Mark Mayorga
Staff Writer
A fifth inning offensive attack was too much for the Cougars (21-20) to overcome, as the No. 13 Rice Owls (32-14) defeated the Cougars 12-3 in front of a crowd of 2,029 at Cougar Field Tuesday.
With the win, Rice has run off four consecutive wins against Houston and captured the inaugural Silver Glove Trophy.
"We hit the ball well and had good pitching," said Rice head coach Wayne Graham. "We just had a good night, and when you do that, you're going to be tough for whoever you're playing against."
Rice wasted little time, scoring one run on two hits off UH starting pitcher Kris Wilken in the top of the first.
Right fielder Charles Williams opened up with a single and was followed by a Jesse Kurtz-Nicholl's walk.
Williams later scored on a Damon Thames single up the middle.
The Cougars didn't back down, as they came back to tie the game in the bottom of the second inning.
Right fielder Eric Lee got things going with an infield hit and moved into scoring position as he stole his ninth base of the season.
Jarrod Bitter followed with a sharp single and Lee came home on a Robert Dieudonne sacrifice fly.
The first four innings exemplified baseball at its best, with both pitching staffs shutting each other's offensive attacks down.
Houston starter Kris Wilken, making his third start of the year, came in and threw three solid innings allowing just one earned run on three hits.
After being held to two runs, the Owls' bats came alive in the top of the fifth, scoring five runs.
Four consecutive singles by Kurtz-Nicholl, Bubba Crosby, Thames and Kevin Hodge set the stage as Jacob Baker's bases clearing double put the game out of the reach of the Cougars.
"We gave up one big inning and just didn't do the things in order for us to come back and win," outfielder Mike Medrano said.
"We had too many guys going up to the plate acting like umpires instead playing the way they know how to play."