Stephen F. Austin
Sam Houston State
SFA Goes Wire-To-Wire In Win Over 'Kats
5/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 16, 2008
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - SFA tied a season high with 17 hits and led wire-to-wire on Saturday, picking up an 8-6 win over Sam Houston in the second game of the "Battle of the Piney Woods" series at Don Sanders Stadium.
Kevin Thomas allowed five runs - two earned - in six innings for his fourth consecutive win in four appearances, and Richard Folmer went the final three frames to notch his fifth save of the year for SFA (25-28, 12-16).
Guillame Duguay allowed __ runs while only lasting __ innings for the `Kats (32-23, 17-12), dropping his record to 3-2 on the season.
Five Lumberjacks had multiple hits on the afternoon, led by Kevin Croft's 4-for-5 effort, the second four-hit game for him this season.
The `Jacks got on the board first, with Meyers picking up his third RBI of the series with a sharp single off the glove of first baseman Nick Zaleski. Noel Trevino scored on the play from second after a one-out double to left field, giving SFA a 1-0 lead.
Thomas sat down the `Kats 1-2-3 in the bottom of the first before SFA got back on the board in the top of the second. Croft led off with a single to left field; then two batters later Matt Whatley made it 3-0 SFA when he connected with a Duguay pitch and sent it high over the right field fence for his ninth home run of the year.
SFA got four straight hits with two outs in the third to give Thomas a 6-0 cushion. Meyers started the rally with a double down the right field line and came home one batter later when Justin Roland blooped him home with a single to center field. Croft then hit a rocket-shot double into the right-center field gap that was out of the reach of a diving Keith Stein that brought Roland home all the way from first. Zach Gardner then scored Croft with another bloop single before Whatley grounded out to finish the frame.
Sam Houston got on the board in the bottom of the third, though, sending 10 to the plate with three of the four runs in the frame being unearned. Kai Kirby let a routine fly ball fall off his glove in right field off the bat of Ryan Weber that put him at second before Todd Sebek launched one to left-center field for an RBI double. Sebek came around to score just one batter later on an RBI single from Stein, but Thomas struck out Bobby Verbick and got Seth Hammock to ground into a fielder's choice to get the first two outs of the inning. However, he would then walk Nick Zaleski before allowing a single to Heath Pugh that scored Hammock. Another Bearkat single by Daniel Nottabart scored another run, making it 6-4 after three innings.
Both teams went scoreless in the fourth, but the `Jacks got on the scoreboard again in the fifth on a cue-shot RBI single from Whatley over the head of reliever Will Skelton. SFA had led off with consecutive singles from Roland and Croft, however Roland was thrown out at home plate on a single by Gardner through the left side by Verbick for the first out of the inning. Jeff Brewer flied out for the inning's second out, but Gardner was thrown out trying to steal third base for the third out with the `Jacks in front 7-4 and Kirby standing at the plate.
Sam Houston got the run back in the bottom of the sixth, using a pair of one-out singles to put runs on the corners before Sebek picked up the RBI with a groundout to shortstop. An error one batter later on Brewer put runners back at the corners for Verbick with two outs; however, Thomas went all the way to a full count before striking the Bearkat's slugger out swinging to keep SFA in front by two runs.
Meyers started another scoring inning for SFA in the seventh with a leadoff double and moved over to third when Jaime Rohlmeier made a great play to rob Roland of a single up the middle for the inning's first out. Croft then delivered his fourth hit of the game, a single to left field that made it 8-5 SFA when Meyers crossed home.
Richard Folmer came in to start the seventh inning in relief of Thomas and got the first two batters he faced before walking Pugh and moving him to second on a wild pitch. One batter later Nottabart pulled Sam Houston to within two runs again on a single to right field.
He got a scare in the bottom of the eighth, walking Verbick after a pair of hits to load the bases with only one out. But the junior composed himself and got Hammock swinging before getting a stoke of luck on a ground ball from Zaleski that went off of Folmer's leg, but caromed directly to Brewer at shortstop who made the play for the inning's final out.
Folmer struck out the first two batters of the ninth inning, before getting Todd Sebek to fly out with a runner on for the game's final out.
SFA concludes the 2008 season and the series with Sam Houston on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. The game can be heard live on KSFA 860 AM.
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