by Andrew J. Ferraro
Staff Writer
Although the Houston Cougars baseball team probably will not admit it, the proverbial revenge factor had to be involved in the Cougars' 7-0 victory over the Sam Houston State Bearkats Wednesday night at Cougar Field.
After dropping their first meeting earlier this season in Huntsville 9-8, the Cougars were looking to rebound from that loss and have it carry into this weekend's "monster" series with Tulane.
Thanks to some gutsy starting pitching by freshman Jerret Sykes and handy relief by seniors Jeff Hampton and Tommy Marik, the Cougars were able to record their first shutout of the season - their first since last season's 2-0 blanking of Baylor in Waco.
"The thing is, is that Jerret goes after people and he doesn't beat himself," Houston coach Rayner Noble said. "When he gets a grasp of his changeup, he's definitely a force to be reckoned with."
Sykes picked up his second victory of the season and, in the process, pitched seven innings of four-hit baseball, allowing just one walk and striking out 10.
Although it looked as though Sykes had no problems with the Bearkat lineup, he said that he was out there without his best stuff.
"It's a real confidence builder when I can go out there knowing I didn't have my best pitches (and still pick up the win)," Sykes said. "I just seemed to come around in the late innings and I had better control of the ball once the offense got their bats going."
Indeed. After SHSU starting pitcher Jamie DeBruin matched Sykes with three shutout innings to start the game, the Houston bats came alive and scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning on five consecutive singles and a fielder's choice.
After singles by seniors Goefrey Tomlinson and Dustin Carr, junior Scott Keithley picked up one of his two RBI on the night with yet another single.
Then sophomores Bruce Rios and Matt Ferrell each followed with RBI singles of their own, before senior Ryan Ware's groundout scored Rios.
"It seems that we finally got out of that little funk we have seemed to be in," Carr said. "Tonight, we got runners in scoring position and got them home. Everybody's contributing."
With one on and nobody out in the bottom of the fifth inning, Carr did a little contributing of his own as he hit what was probably the longest homer hit by a Cougar at Cougar Field.
As the ball landed in the McDonald's parking lot behind the left field fence, Carr was circling the bases on his 10th homer of the season.
Three pitches later, Keithley picked up his second RBI of the night as he also connected off Bearkat reliever Sean Riley.
With his towering shot over the right field fence, Keithley now has eight home runs on the year.
"I've kind of been struggling as of late and it seems that I've been hitting the ball right to people," Keithley said. "But tonight, I was just trying to make contact and make things happen."
The Cougars raised their record to 30-15 on the season, while the Bearkats fell to 20-24.