HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Jax State baseball overcame a 3-2 deficit to sweep the Sam Houston Bearkats with a 4-3 victory on Sunday at Don Sanders Stadium.
Jax State improves to 17-3 and 3-0 in Conference USA, making its first conference-opening sweep since becoming members of CUSA. Sam Houston falls to 8-11 and 0-3 in CUSA play.
Skylar Hutto earned his second victory of the season with an inning and two-thirds of scoreless baseball, shutting down the Sam Houston bats that had taken the lead in the eighth inning. Sam Houston's Kade Neuenschwander moved to 0-2 in the loss.
Jax State got on the board first in the top of the second inning, when a wild pitch scored Grayson Ashe from third base. The Gamecocks made it 2-0 when Matthew Cash's RBI-groundout to second base scored Luke Williams.
The score remained locked at 2-0 until the bottom of the eighth inning, when Sam Houston took the lead. The Bearkats cut the lead in half at 2-1 with an RBI-single to right-center field, then took a 3-2 lead on a fielder's choice that scored a run, followed by a Gamecock error on the same play to plate the second runner.
In the top of the ninth, Jaxon Pate recorded the second out of the inning on an RBI-groundout, but was able to score M. Cash to tie the game at 3-3. Trey King singled to right field, and Ace Williamson rounded third to plate the go-ahead run at 4-3 with two outs in the inning.
Sam Houston got the lead-off man in the bottom of the ninth on via a walk and moved him to second on a balk, but a foul pop fly on a bunt, fly-out to center field, and a groundout to second base ended any threat of another Bearkat run, securing Jax State the sweep.
Gamecocks starting pitcher Steven Cash recorded a quality start, going six innings with only two hits, zero runs, and five strikeouts.
The Gamecocks play five games in the coming week, hosting Samford on Tuesday at 3 p.m. before heading up to Madison to take on Alabama A&M at Toyota Field. Jax State will host Western Kentucky for the CUSA home opener starting on Friday.
