Sam Houston St. reaches NCAA regional
SUGAR LAND — Sam Houston State baseball coach Matt Deggs made a deal with Dakota Mills that led to Saturday’s 9-4 win over Central Arkansas for a second consecutive Southland Conference tournament title.
A 6-minute mile. If the stocky junior righthander could run it, it would be canceled for the team for the rest of the year.
“He said three words: ‘Let’s get it,’ ” Deggs said.
Mills ran it in 5 minutes, 59 seconds, and “let’s get it” became a team slogan.
Mills showed that same gusto in his start Saturday at Constellation Field. He was perfect through four innings, and allowed three hits and no walks with two earned runs and five strikeouts in 52⁄3 innings.
And Sam Houston State (40-20) has the program’s sixth all-time Southland tournament title as a result. The Bearkats, who outscored their four tournament opponents 37-10, are headed to an NCAA regional for the fifth time in six years.
“Coach always talks about going over the edge for the team,” Mills said, talking up that 6-minute mile. “I feel like everybody did that for each other this weekend.” Chipping away
Saturday wasn’t without turbulence. Justin McCarty’s solo home run broke up Mills’ perfect game in the fifth and cut into SHSU’s lead.
It was a precursor to a close call in the sixth inning when Jansen McCurdy’s RBI double cut the Bearkats’ lead to 4-2.
Mills was relieved by Dominic Robinson, who later faced men on first and second with two outs.
Central Arkansas’ Rigo Aguilar singled and McCurdy eyed home plate as he rounded third. But Blake Chisolm’s throw to catcher Robie Rojas for the tag and final out of the inning threw momentum back to SHSU.
All the Bearkats did was score five runs over the next two innings.
Rojas was the catalyst, of course. He put his firstinning RBI single on top of a week where he went 10for-16 with a .625 average, two home runs, six runs scored and seven RBIs in four tournament games. It was more than good enough for MVP honors.
“Coach (Gary) Miller and coach Deggs getting my balance right,” Rojas said when asked why he hit so well. “My balance got perfect and I was seeing the ball pretty well.”
Now, all eyes are toward something SHSU has never done despite the success — make it out of an NCAA Division I regional. Last year, the Bearkats left the Lafayette Regional with a win over Princeton but two losses to Arizona.
“We’re not done,” Deggs said. “This is just part of the journey. We’re going to fully expect to go wherever we go next week and get after it and win a regional.” HBU eliminated In the first game Saturday, Houston Baptist pounded out nine hits but couldn’t get a run across the plate in a 3-0 loss to Central Arkansas.
The Huskies have Central Arkansas’ Brandon Hagerla to blame. Besides the nine hits, he allowed one walk in the completegame win.
Junior righthander Cody Marshall (1-2) shut out Central Arkansas for four innings, but allowed two runs (one earned), on six hits and struck out two in 52⁄3 innings.
“Marshall did a good job,” HBU coach Jared Moon said.
The loss does little to detract from the Huskies’ solid showing in the conference tournament.
HBU (29-25) opened the tournament with a 15-4 loss to this same Central Arkansas team Wednesday, before reeling off three straight victories.