by Andrew J. Ferraro
Daily Cougar StaffWACO -- Sitting in the cellar and looking up at the Baylor Bears, the Cougars went onto Ferrell Field hoping to move ahead of the Bears in the Southwest Conference standings.
But the Cougars lost two of three this weekend and fell to 21-20 on the year and 3-11 in the SWC.
In game one of the series, the Bears (22-19, 6-8 in the SWC) rocked Cougars starter John Box for six runs on seven hits in two-plus innings and won 8-3.
Despite the strong relief effort by Danny Crawford, the Cougars could not overcome the early 6-2 deficit.
Crawford finished the evening pitching the final five innings, giving up two runs on five hits and walking three and striking out five Bears.
In game two, the Cougars won 2-0, and Cougars starter Jason Schreiber threw seven innings of stellar baseball as he scattered just seven hits, with one walk and 10 strikeouts.
"It feels real good to shut out Baylor," Schreiber said, recording the first Cougar shutout since Feb. 23 against Texas Southern last season.
The Cougars were led by Dustin Carr, who was 2-for-3 with an RBI and his 11th double of the season.
With two outs and Rios on second, Carr sent a soft liner over the second baseman's head for the 1-0 lead that eventually proved to be the game winner.
"I'd been struggling on two-strike counts by swinging at bad pitches," Carr said. "I just wanted to see the ball out of his hand and put it in play."
Said Houston coach Rayner Noble, "Right now, a win feels super."
As opposed to game one on Saturday, the Cougars found a way to hit the ball, collecting 17 hits, two homers and three doubles, despite a 13-12 defeat.
In the top of the first, the Cougars bats came alive as they pounded four consecutive hits off Baylor starter Matthew Marcom.
In response to Houston's high offensive output in the first, the Bears quickly erased the Cougars' lead, and by the time the first inning was over, had a 4-3 lead.
The Bears knocked Houston starter Jon McDonald out of the game after just one inning.
McDonald left after giving up nine runs on six hits and two walks.
But because the Cougars made three errors in the first two innings, they found themselves down by eight runs, four of which were unearned.
"We committed five errors, and it almost felt like little league," Carr said. "There is no way we should have made that many errors."
In the seventh inning, after a solo homer by Karl Ryden and two singles, Dominic Hernandez drew a walk off reliever Brett Bergman to load the bases. Carr then unloaded them with a grand slam to tie the game at 12 after six-and-a-half innings of play.
The lead would not hold, however, as the Bears scored one final run in their bottom half of the seventh inning, before Bergman retired six consecutive Cougars to earn his third victory of the season.
Baylor coach Steve Smith said. "Our guys kept scrapping and found ways to get the guys home.
"(Schreiber) was outstanding in the first game, and I think that pitching dictates the game more than anything. They had a different guy out there this time, and had they put Schreiber back out there, 13 runs might not have scored."