
Western Kentucky hosts Wilkerson and Sam Houston
Sam Houston Bearkats (10-16, 3-10 CUSA) at Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (14-11, 5-7 CUSA)
Bowling Green, Kentucky; Thursday, 9 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Sam Houston visits Western Kentucky after Lamar Wilkerson scored 25 points in Sam Houston's 78-76 win over the Kennesaw State Owls.
The Hilltoppers have gone 11-3 at home. Western Kentucky is 1-2 in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
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American Press
4 days ago
- American Press
All-Southwest La. Big Schools: Sam Houston sweeps top awards
S am Houston High School teams carved out paths to state championships and swept the top honors on the American Press All-Southwest Louisiana Big Schools teams. Cole Flanagan and Kailyn Mire were indispensable in their respective championship runs and are the MVPs. Baseball Tommy John surgery forced him to miss his junior season, but Flanagan flourished once he returned to the diamond. Pitching and playing center field, Flanagan led Sam Houston to its first state championship since 2001. Flanagan's command of multiple pitches helped the Louisiana-Lafayette signee go 7-2 with a 2.10 earned run average in 53 1/3 innings with 61 strikeouts and 16 walks. The marquee performance of his career came in the second game of a best-of-three semifinal series. He pitched a complete game two-hitter with five strikeouts and a walk to lead the Broncos to a 1-0 win over archrival Barbe and sweep the series. 'He has been a big leader as far as positivity goes,' Sam Houston head coach Chad Hebert said. 'He has been a big part of the lineup and showed a ton of composure throwing the way he did. He was able to limit the damage (in the postseason). 'At Barbe, he gave up two hits and no runs. Every time he had to make a pitch, he did and we made some plays around them.' Flanagan batted .381 with 30 runs, seven doubles, two triples, a pair of home runs and 30 RBIs. In the deciding third game of the Non-select Division I championship series, Flanagan went 3-for-4 and scored the tying run as the Broncos clinched the title with a 4-2 win. Softball While a sophomore, Mire showed poise all season and rarely left the circle, pitching all but two outs for the state champion Broncos. The right-hander tossed 180 innings with 110 strikeouts and 66 walks. She went 30-2 with a 1.63 ERA. She went 4-0 in the postseason and allowed three earned runs in 27 innings. '(Mire) has been phenomenal this entire season,' Domingue said. 'I think she gets overlooked a lot because she's not the strikeout pitcher. She's not throwing 65 miles an hour, but she has literally put this team on her shoulders and carried us. 'She changes speeds and forces weak contact. She might not strike you out every time, but she trusts the defense to make the plays.' Mire kept opponents baffled with a wide range of pitches and speeds. She pitched 10 shutouts and three no-hitters along with two one-hitters and six two-hitters. Mire showed her durability with 15 outings lasting seven or more innings. Not known for power hitting, Mire (.325 avg.) came up clutch in the semifinals when she hit a two-run home run, her first of the season, to send the game into extra innings. Coaches Sam Houston's Chad Hebert and Beth Domingue are the Big School Coaches of the Year. Domingue led Sam Houston to a 30-2 record, including a 28-game win streak to end the season, and the program's first state championship since 2015. The softball team owns six state championships, and Domingue has been a part of all of them as either a player (2000) or head coach (2011, '12, '13, '15, '25). Hebert had long sought to lead the Broncos to a state championship. In his nine seasons at the helm, the Broncos reached the state tournament seven times, losing in extra innings twice in the semifinals, plus a loss to Barbe in the finals in 2019. He guided the Broncos to a 37-8 record. As the No. 11 seed, they twice rallied to sweep defending state champion West Monroe on the road in the regional round and took out 12-time state champ Barbe in the semifinals in two pitchers' duels, 2-1 and 1-0. And they still had enough magic left over for the finals to beat No. 1 Live Oak in three games decided by two or fewer runs. Big Schools Baseball Pos. Player, School Cl. Statistics P Owen Galley, Sam Houston So. 8-2, 1.25 ERA, 51 Ks P Cole Flanagan, Sam Houston Sr. 7-2, 2.10 ERA, 61 Ks P Lawton Littleton, Barbe So. 10-2, 0.76 ERA, 111 Ks P Jairus Miller, Barbe Sr. 13-1, 0.41 ERA, 126 Ks C Hayden Lebleu, Iowa Sr. .341 avg., 6 HR, 40 RBIs INF Lucas Alexander, Iowa Sr. .390 avg., 5 HR, 29 RBIs INF Christian