Friday, March 25, 2011

With two months left in season, Andreas already has two grand slams

Chris Andreas has elevated himself to rare company in the SHSU baseball record book. On Wednesday night against Prairie View A&M, Andreas blasted his second grand slam of the season. It is a feat that has been done just once in school history.

Tyler Knight was the first Bearkat to ever hit two grand slams in a season with bombs over University of Houston and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi back in 2009. But Andreas, who leads the Kats batting at .373, has a pair of grand slams with 34 more games to play this season. The last Bearkat grand slam was Knight's against Corpus, which was the next to last game of the regular season.

Kelly Eddlemon is the only other Bearkat with two slams in a career, having done it in 1997 and 1998.

Andreas isn't new to the record books. Last season he went on a 26 game hitting streak, the third longest in school history.

Still, Andreas doesn't step to the plate with the bases loaded, thinking about going deep. He's waiting comfortably for the right pitch.

"I come up there just trying to get a base-hit, you know at least get two guys in," Andreas said. "Luckily I got my pitch and hit it out of the yard."

He did admit that hitting a grand slam, of course, is in the back of his mind a little bit, but he focuses on staying comfortable and not overduing it.

The last time the Kats had two grand slams in a season (which was 2009), they actually had three slams. Then sophomore Ryan Mooney blasted a slam that season as well.

In 2008, SHSU recorded four grand slams - three in a one month's time.

Could we possibly see the first ever Bearkat to hit three slams in a season? How about a school record as a team? There's certainly enough time to break 08 team record. Sam Houston has four players batting over .300, with Braeden Riley right behind them batting .283 and only six hits away from passing Eddlemon as second all-time in total hits.

Today the Kats begin a three-game conference series against UTSA, a team with the third highest ERA in the SLC (4.77).

Coach Mark Johnson knows pitching will be critical this season. But expect a lot of record-breaking hitting anyway.

-- Brandon Scott
GoBearkats.com

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