they’ve been picking me up all year, so just to come up clutch in a big tournament, I’m happy with that. The defense was amazing, we worked so hard on defense. Just coming in here and playing great defense, I’m just proud of my boys – it was amazing.”
Sam Houston State Coach Matt Deggs
“I’m so proud of this baseball team. They were playing for a championship and a trip to the NCAA regional tonight. You don’t always get to do that. They fought so hard every game. We’ve been through a lot of adversity this year and they stuck together and fought through it to get to this game. We had some chances early and made some mistakes. Give a lot of credit to Houston Baptist. They played a great game tonight. And what an effort by Greg Belton on the mound. He’s been in and out of the bull pen this year with arm trouble but he came to play tonight.”