With tonight's 8-6 win over Texas State, the Sam Houston Bearkats will be coming to The Reck riding a 7-game win streak (Northwestern State x 2, Prairie View, Nicholls State x 3, Texas State)...while the Owls, for their part, have won five straight and 8 of our last 10 (while post an 11 - 4 record since the Minute Maid nightmaire). Overall, Sam is 12 - 12 on the season (6-7 road, #125 RPI, #113 ISR, #73 SoS), but they did sweep Oklahoma earlier in the season. We beat them 8-3 immediately following the Minute Maid tournament.
Here's their schedule and results to date...
http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2016/sch...ston-State
During his radio show tonight, The OG indicated that Willy Amador would get the start for the Owls.
Looking at the stat sheet, the Bearkats appears to be average in almost every facet of the game. On offense they're hitting .274/.337/.368, with 9 HRs, 42 doubles/triples23-38 SBs, and averaging 5.4 runs/game. They are led by speedster Bryce Johnson (.367/.421/.449, 21 runs, 7 doubles/triples, 10 RBIs, 11-12 SBs) and Zach Smith (.354/.381/.544, 2 HRs, 9 doubles, 14 RBIs). The appear to be ultra-aggressive free swingers having walked only 56 times in 24 games (just over 2 BBs/game). Willy should lead with his off-speed stuff in this one. This is a team that lives on small ball, and will sac bunt (already 26 on the year) every time they get a leadoff man on base.
Defensively, their fielding percentage is .961 (vs. .966 for Rice), and they've committed 37 errors. However, I very much doubt we're going to be able to run as their catcher has thrown out just under 60% of attempted basestealers (12 - 22 caught stealing or picked off). That's phenominal.
On the mound, the staff stats are sub-par, especially given their relatively weak schedule: 4.84 ERA, .264 BAA, 1.7 K:BB ratio, 1.58 WHIP, 7 Ks/game.
Here's their individual and team stats......
http://www.nmnathletics.com/fls/19900/st...amcume.htm
It's not yet clear who will get the start for the Bearkats, but they didn't use any of their top pitchers tonight vs. Texas State. Whomever we face will have pitched less than 15 innings so far this year.
Let's sweep the home and home with SHS for the first time in quite some time, and keep our win streak rolling into Murfreesboro this weekend. Go Owls!