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Sports

UH ends Classic with win over Texas Tech

by RONNIE TURNER
The Daily Cougar

In its two previous losses against Texas Christian and Texas in the Houston College Classic at Minute Maid Park, the UH baseball team was plagued by its inability to get any offense going early in those games. On Sunday afternoon against Texas Tech in both teams' final game in the Classic, the Cougars pounded out eleven hits and got seven shutout innings from starter Brad Lincoln as they cruised to a 5-1 victory over the Red Raiders for their only win of the tournament.

"I think the big key today was that we had solid pitching performances from both Lincoln and (Luis) Flores," head coach Rayner Noble said. "(Texas Tech) was really overmatched for about the first five innings. Offensively, we did a good job of producing some runs. It was a good day for us. We needed this pick-me-up."

Lincoln (1-0) kept the Red Raiders (3-3) off balance from the start, allowing only five innings and striking out five batters. His losing Texas Tech counterpart, Aaron Odom (0-1), couldn't match Lincoln's effort as the Cougars (2-2) roughed him up for six hits and three runs (two earned) in his six innings of work. Lincoln was rewarded with adequate support from his offense, which was paced by third baseman Dustin Kingsbury. Kingsbury finished 3-for-4 with a walk and two runs batted in, and it was his two-out single in the third inning that led to the Cougars scoring two runs in that frame.

"We (had) been down the last two days over the last two losses, and the thing we talked about last night (before the game) was our ability to hit with two outs," Kingsbury said. "A big part of baseball (is) coming up and doing your job. Thankfully, I got to get up there with a chance at it and I got the job done."

The results weren't nearly the same against TCU and UT. On Saturday evening, the Cougars were defeated by the Horned Frogs 6-4 after starter Aaron Brown (0-1) was knocked out early, giving up three earned runs over four and a third innings. On Friday night, UT starter Adrian Alaniz (1-0) handcuffed the UH batters over seven innings, allowing only five hits and an unearned run.

UH will face Stephen F. Austin at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the confines of Cougar Field. 

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