Bearkat baseball upsets Texas in Austin, 5-3

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Sam Houston State baseball dethroned no. 22 University of Texas 5-3, continuing their three game winning streak with another strong outing on the mound Tuesday.

 Tyler Eppler silenced the Longhorns from the rubber, tossing 5.2 innings and allowing only four hits and two runs against the Longhorns.  

SHSU’s offense also carried over from the team’s strong performance from the weekend and kept rolling into Austin.

Hayden Simerly ignited SHSU’s bats early in the second inning with a first pitch double into right field, followed by Ryan O’Hearn’s triple into right center to drive in the Bearkats’ first run of the evening. Third baseman Kevin Miller drove in O’Hearn with a RBI ground out to make the score 2-0 going into the bottom of the second inning.

Freshmen Spence Rahm continued SHSU’s rally with a solo homerun in the top of the fourth to extend SHSU’s lead 3-0.

Head coach David Pierce said his group maintained confidence at home plate to have aggressive plate appearances against the Longhorn bullpen.

"We definitely weren't intimidated tonight and we were very aggressive at home plate and we really attacked the strike zone,” Pierce said to GoBearkats.com. “There's one of two ways you can come in here and that's be the aggressor or be intimidated.”

Eppler held the Longhorns to five scoreless innings and a potential no-hitter until Mark Payton broke UT’s lifeless lineup with a single into right field. UT narrowed SHSU’s lead to one after a series of hits from Ben Johnson and designated hitter Matt Moynihan to close the score to 3-2.

“Eppler got his first win in Division I baseball. He was really good with the curve ball and changeup and had something on his fast ball,” Pierce said.

SHSU guarded their lead with two insurance runs in the seventh inning.

Luke Plucheck legged out a double from a fielding error and reached third from a pass ball. Colt Atwood drove in Plucheck with a single, followed by Carter Burgess and Anthony Azar sending Atwood home with a single and a sacrifice fly, respectively.

Jason Simms closed against the Longhorns allowing no runs, hits and one strikeout to break UT’s midweek 10 game win streak.

SHSU returns to Huntsville for three game home series against Arkansas State with game one on Friday. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.