Sam Houston State dropped its first game of the year yesterday agaisnt Rice. They lost 3-1. They opened the season with 3 wins against Rhode Island (two of which were by 13-3; 25-2 scores). They also beat McNeese State 18-6 on Tuesday.
Looking at box scores, it appears that SHU did not throw their #1 starter against Rice. Coltin Atkinson started in their season opener. Here is his profile on the SHU site: https://gobearkats.com/sports/baseball/roster/coltin-atkinson/8629 Atkinson started the second game of the year against Nebraska. He went 6 innings, gave up 4 hits, 1 walk, 1 run and struck out 7. SHU won that game 5-1 (shortened to 7 innings)>
WAC baseball coaches predicted that SHU would finish 2nd in the WAC behind Grand Canyon University (3 of the 13 coaches predicted SHU to win the WAC; the other 10 predicted GCU to win the WAC) https://wacsports.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/releases/2023preseasonpoll
Carlos Contreras is their best player; he's also the returning WAC player of the year. https://gobearkats.com/sports/baseball/roster/carlos-contreras/8635
Last year, SHU went 31-25; 21-9 and won the Southwest Division of the WAC. They lost both of their games in the WAC tournament and finished 116 in RPI. As a conference, the WAC was ranked 19th among all conferences (B1G was 8th).
Solid opponent for the Hawkeyes. Langenberg will need to be sharp from the start. Iowa's bats will need to produce. They likely won't be getting many free passes from SHU's starter.
After the last two duds of basketball games, I'm looking forward to an Iowa team getting back on the winning track.
Looking at box scores, it appears that SHU did not throw their #1 starter against Rice. Coltin Atkinson started in their season opener. Here is his profile on the SHU site: https://gobearkats.com/sports/baseball/roster/coltin-atkinson/8629 Atkinson started the second game of the year against Nebraska. He went 6 innings, gave up 4 hits, 1 walk, 1 run and struck out 7. SHU won that game 5-1 (shortened to 7 innings)>
WAC baseball coaches predicted that SHU would finish 2nd in the WAC behind Grand Canyon University (3 of the 13 coaches predicted SHU to win the WAC; the other 10 predicted GCU to win the WAC) https://wacsports.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/releases/2023preseasonpoll
Carlos Contreras is their best player; he's also the returning WAC player of the year. https://gobearkats.com/sports/baseball/roster/carlos-contreras/8635
Last year, SHU went 31-25; 21-9 and won the Southwest Division of the WAC. They lost both of their games in the WAC tournament and finished 116 in RPI. As a conference, the WAC was ranked 19th among all conferences (B1G was 8th).
Solid opponent for the Hawkeyes. Langenberg will need to be sharp from the start. Iowa's bats will need to produce. They likely won't be getting many free passes from SHU's starter.
After the last two duds of basketball games, I'm looking forward to an Iowa team getting back on the winning track.
