by James Beltran
Staff Writer
Led by Lance Berkman and Bubba Crosby, the Rice Owls' offense struck like lightning, scoring its entire six runs in the first four innings in Tuesday's game against Houston.
The Cougars' pitching staff then adjusted, slamming the door tight on the Owls' bats for the remaining five innings. But the damage had already been done.
Despite a five-run comeback that fell short in the ninth, Rice was able to hold off the Cougars and hand Houston its 12th loss of the season.
Where was all the damage done? Right where you would expect it - in the meat of its lineup, where Berkman and Crosby dwell.
This dynamic duo sealed Houston's fate, driving in five of the Owls' six runs.
"I knew coming in those were the two guys I had to worry about," said Houston starting pitcher Jon McDonald.
Evidently, the cautious approach did not work. The first stake through the Cougars' heart struck in the second inning when Crosby smacked a home run over the right-field wall.
"I threw him a good curve ball and he swung and missed," McDonald said. "Then I went right back to it, and he was waiting on it.
Crosby said of his homer, "That pitch kind of started on inside and broke on out over the plate."
With that blow, Crosby increased his consecutive hits against UH to five, after his 4-for-4 game against the Cougars last time.
Berkman, though, applied the most dents to the UH armor. He had identical hits to center field in the third and fourth innings, driving in two runs with each.
"We had kind of a down weekend at Fresno (State, which swept three games from Rice)," Berkman said. "We wanted to get back on track, so I think we all wanted to bear down even more to hit."
Crosby and Berkman's offense was enough, literally, to carry their club past a hot Houston team.
"This win is huge," Berkman said. "Any time you can get a win against a ranked team like Houston, its great."
Houston coach Rayner Noble said, "Jon McDonald has absolutely stunk when he's gone out there. He's going to have to start pitching a little better for us to reach our goals."
Still, a team could do much worse than to get shelled by future major-leaguers like Berkman and Crosby.