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Sports

Batters continue to dominate 

Relievers hold off late Aggie charge while Cougars stay hot at plate

by RONNIE TURNER
The Daily Cougar

Texas A&M tried every possible way to avoid pitching to senior second baseman Isa Garcia on Tuesday night, but when the Aggies weren't intentionally walking him, they had to put up with every other batter in the UH lineup. The 19th-ranked Cougars made sure that those at-bats would not be wasted, pounding Texas A&M for 14 hits and getting solid relief pitching down the stretch to hold on for a 9-6 victory in College Station.

It wasn't a dominant performance by the UH pitching staff, but the Cougars (25-15) made their pitches when it mattered. Senior southpaw Matt Farrington (3-4, 4.85 ERA) gave up two runs off three hits in his only inning out of the bullpen in relief of junior starter Shea Hancock, but made his biggest pitch of the night when he got designated hitter Jess Buenger to fly out to center field with two outs and runners on the corners in the fifth inning. Junior Clayton Boone pitched two scoreless innings to pick up his fourth save of the season. 

The two teams started the game by trading runs in the first two innings before UH went to the long ball strategy. In the fourth, junior Josh Stirneman and freshman Luis Flores both hit solo home runs off Aggies starter Chance Corgan, and junior Brad Lincoln took reliever Anthony Vasquez (0-1, 5.79) deep to center field for a solo shot in the top of the fifth, pacing the Cougars to a 5-1 lead.

UH ran into some trouble in the bottom of fifth when Hancock put on the first two batters he faced, and Farrington plunked Jose Salazar to load the bases with no outs. Austin Boggs followed with a sac fly-RBI to left field, scoring Parker Dalton from third, and the deficit was cut to 5-2. Things unraveled for Farrington after that, as Texas A&M (19-21) tagged him for three runs off a wild pitch, two singles and a double to pull even. 

The Cougars regained the lead in the sixth when Flores sent a Vasquez change-up off a building behind left field for a two-run shot. After that, Texas A&M never came closer than within three runs as freshman Barry Laird, sophomore Ricky Hargrove and Boone combined to hold the Aggies to only a run off two hits over the final four innings. 
 

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