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Sports

Cougars bring out the broom against UAB

The perfect weekend keeps UH atop the standings in C-USA

by RUTHIE RODRIGUEZ
The Daily Cougar

The Cougars have set their sights on winning this year's Conference USA championship. After sweeping Alabama-Birmingham in a three-game series this past weekend, they're one step closer to achieving that goal.

The sweep assures Houston (30-11, 11-1 C-USA) that it will retain its hold on first place for another week. The Cougars currently lead second-place East Carolina by three and a half games in the league standings.

Houston and UAB battled through delays caused by rainy weather conditions in their Saturday doubleheader at Cougar Softball Stadium, but skies were mostly clear on Sunday. For that matter, so was the dominance of junior pitcher Angel Shamblin, who struck out 11 batters in the Cougars' 6-0 victory in the series finale.

Shamblin (19-5) went the distance in the complete game shutout, allowing only three hits while giving zero walks.

The right-hander would get all the run support she would need when junior first baseman Amanda Grote crushed a grand slam in the second inning that staked the Cougars to an early 4-0 lead.

The grand slam was the first home run of Grote's collegiate career. 

"My goal at the plate was just to get a hard, solid hit," Grote said. "I knew we had runners ons and I wanted to find a way to move them or score them. Home runs come when you least expect to hit them." 

Earlier this season, the Cougars frequently came up short with runners in scoring position, but they didn't have too many offensive shortcomings against UAB (24-19, 5-6 C-USA). For the series, the Cougars outscored their opponents 17-2. 

The Cougars' most aggressive offensive attack came during the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, which Houston won 8-0 (the contest was called with two outs in the fifth inning).

In that contest, all but one UH position starters recorded a hit and all but two scored at least one run. Outfielders Laura Durham and Laurie Wagner provided the fireworks with multi-run homers.

Junior right-hander Barbie Love (5-3) earned the victory after tossing a three-hit shutout with seven strikeouts.

Rain hindered the two teams in the opening game of the doubleheader, but the Cougars overcame the distraction en route to a 3-2 (9 inn.) win.

Shamblin came up big in that contest, tossing nine solid innings and allowing two runs on six hits while striking out 10 batters against five walks.

"(In Game 1) the zone was a little difficult to throw in," UH head coach Kyla Holas said. "There wasn't an inside part of the plate and with a wet ball (Shamblin) did a really good job of finding a way to be successful in that type of zone and win."

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