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Volume 72, Issue 110,
Monday, March 19, 2007
Sports Cougar baseball roller coaster ride ends on low note Houston struggles to find offense in San Diego to get swept by Toreros after routing Princeton Tigers by MARK SUAREZ
After dismantling Princeton at Cougar Field to close out an eight-game home stand, the Cougars showed signs of a team ready to make a statement against a perennial national powerhouse. The momentum of a three-game series sweep, however, proved futile against Baseball America No. 22 San Diego, who completed a three game sweep over Houston with an 8-3 victory on Sunday. The Toreros (19-9) scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a 6-2 lead over the Cougars (11-12), who struggled to find clutch hits over the final four frames. San Diego third basemen Kevin Hansen got the inning started with a double to left field and later scored on a Justin Snyder sacrifice fly. Josh Romanski then tripled off relief pitcher Donnie Joseph and scored on a single up the middle by Jordan Abruzzo. After a balk advanced Abruzzo to second, Daniel Magness drove him in on a single up the middle to extend San Diego's lead. The Cougar offense, however, could only muster one hit over the final four innings. UH threatened in the seventh when USD starter Ricardo Pecino was taken out for reliever Anthony Slama. UH designated hitter Felix Fanaselle was walked with one out in the inning and later came around to score after infielder Ryan Lormand, who was 2-of-4 at the plate, advanced runners on an error by USD shortstop Sean Nicol. UH (11-12), however, saw its rally crumble after USD relief pitcher Russell Holzhauer got both right fielder Bryan Tully and infielder Jimmy Cesario to fly out to center field to end the inning with two runners left on base. Pecino held the UH offense to three runs on four hits over the first six innings to pick up his fourth win of the season. On Saturday the Cougars had their best chance to break through in the win column against the Toreros. Trailing 4-2 in the top of the ninth inning, the UH offense rallied to tie the game after Bryan Tully launched one over the center field fence and Lormand drove in Luis Flores on a single to right center. San Diego, however, responded in dramatic fashion when Kevin Hansen ripped a game winning RBI-single. He did so with one out in the bottom of the ninth to take the 5-4 victory and spoil Houston's comeback bid. Tully (1-1), who had also been one of Houston's most reliable arms out of the bullpen, picked up the loss. Dustin Kingsbury led the charge at the plate by going 3-for-4 on the day with an RBI. The Cougars did not have an answer for USD starter Brian Matusz and began the series Friday the same way they ended it, as they were held to just five hits in an 8-1 loss. Matusz struck out 11 UH batters in eight innings of work en route to his fourth win of the season. USD took control of the game in the second inning by scoring five runs on UH starter Aaron Brown and never looked back. UH struggled offensively, but Kingsbury hit a homerun in the fourth inning to cut the USD lead to 6-1. The Toreros would pick up two runs in the seventh and eighth innings, however, to round out the series opener. Against Princeton, Houston showed just how potent its offense is. The Cougars outscored the Tigers 33-4 in the series, picking up the sweep. UH rallied in the final game against the Tigers on Mar. 11 by scoring six runs in the seventh and eighth innings to pick up an 8-3 win. Down 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh, UH batters marched to the plate and pounded out three hits that began with two outs. Tully and Cesario both hit doubles to propel Houston to four runs in the inning, giving UH all it needed for the win. It proved to be the closest contest of the series as Houston handed Princeton a 5-0 loss March 9 and a 20-1 drumming March 10. Send comments to dcsports@mail.uh.edu |
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