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Box Score 2 HUNTSVILLE -- Sam Houston State finished off its three-game sweep of ACU on Saturday by taking both ends of a Southland Conference doubleheader at Don Sanders Baseball Stadium.
The Bearkats won the first game in heartbreaking fashion (3-2 in 11 innings) and then blaked ACU 7-0 in the second game. ACU is now 12-20 on the season and 2-7 in league play and riding a seven-game losing streak. The Wildcats' seven-game losing is tied for the program's longest under head coach
Britt Bonneau, who is in his 18th season as head coach.
The Wildcats will be back in action Wednesdeay when they travel to College Station to take on Texas A&M before returning home to host Stephen F. Austin in a three-game series (Thursday-Saturday) at Crutcher Scott Field.
Here's a brief recap of each of Saturday's games:
Game 1 (Sam Houston State 3, ACU 2 / 11 innings) -- The Wildcats and Bearkats locked up in a great pitcher's duel for 10 2/3 innings until Sam Houston State's Corey Toups broke the Wildcats' hearts.
Facing ACU relief pitcher
Kevin Sheets, Toups -- who hit two home runs Friday in the Bearkats' 8-3 win in the series opener -- Toups pulled a 1-2 fastball over the wall in left field for a 3-2 win.
Sam Houston got two runs off ACU starting pitcher
Brady Rodriguez in the first, but nothing else off Rodriuez or relievers
Nick Palacios and Sheets until the bottom of the 11th. Rodriguez was solid in his first start of the season, going six innings and allowing just those two runs before giving way to Palacios, who pitched a perfect seventh inning.
Sheets -- who falls to 3-2 with the hard-luck loss -- was solid, but gave up the home run on his final pitch as the Bearkats walked it off against the Wildcats.
Down 2-0, ACU scored a run in the third on an RBI single by
Aaron Draper, and another run in the fifth on a
Tyler Eager RBI single. ACU had runners at second and third with two outs in the seventh, but Eager struck out looking to end the inning. That turned out to be ACU's last real chance to take the lead in the game.
Game 2 (Sam Houston State 7, ACU 0) -- The Bearkats scored two runs in the first, three more in the fifth and two more in the seventh to take a shutout win over the Wildcats. ACU didn't help itself by leaving 11 runners on base, including nine in the last four innings.
The Bearkats hit back-to-back solo home runs in the first inning by Anthony Azar and Hayden Simerly, and those were the only two runs the Bearkats would need.
Garrett Demeyere -- who started at shortstop for the Wildcats on Friday and in Saturday's first game -- started on the mound in the second game of the doubleheader and gave up six runs (four earned) on seven hits in six innings.
Azar had a two-run double in the seventh that really put the game away for Sam Houston.
