Sports

Cougars cook Rice

By Stuart H. Clements
The Daily Cougar

The Cougars wonit be eating turkey this Easter, and it wonit be ham. Instead, they went out and bagged them some Owls.

What seemed like an inevitable sweep by No. 1 Rice in the Silver Glove series this season turned into a 4-1 decision, when Houston captured the last game 5-1 on Wednesday at Cougar Field.

The Cougars refused to drop below the .500 mark again this season. They also didnit want to lose another to their crosstown rivals who pelted them 11-0 in the fourth game of the series.

With junior Brian Henderson starting on the mound and an offense that wouldnit give up, Houston improved its record to 19-18.

"Weive got about 20 games to play, and I think the (NCAA) selection committeeis going to really look hard at your last 20-25, and to start it off this way is big," head coach Rayner Noble said. "Iim just happy for our guys. Theyire real resilient and it's just a tribute to their will to win."

Henderson stepped out of his usual position as a relief pitcher to start the game against Rice. Henderson picked up the win to improve to 3-2 on the season.

The southpaw went out and gave five innings, giving up just four hits and shut out the Owls, while striking out three. The left-handed pitcher possesses a 1.76 ERA, the second lowest on the team. The outing was good enough for Henderson to make the 2003 Silver Glove All-Series Team.

"Heis (Henderson) been throwing well," Noble said. "Thatis what we needed tonight was a good start. I knew we had enough out of the pen if we could just get him five innings, and the blueprint came out just like I planned it."

Sophomore pitcher Ryan Wagner, outfielders freshman Travis Tully and junior Gabe Lucas were honored on the All-Series Team, as well as junior infielder Thanos Papavasiliou, who was honored as the wild card.

Rice pitcher Wade Townsend received honors on the All-Series Team as Most Outstanding Player.

Freshman Rickey Putman, junior Danny Zell and Wagner combined to pitch the last four innings from the bullpen with five strikeouts and only allowed one run.

In the first inning, Houston stacked junior Michael Bourn and Tully on base, while junior Hyung Cho stepped up to the plate with no outs.

Both base runners stepped off the bags for a hit and run, and Cho knocked the ball directly into the hands of Owl first baseman Vincent Sinisi, who turned the catch into a triple play, Rice's first of the year.

"Iive stopped saying ‘Iive seen everything.i Iim never saying that again in my life," Noble said. "Weire tough. Most teams, after that happened, it might have put them in a funk, but weive had to overcome a lot of things, and thatis just a small, small item."

The Cougars were not phased by the spectacular play. In the bottom of the second, Houston took the lead with a single run, and then added an insurance run in the bottom of the third.

After the Owls cut the lead to 2-1 in the top seventh, the Houston offense retaliated with two runs in the same frame, and added one in the eighth to make the final score.

The win is a significant prelude to an important Conference USA series against Saint Louis, slated to begin at 7 p.m. Friday at Cougar Field. The Cougars are two games behind C-USA leader Southern Miss with a 9-6 league record.