Wold, S. Beauregard Sr. .358 avg.,/6-1, 1.20 ERA INF Noah Fontenot, S. Beauregard Sr. .293 avg./9-2, 2.87 ERA INF Kash Martin, Westlake Sr. .381 avg., 2 HR, 23 RBIs OF Justin Lartigue, LC College Prep Sr. .394 avg., 2HR, 37 RBIs OF Tyler Dartez, Iowa Sr. 5-4, 44Ks, 1.91 ERA/.340 avg. OF Brody Anderson, Westlake So. .493 avg., 37 RBIs/ 6-2, 2.01 ERA UT Slade Shove-Knox, Sulphur Sr. 582/3 IP, 3-4, 44Ks, 29bb, 3.37 ERA UT Presley Courville, Barbe Sr. .492 avg., 3 doubles, 13 RBIs UT Bryce Cunningham, Leesville Sr. .375 avg., 21 RBIs/392/3 IP, 42 Ks UT Trace Moreaux, St. Louis Catholic Jr. 5-3, 2.18 ERA, 54 Ks UT Konnor Boudreaux, St. Louis Catholic Jr. .350 avg., 22 RBIs/261/3 IP, 2 Svs MVP — Cole Flanagan, Sam Houston COACH OF THE YEAR — Chad Hebert, Sam Houston Softball Pos. Player, School Cl. Statistics P Alya Stollsteimer, Iowa Sr. 19-9, 3.81 ERA P Kailyn Mire, Sam Houston So. 30-2, 1.63 ERA, 110 Ks P Mattie Fullington, St. Louis Catholic Fr. 8-1, 1.83 ERA, 139 Ks P Claire Mellard, Sulphur Sr. 7-7, 3.72 ERA, 91 Ks P Laila Roberson, DeRidder So. 12-8, 5.44 ERA, 142 Ks C Layla Landry, Sam Houston So. .500 avg., 14 HR, 57 RBIs INF Emma Venable, Jennings Sr. .522 avg., 8 HR, 34 RBIs INF Pressy White, Sulphur Sr. .520 avg.,18 HR, 47 RBIs/2.58 ERA, 92 Ks INF Carolina Eidson, Sam Houston Sr. .495 avg., 11 HR, 42 RBIs INF Elaina Newman, Westlake Jr. .580 avg., 42 RBIs, 54 runs OF Alivia Singletary, Iowa Jr. .426 avg., 5 HR, 30 RBIs OF Morgan Henry, Iowa Fr. .352 avg., 3 HR, 35 RBIs OF Camryn Jackson, S. Beauregard So. .365 avg., 6 HR, 32 RBIs UT Addi Daigle, S. Beauregard Fr. .506 avg., 5 HR, 33 RBIs UT Aubrey Portie, Sam Houston Jr. .494 avg., 14 HR, 49 RBIs UT Kylie Price, Jennings Sr. .433 avg., 32 RBIs, 34 runs UT Charlie Kyle, Sulphur So. .450 avg., 5 HR, 25 RBIs UT Ella Kay, Barbe So. .518 avg., 25 RBIs, 34 runs MVP — Kailyn Mire, Sam Houston COACH OF THE YEAR — Beth Domingue, Sam Houston


Forbes
03-06-2025
- Forbes
Delaware, Missouri State Add To Conference USA's Growing Inventory Of New FBS Teams
Delaware and Missouri State officially join Conference USA on July 1 and will increase league membership to 12 and FBS membership to 136. The Blue Hens and Bears will make it five schools in three seasons to have elevated from the FCS to the FBS and join CUSA. Jacksonville State and Sam Houston State made the move in 2023 and Kennesaw State in 2024. The five former FCS schools came from as many different conferences and are the most recent to elevate to the higher subdivision. UD was in the Coastal Athletic Association (formerly Colonial Athletic Association), MSU came from the Missouri Valley Conference, Kennesaw State was in the Big South, Jacksonville State had two years in the Atlantic Sun following an 18-year stint in the Ohio Valley Conference, and Sam Houston State had two seasons in the WAC after a 33-year run in the Southland Conference. Delaware and Missouri State will also make it seven schools to join CUSA in the aforementioned timeframe as previously independent Liberty and New Mexico State came on board in 2023, and at a time when independents have virtually disappeared. (Only Notre Dame and UConn will be on their own in 2025, though in entirely different spheres.) The Flames left the Big South to join the FBS in 2018 and were independent for five seasons before joining CUSA. The Aggies have had a nomadic time of it this century having been a member of four conferences, including two stints in the Sun Belt, and have twice been independent. Taking on five schools from the FCS and two from the independent ranks was necessary for Conference USA given the wheels that were set in motion in autumn 2021 when Charlotte, FAU, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA announced they were departing for the American Athletic Conference effective 2023. That was the year Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss decided to leave for the Sun Belt. Hence, CUSA had to quickly re-make itself, which it did by filling the gaps around holdovers FIU, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, UTEP and Western Kentucky. In the not-so-distant past, teams that moved up from the FCS usually took their lumps while finding their footing in college football's highest level. Because of how Conference USA has restructured and with Western Kentucky the only holdover having achieved notable success (10 bowl appearances in 11 years, one top 25 finish) as a league member, opportunities have been abundant for the FBS newbies and the former independents to achieve immediate success. Below are examples. The Gamecocks won the conference championship last season as a second-year FBS and CUSA member. Their lone conference loss was at Western