Bearkat softball heads to CUSA Tournament on slide

Despite ending the regular season on a seven-game losing streak, Sam Houston softball is ready to fight in the Conference USA Championship.

The Bearkats, who haven’t seen a win since April 18 when they knocked off Louisiana Tech to clinch the series, will open the tournament with a play-in game. Luckily, the Kats will draw New Mexico State, a team they took the series against in Huntsville.

“You never wanna be on the streak we are heading to the conference tournament, but the players said it best, ‘The season starts over for everyone,’” Sam Houston head coach Garrett Valis said. “The mentality you have has to be the first game of the year. You are only on a losing streak until you win the next one.”

Coming into the 2026 season, pitching felt like it was going to be the group Sam Houston could hang its hat on. Junior pitcher Abigail Young was tabbed to the preseason All-CUSA team and came off a year where she threw 110.1 innings and held an ERA of 1.90 in those games.

But Young threw 9.1 innings on opening weekend before an injury sidelined her from Feb. 7 to March 28, when she returned against Middle Tennessee. Since then, Young has thrown in eight games, but hasn’t found the dominance she once had.

Young holds a season ERA of 5.73 in 36.2 innings. But Young’s injury wasn’t the only one that plagued this team.

Junior Amy Abke was another arm that was expected to be key, and like Young, she has dealt with an injury that has allowed her to pitch 48 innings. Abke has battled the injury as of late and has made three appearances since March 3rd at Lamar.

Luckily, the Kats saw a sophomore standup.

Tiffany Sanchez, who saw a lot of work as a freshman, has taken a bulk of the workload. She has made 20 starts for Sam Houston and has appeared in 26 games. Despite the 110 innings pitched, Sanhez holds a team low 2.80 ERA and has thrown nine complete games.

She has been partnered with redshirt junior Kendall Daniel, also making 26 appearances for Sam Houston. Those two have thrown a combined 199.2 innings, which is 56% of the innings for Sam Houston this season.

“Asking Tiffany to continue to trust her ability and work ethic. She’s put herself in position to have success with how well she worked in the offseason,” Valis said. “There are times where she wants things to be better than they are, and we encourage her by saying what you do is enough. I think she will be great. If she does that in Delaware, we will be good.”

With the pitching leveling out, the offense is the next step in helping this team advance to the double-elimination bracket of the CUSA Tournament.

The Bearkats will battle New Mexico State in the win-or-go-home game to open the tournament. The Aggies took the first game, but Sam Houston took the next two for the series. The Bearkats will likely face Aggie ace Faith Aragon, who they took for six innings, four hits, three runs but struck out seven time against her in the series finale.