SUGAR LAND, Texas – Top-seeded Sam Houston State scored seven unanswered runs Sunday at Constellation Field, pulling away from No. 2-seeded Southeastern Louisiana, 7-4, to claim the 2016 Southland Conference Tournament championship.
Southeastern (39-19) dropped its only game of the tournament, falling in the championship game for the third time. The Bearkats (41-20) claimed their fifth tournament title. The last time a No. 1 seed won the Southland tournament title, Texas State defeated No. 2-seeded Stephen F. Austin, 9-0, in 2011 in San Marcos, Texas.
The Lions jumped out in front 4-0 in the third inning on
Jameson Fisher's 11th home run of the season, a grand slam to right field. Sam Houston started chipping away at the Lions' lead in the bottom half of the inning, picking up a single run.
Sam Houston tied the game in the fourth on a three hits, a walk and pair of Southeastern errors.
In the sixth, Lion reliever
Drew Avans hit designated hitter Jaxxon Grisham with a one-out pitch. He scored from first on catcher Robie Rojas' double into the right-center field gap. Rojas advanced to third and scored on a pair of wild pitches.
The Bearkats added an insurance run in the eighth.
"That's a tough crew over there," Southeastern head coach
Matt Riser said. "They found a way to get a two-out knock and make it 4-1. We talked about it, today they got the ball to fall and we couldn't. I thought we made all our mistakes aggressively, which I'm perfectly fine with. If you're going to make mistakes, make them aggressive and I thought we did that from our stand point. At the end of the day you have two really good ball clubs going at it and at the end of the day we hit the ball well and their guys ran them down. The ball went their way. They ball didn't go our way. You've got to tip your hat to them. Their kids played hard, but our kids did too."
Bearkat reliever Hayden Nixon (4-0) earned the win, allowing three hits in 1.1 scoreless innings of relief. After surrendering a leadoff single in the eighth, Riley Gossett retired the next six batters he faced to earn his first save. Avans (1-2) suffered the loss, allowing a pair of runs in 2.1 innings of relief work. He scattered one hit, a hit batter and one walk, fanning one.
Shortstop
Brennan Breaud, the Southland Conference Freshman of the Year, turned in the Lions' only multi-hit performance, going 2-for-4 at the plate with one run scored.
Webb Bobo,
Carson Crites, Fisher,
Mac Sceroler and
Jacob Seward were named to the All-Tournament Team. Fisher becomes the first player in Southland Conference history to be named to the All-Tournament Team three times in his career.
Sam Houston earns the league's automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. The tournament begins with regional play June 3-5 at campus sites. Super Regionals will be held June 10-12 and the College World Series will be June 18-28/29.
The 16 Regional hosts will be anounced Sunday, May 29, at 7:30 p.m. (CT) on the NCAA Baseball social media channels (@ncaacws and www.facebook.com/ncaacws) and on the BottomLine of the ESPN networks at 8 p.m. (CT).
The 2016 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Selection Show, with regional pairings, will be revealed in a live, one-hour telecast on ESPNU at 11 a.m. (CT), Monday.
Sam Houston State 7, Southeastern 4 (May 29, 2016 at Sugar Land, Texas)
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Southeastern............. 004 000 000 - 4 7 3 (39-19)
Sam Houston State... 001 302 010 - 7 7 1 (41-20)
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Pitchers: Southeastern - Cashman, Pat; Cedotal, Kyle (4); Avans, Drew (4); Granier, Kade (7) and Roberson, Sam. Sam Houston State - Belton, Greg; Manning, Miles (4); Nixon, Hayden (6); Gossett, Riley (8) and Rojas, Robie.
Win-Nixon, Hayden (4-2) Save-Gossett, Riley (1) Loss-Avans, Drew (1-2) T-2:40 A-1387
HR SLU - Fisher, Jameson (11).
Weather: 88 deg, cloudy, SE 8-10 mph
Nixon, H. faced 1 batter in the 8th.
2016 Southland Conference All-Tournament Team
| Lance Miles |
Sam Houston State |
| Zach Smith |
Sam Houston State |
| Jameson Fisher |
Southeastern La. |
| Robie Rojas |
Sam Houston State |
| Nick Ramos |
Stephen F. Austin |
| Conner Fikes |
Stephen F. Austin |
| Jacob Seward |
Southeastern La. |
| Webb Bobo |
Southeastern La. |
| Carson Crites |
Southeastern La. |
| Mac Sceroler |
Southeastern La. |
| Kaleb Fontenot |
McNeese |
|
|
| Most Valuable Player |
| Heath Donica |
Sam Houston State |
