SHOOTOUT IN HOUSTON IN OPENER
UH big shot in sixth does in Owls in sixth
By Mark Anderson
For the first five and a half innings, one could have mistakenly thought they had come to an old Western shootout as Aaron Brown and Ryan Berry matched each other pitch for pitch. Unfortunately for the Owls and their freshman starter, that gun of his known as his right arm had a few misfires in the sixth inning. UH took advantage of the opportunity and used it to glide to a 5-2 win.
Brian Friday started things off fast for the Owls with a single and ended up scoring on Joe Savery’s RBI groundout to first to take a quick 1-0 lead.
But quicker than you could say Ry-an Ber-ry, the Cougars Felix Fansaselle pounced on a Berry pitch and took it over the right centerfield fence to tie it up. From that point, the shootout commenced, with the Owls and Cougars both hitters shooting blanks on the scoreboard.
That all changed in the bottom of the sixth when UH managed a flash flood—three runs in all—as UH took the lead. The key hit came after Jimmy Caesario was intentionally walked to put runners on first and second to bring up the clean-up hitter, Dustin Kingsbury. Kingsbury crushed a 3-2 fastball to rightfield to bring both runners home without a throw.
Kingsbury was motivated to make Berry and Rice pay for that intentional walk. He told the blog afterwards, "That's a situation I'm really not used to. When I see that, it hurts any hitter's pride. I was thinking that I've got to get this done right here to show everybody that you shouldn't do that."
Berry admitted afterwards that the pitch to Kingsbury was simply “poor placement.” Berry’s struggles continued as first baseman Josh Stirnman then followed up Kingsbury’s double with a ringing single up the middle to score Kingsbury and make the score 4-1.
Hear Berry's comments here: http://www.ricefootball.net/ckelly4-17.wav
Rice answered with one run in the top of the seventh when Jess Buenger homered to make the score 5-2. But Rice could do nothing to add to that total as Aaron Brown had the Owls off-stride.
UH added another run in the bottom of the seventh when Flores singled and was advanced on a sacrifice bunt to second. Presley hit a harmless fly ball to Dodson, who made the play, but lost count of the outs, moving up Flores to third. Lormand then followed that with a ringing single to center to score the final run.
Closer Chris Wright came in to close the door for UH in the eighth. Jess Buenger got to him with a double off the 390 sign in centerfield in the ninth, but he had plenty of bullets in his arm and that’s just about all the Owls could muster.
The series continues tomorrow evening at 7 pm, with Langwell or Tacker taking the hill tomorrow and John Touchin taking the hill for the Cougars.
Here's an interview with Coach Graham on the game:
http://www.ricefootball.net/wgraham4-17.wav
This site does not have coverage of this series for the rest of the weekend due to scheduling conflicts.
By Mark Anderson
For the first five and a half innings, one could have mistakenly thought they had come to an old Western shootout as Aaron Brown and Ryan Berry matched each other pitch for pitch. Unfortunately for the Owls and their freshman starter, that gun of his known as his right arm had a few misfires in the sixth inning. UH took advantage of the opportunity and used it to glide to a 5-2 win.
Brian Friday started things off fast for the Owls with a single and ended up scoring on Joe Savery’s RBI groundout to first to take a quick 1-0 lead.
But quicker than you could say Ry-an Ber-ry, the Cougars Felix Fansaselle pounced on a Berry pitch and took it over the right centerfield fence to tie it up. From that point, the shootout commenced, with the Owls and Cougars both hitters shooting blanks on the scoreboard.
That all changed in the bottom of the sixth when UH managed a flash flood—three runs in all—as UH took the lead. The key hit came after Jimmy Caesario was intentionally walked to put runners on first and second to bring up the clean-up hitter, Dustin Kingsbury. Kingsbury crushed a 3-2 fastball to rightfield to bring both runners home without a throw.
Kingsbury was motivated to make Berry and Rice pay for that intentional walk. He told the blog afterwards, "That's a situation I'm really not used to. When I see that, it hurts any hitter's pride. I was thinking that I've got to get this done right here to show everybody that you shouldn't do that."
Berry admitted afterwards that the pitch to Kingsbury was simply “poor placement.” Berry’s struggles continued as first baseman Josh Stirnman then followed up Kingsbury’s double with a ringing single up the middle to score Kingsbury and make the score 4-1.
Hear Berry's comments here: http://www.ricefootball.net/ckelly4-17.wav
Rice answered with one run in the top of the seventh when Jess Buenger homered to make the score 5-2. But Rice could do nothing to add to that total as Aaron Brown had the Owls off-stride.
UH added another run in the bottom of the seventh when Flores singled and was advanced on a sacrifice bunt to second. Presley hit a harmless fly ball to Dodson, who made the play, but lost count of the outs, moving up Flores to third. Lormand then followed that with a ringing single to center to score the final run.
Closer Chris Wright came in to close the door for UH in the eighth. Jess Buenger got to him with a double off the 390 sign in centerfield in the ninth, but he had plenty of bullets in his arm and that’s just about all the Owls could muster.
The series continues tomorrow evening at 7 pm, with Langwell or Tacker taking the hill tomorrow and John Touchin taking the hill for the Cougars.
Here's an interview with Coach Graham on the game:
http://www.ricefootball.net/wgraham4-17.wav
This site does not have coverage of this series for the rest of the weekend due to scheduling conflicts.
posted by my kid's sports pics at 10:40 PM
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