Sports

UH breaks free from Huntsville

By Stuart H. Clements
The Daily Cougar

The Cougar baseball team extended its winning streak to four games after defeating the Sam Houston State Bearkats on Tuesday 7-3 in Huntsville.

The Cougar offense showed up ready to play, a phenomenon that has been rather sketchy. In the last six games, the Cougars shot off more than 10 hits per game, 11 against the Bearkats.

Brian Viney/The Daily Cougar

With the win, the Cougars moved to 12-13, only one game away from the .500 mark. Houston hasnit seen a .500 record this season since the team was 6-6 after finishing off a three-game sweep of Louisiana-Lafayette on March 2.

Junior third baseman Hyung Cho opened up the scoreboard in the top of the first with a solo home run -- his fourth of the season. Cho added his fifth homer of the season in the top of the seventh when he pounded a three-run home run to cap off Cougar scoring.

Cho was 2-for-5 against the Bearkats and leads the team with a .374 batting average and five home runs.

After Chois opening run, the Cougars exploded with two more unanswered runs in the second and added a fourth in the third before the Bearkats made it onto the scoreboard with a single run in the bottom of the third.

The Bearkats cut the lead in the bottom of the sixth with another run to make it 4-2, but hadnit narrowed the margin for long before Cho hit his second homer of the game.

Sam Houston State again tried to come back in the bottom of the eighth, but only mustered one run to make the final score 7-3.

The Bearkats dropped to 11-15 and are mired in a four-game slump.

Junior pitcher Gene Flores picked up his first win for the Cougars, bringing him to 1-1 for the season. Flores has made five appearances on the mound, four of them starting, giving him 15 and two-thirds innings of work.

Flores gave up only one run to the Bearkats and struck out three. He now possesses a 5.74 ERA and has tallied seven strikeouts this season.

Sophomore Ryan Wagner closed for the Cougars. Wagner pitched a flawless ninth inning, facing three batters and striking out three batters, while throwing only 12 pitches for a 2.30 ERA.

Cho was definitely the standout on the Cougar offense Tuesday, but he wasnit alone on the field. All but one Cougar recorded at least one hit in the game.

Freshman Matt Farrington was 1-for-4 with his lone hit being a double, his fourth in just two games. Freshman Travis Tully and redshirt freshman Brett Logan both hit 2-for-4.

Tully has compiled a .388 batting average in only 16 games, 11 of those as a starter. Tuesday he added an RBI and a run to help the offense. Logan added an RBI.

A winning streak is just what the Cougars need to return to Conference USA play this weekend in hopes to hit that .500 mark by the end of the weekend. Houston will travel to Fort Worth to face Texas Christian in a three-game series beginning at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

The Horned Frogs are 16-11 and are tied for the lead in C-USA with a 5-1 league record.

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