by Catherine Taylor
Staff Writer
Despite the obvious power behind the plate the Cougars have been exhibiting, the deciding factor in Houston's three-game series against the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles this weekend at Cougar Field was the ability or inability of UH relief pitchers to come in and close things out.
In Friday's 9-7 loss, UH seemed to have things under control pitching-wise until freshman Robert Dieudonné came in to finish up the game for Houston. One out away from a Cougar victory, Dieudonné gave up a three-run homer to junior Braxton Whitehead which clinched the USM victory.
Saturday's 6-4 Cougars win relied heavily on Houston pitcher Mark Manbeck, who took over in the sixth inning to relieve freshman Shane Nance. Manbeck gave one of his best performances of the season, giving up no hits in two innings while striking out three and allowing the Cougars offense to take over the game.
"First off, it's nice to be back to me and to get some things working in the right direction," Manbeck said of his performance. "Instead of taking steps backward, I took a couple of steps forward."
Giving onlookers a slight case of déjà vu, Dieudonné was once again brought in to finish out the game in the ninth. But this time he redeemed himself and got the job done, and the Cougars picked up the two outs they needed to win the game.
"We made the pitches when we needed to make them, and last night we didn't," said coach Rayner Noble after Saturday's game. "I'm glad (Dieudonné) got out there and got it done, because that's the sign of a good relief pitcher when you don't have a good night and then come back the next night and get it done."
Once again on Sunday, the fate of the game was in the hands of the relief pitchers. After only 1.2 innings of play, freshman starting pitcher Jeremy Swindell was replaced by senior Tommy Marik, who dominated USM in his four innings, giving up no runs and holding the Golden Eagles to three hits. Meanwhile the Cougar offense had a slugfest, propelling Houston to an apparently insurmountable 13-2 lead.
"I had my best stuff of the year," said Marik, who earned his fourth win, but has yet to earn a loss.
But things got shaky for Houston when it brought in Jared Sykes in the eighth, followed by Alex Jackson and then Dieudonné. The Cougars' lead diminished to 13-11 in the inning, aided by a grand slam from USM senior Kyle Logan. Robb Kirkland was able to put the cap on the series for Houston as he came in and put the nightmarish eighth inning to a close.
"Making plays helps pitchers have confidence at the mound, and we had some errors out on the field," said junior shortstop Shaun Skrehot. "It got a little scary there for a while. we made a couple of bad pitches, but we were confident our pitchers would pull through, and they did."