Anna Sivadasan
Staff Writer
The last time the Sam Houston State Bearkats and Houston Cougar baseball teams played a game, UH won a 13-6 route in Huntsville on Mar. 3.
But at Cougar Field on Wednesday night, the roles were reversed, as the Bearkats returned the favor, winning the game 10-4.
Despite owning wins over nationally-ranked teams Baylor and Texas A&M, Sam Houston came into the game struggling, having lost five straight, but beat Houston to improve to 27-26 on the season.
"I can't say that our intensity wasn't there, because we've been intense," UH left fielder Brandon Caraway said. "We're coming to play, but things just aren't going our way now."
The Bearkats trailed 2-1 entering the fourth inning, but scored eight runs in the middle three frames to lead 9-2 and put the game out of reach.
Sam Houston sent nine men to the plate in the fourth, scoring five runs on six hits.
The Bearkats had three singles, two doubles, two steals and a walk in the inning.
The five, six and seven hitters for Sam Houston (Aaron Dieudonne, Chris Hotman and Carter Ayers) were a combined 6-for-10 with six walks, six runs scored and two RBIs.
Houston scored an unearned run in the first inning, added another run in the third on a double by catcher Jarrod Bitter and two in the eighth on an RBI single by Bruce Rios and a ground out by Jason Pekar.
UH, however, only had four singles for the ballgame, and one play in particular typified the Cougars' offensive woes.
In the sixth inning, Bitter was hit by a pitch and designated hitter Shane Nance followed with a clean single. But third baseman Robert Dieudonne lined into a rare 4-3 triple play to end the inning.
If the ball was hit an inch to either side, UH would have had an opportunity to climb back into the game, but instead, the Bearkat second baseman, Ayers, caught the liner, stepped on the second base bag and threw to first to get Dieudonne.
"We're hitting the ball all right, but we're just not finding the holes right now" Rios said.
Caraway added, "I don't even know what the chances for a triple-play are, and this guy goes and gets it unassisted, so that was definitely a downer."
UH (27-23) has now lost three-straight games and will be on the road this weekend for an important Conference USA series with the Southern Miss Golden Eagles.