Kentucky in the regular-season finale before blasting (52-12) the Hilltoppers a week later for the title. Rich Rodriguez led the program's transition to the FBS and went 27-10 in three seasons (13-3 in two years of CUSA play) before returning to West Virginia. Charles Kelly, an assistant at JSU in the 1990s, takes over. If not for a mid-season loss to Western Kentucky, the Bearkats would have played JSU for the conference title. As it turned out, Sam Houston State was the only CUSA team to win double-digit games (10-3) last season. Coach K.C. Keeler, who succeeded College Football Hall of Famer Tubby Raymond at Delaware – Keeler was a Blue Hens linebacker under Raymond -- in 2002 and ran the program for 11 years before taking over at Sam Houston State, returned to the I-95 corridor in December to coach Temple. Phil Longo returned to Huntsville to run the program. He was the Bearkats' OC for three seasons (2014-16) under Keeler before serving in the same role with Ole Miss, North Carolina and Wisconsin. The Aggies' inaugural CUSA campaign of 2023 resulted in a championship game appearance, a slugfest (49-35) of a defeat to Liberty, which was in its first season with the conference. Jerry Kill's team went 10-2 in the regular season – their loss to the Flames was followed by bowl loss to Fresno State – for the program's first double-digit win season since 1960 when the school was a member of the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association with, among others, Arizona and Arizona State. Tony Sanchez took over Kill and enters his second season as coach. The 2023 conference championship win over New Mexico State noted above sealed a New Year's Six Bowl for the Flames, who improved to 13-0 and ascended to No. 18 in the AP poll. Jamey Chadwell's first year at the helm in Lynchburg concluded with a Fiesta Bowl blowout loss (45-6) to Oregon, and a No. 25 ranking. True, Kennesaw State went 2-10 last year in its inaugural FBS season. Both wins, however, were in conference play, including against Liberty, and a pair of losses were in overtime. Not too bad for a school that did not field a football program until 2015 and was led by Brian Bohannon from day one before his awkward departure late last season. Former North Carolina Central head coach and NFL assistant, Jerry Mack, takes over. In the larger picture as far as Conference USA is concerned, Delaware and Missouri State coming on board should only aid the long-term health of the league, if indeed there is such a thing as 'long-term' in college football. CUSA, though, has done a nice job of continuing to build itself in a rather unique manner and with 11 states represented in what will be a 12-team league for the fast-arriving 2025 college football season.


USA Today
03-06-2025
- USA Today
Texas A&M needs to pursue Western Kentucky star transfer OF
Texas A&M needs to pursue Western Kentucky star transfer OF Texas A&M's 2025 offseason is critical for second-year head coach Michael Earley, whose job was saved last week after Athletic Director Trev Alberts made his final decision to give the young skipper a second chance, which was both shocking and relieving to the Aggie fan base. On Monday, the transfer portal officially opened. Earley is well aware of the program's needs, knowing that eight players have now entered the portal, which includes pitchers Isaac Morton, Kyrin LeBlanc, Austin Vargas, Houston Thomlinson, and Blayne Lyne. At the same time, catchers Jacob Galloway and Hayden Crites, combined with outfielder Nathan Tobin, rounded out the losses. While Tobin and LeBlanc look like the only significant losses due to their potential, Earley will also lose star infielder Wyatt Henseler, while Jace LaViolette will more than likely declare for the 2025 MLB Draft given his status as No. 15-ranked prospect. However, with third baseman Gavin Grahovac and freshman outfielder Terrence Kiel II guaranteed to return, the 2026 lineup will still lack juice at the plate, meaning landing another star hitter is mandatory if the Aggies hope to be viewed as contenders for the NCAA Tournament next summer. As soon as the portal opened, Western Kentucky star Ryan Wideman entered his name after slashing .398 with 68 RBIs and 10 home runs. While Texas A&M's 30-26 (11-19 SEC) record last season resulted in missing the postseason for the first time since 2006, gaining talented players from the transfer portal has not been an issue in the previous two offseasons. However, Earley still has a lot to prove in terms of offseason recruiting. Landing Wideman would be a great start and likely provide momentum moving forward. Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Cameron on X: @CameronOhnysty.