Sports
 

Wheels come off for Cougars

by Bridget Brown
The Daily Cougar

The sound of an ambulance whirring by the Cougar Softball Complex complemented the softball team's vanquished faces and limp Cougar paws as the fight song played on the loud speaker Sunday afternoon. The squad endured a weekend full of fierce blows and beat-downs by the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, a shellacking senior pitcher Jamie Falco said would be better if just forgotten.

"This was a fluke, I can say that for sure. We had an awesome week of practice," Falco said. "On the first day we had an abundance of errors, and the pitching was bad. When everything falls apart, you can't expect to win."

The Cougars were massacred by the Golden Eagles 14-0, in Game1 on Saturday and then were handled 7-1 in the second. A win seemed distant as the team took the field for the series' third and final game.

The Cougars 1-0 lead in the first inning was quickly erased by Southern Miss's three-run second inning. Both teams scored in the third inning. Houston's junior Jenilee Skender used a double to centerfield to send junior Kristen Glowacz home. However, Southern Miss added the final run in the top of the seventh inning, sealing the Cougar's fate.

"We are going to have to work on our mental game," head coach Kyla Holas said. "We've got to stay strong and stay positive."

Holas said pitching was a major problem for the team, with freshman pitcher Carla Kennimer taking the loss for the Cougars after giving up three runs on four hits. Jenny Johnson relieved the freshman, pitching one and one third innings. Jamie Falco closed out the game, hurling four and one third innings and giving up one run.

"We struggled pitching-wise, and our offense didn't step up in the times we needed them to. I think that defensively we improved significantly (for the third game), but we didn't offensively make the adjustments we needed to," Holas said. "We got more hits, but not enough runs."

Those runs came mostly from Skender, who had a game-high three hits, going three-for-three with two RBI. In the bottom of the seventh, the Cougars unsuccessful rally was halted as sophomore Brooke Johnson, junior Kim Nesloney and freshman Jamie Adams failed to get a hit. A series of calls didn't fall Houston's way, but the blame fell squarely on the Lady Cougars' shoulders.

Southern Miss was the first opponent to sweep the Cougars since DePaul swept Houston last season. The score for Game 1 was the largest margin ever for the Cougars and only the second time a team has scored 14 runs against the team. After the series, the Cougars drop to 24-14 and 3-3 in Conference USA play. 

The team will begin a doubleheader against DePaul at noon Saturday in Chicago.

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