Cougars kick some 'Aggs'
By Stuart H. Clements
Daily Cougar Staff
The No. 5 Houston baseball team came out of its weekend slump to dominate
No. 18 Texas A&M 10-2, improving its record to 24-10. The Aggies dropped
to 26-12.
Kevin Harwerth/The Daily Cougar
Teammates Chris Snyder, Jesse Crain and Stuart Musslewhite
congratulate junior Brett Cooley after his a towering three-run home run
to left field.
The game gave the Cougars an opportunity to do a little experimenting
by moving some players around and giving some less experienced players
a
chance to play, just like in Little League.
Senior Keith Whatley took the hill to start off the game and went four
innings to pick up the win. The southpaw improved to 7-3 and brought his
ERA
down to 4.10.
Whatley, who earned a loss against No. 20 East Carolina on Saturday
in only one-third of an inning, was able to start Tuesday and get the win.
"I was going out to make sure I threw strikes, and if they hit me they
hit me, but if they don't then it's better for me," Whatley said.
Whatley did just that. In 41 pitches he threw 27 strikes, giving up
only four hits.
Freshman Ryan Wagner came in to relieve Whatley and toed the rubber
for one and two-thirds innings. Wagner went scoreless to improve his ERA
to
2.57.
Sophomore Austin Faught and freshman Taylor Gartz both came out of the
bullpen for relief. Faught faced four batters in one and one-third innings
and
struck out two.
Going into the eighth, the Cougars led 9-0. Gartz gave up two hits and
two runs to the Aggies, but that's as good as it got for Texas A&M.
Gartz holds a
6.23 ERA.
The Aggies went through five pitchers: Kyle Parcus, Brian Finch, Zach
Dixon, Todd Deininger and Logan Kensing. The Aggie pitchers gave up a
combined 10 runs on 13 hits and walked six batters.
Parcus earned the loss, dropping his record to 2-3.
The Cougar defense was in fine fashion Tuesday. Houston tallied four
double plays in five innings and held A&M to only six hits. Whatley
even picked
off the Aggies' Neal Stephenson.
After being trapped in a bit of a trough last weekend, the Cougar offense
got back on track.
"Hopefully our offense will get rolling a little bit. We've just kind
of sputtered pretty much all season," head coach Rayner Noble said. "Hopefully
we get
some guys settled in and start swinging the bat a little better. (Junior
Brett) Cooley's starting to hit a little bit. We'll just have to wait and
see what
happens this weekend."
After Houston had taken a 2-0 lead, Cooley stepped up to bat with runners
on first and third and knocked in his eighth home run of the season.
Juniors Jesse Crain and Chris Snyder both improved their batting averages
to .331, the highest on the team.
The Cougars play Conference USA foe Memphis this weekend in a three-game
series. The series will open at 7 p.m. Friday at Cougar Field.
