Sports

Cougars held to 5 hits in three-game sweep

Cougar Sports Staff

So maybe a quick doubleheader against Alabama A&M wasnit enough of a warm-up for an important conference series against No. 9 DePaul.

Brian Viney/The Daily Cougar

The Cougar softball team went into the weekend series fresh off blasting the Bulldogs for 21 runs and holding them to just one in two games Thursday.

But the bats stayed silent for much of the DePaul series during a three-game sweep at the Cougar Softball Stadium that dropped the Cougars to 24-16. More importantly, the sweep ended UHis stay atop Conference USA. The Cougars fell to 6-3 in-conference.

The Blue Demons (21-4, 7-1 in C-USA) held the Cougars to just one run in the three games (3-1 in Game 1, 5-0 in Game 2 and 3-0 in Game 3). Sophomore catcher Jenilee Skender had three of those hits; two of them came Sunday.

As was the case throughout the weekend, the Cougars couldnit keep a handle on their errors Sunday. UH had three in Game 3 and eight total during the series.

An error in the second inning gave the Blue Demons an early 2-0 lead. The offense didnit show any signs of life until Skender doubled to left center. She hit a single in the fourth inning to cap off the Cougarsi hitting.

Freshman pitcher Crystal Briscoe was rocked a bit in the early going, but she settled down and held DePaul scoreless for the last two innings. She picked up the complete-game loss (6-4), but Briscoe held DePaul to five hits and struck out three batters in seven innings.

Errors cost the Cougars at least two runs in Game 1 as the Demons took a 3-0 lead in the second inning. It took until UHis last three at-bats for the Cougars to make any noise. Sophomore shortstop Jeanie Davis finally gave UH some pop with a double in the seventh inning. Junior infielder Jenny Baker came in to pinch-run and later scored off a DePaul error.

Junior pitcher Jamie Falco (10-6) allowed two hits and struck out three in the complete-game loss.

The Cougars left four runners on base in Game 2. Sophomore outfielder Kim Nesloney and Skender had the teamis only hits in the 5-0 loss. Junior pitcher Jenny Johnson fell to 7-6 after giving up five hits and walking five batters in five innings.

The Cougars are off until traveling to Charlotte, N.C., to begin a three-game series against the 49ers Saturday. All but two of the Cougarsi remaining 17 games are against C-USA schools.

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