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Volume 70, Issue 93,
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Sports Cougars fall to Owls in tough extra inning loss Houston, down 4-0, came back to
stay in the game;
By Louie Vera
The first game of the 2005 Silver Glove Series was a classic. Unfortunately, the Houston Cougars baseball team was at the short end of a 7-6 game against cross-town rival Rice that took extra innings to decide a winner. With one out in the top of the 10th, Brian Friday put himself in prime position after he tripled off the center-field wall. This set up Owl head Coach Wayne Graham to call a suicide squeeze, and shortstop Josh Rodriguez put it down with perfection allowing the game-winning run.
Freshman Bryan Pounds hit a solo home run in the sixth inning to tie the game at six for the Cougars. However, Houston was unable to stop a suicide Owl bunt in the 10th inning to give Rice the first win of the Silver Glove Series. Stephen Pinchback/The Daily Cougar The Cougars came back from a 4-0 deficit and took a lead after a five-run fifth inning. Owls Lance Pendleton answered back in the top of the sixth and hit a two-run dink to regain the lead for his team at 6-5. Once again, the Cougars showed their never-quit attitude and tied the game up when freshman Bryan Pounds belted his first career homerun next to the lights in deep left center to tie the game. Pounds also had his first career collegiate hit that loaded the bases in the fifth. Despite the loss, Cougar head coach Rayner Noble spoke of the team's valiant efforts. "Well you know, that's all I can ask for of any ball club I've ever had," Noble said. "It's just to keep playing the game hard until the last out is made and we've done that for sure in these first four games this year." Noble added that on the defensive side of the ball, the team is just a step behind. "We are just a step slow in certain positions," he said. "We just have to get better at that first step and that's just going to take repetition and time." The Cougars have stumbled off blocks a little bit this season at 1-3 start, but Noble said his team will bounce back soon. "We've got a couple days before Pepperdine gets here, and we'll get them ready to play," he said. The Pepperdine Waves will come into town for a three
game series that starts at 7 p.m. Friday at Cougar Field. Game two of the
Silver Glove Series will be Tuesday at Reckling Park in the Rice Campus.
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