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Sports

Cougars outlast UTSA

Tully comes on to save the day in the ninth inning

By RONNIE TURNER
The Daily Cougar

Somewhere along the way to Frisco, the Cougars must have misplaced one of their starting pitchers, because something was clearly lacking when the team met Texas-San Antonio on Thursday morning.

Freshman starter Donnie Joseph gave up eight early runs and couldn't survive past the fourth inning, but the Houston offense bailed him out this time as the Cougars held on for a 12-10 victory on the first day of the Southwest Diamond Classic at Dr Pepper Ballpark. The Cougars rapped out 13 hits and each position starter scored at least one run.

The Cougars (5-5) led by as many as seven runs in the wild affair, but Joseph's struggles gave the Roadrunners a chance to make a late comeback. UTSA (0-6) scored four times off Joseph in the fourth inning to pull within 11-8 and again in the fifth to pull within two runs. 

Senior third baseman Dustin Kingsbury (2-for-5, two runs, two RBIs) blasted a solo home run in the sixth inning to increase Houston's lead to 12-9, but UTSA wouldn't go away easily. 

UTSA's Trent Lockwood cut the deficit to two runs with a ninth-inning home run off Houston right-hander Bryan Tully, who took the mound in the eighth after starting the game in right field. The Roadrunners kept the rally alive by placing runners at first and second with two outs, but Tully struck out Mitch Ponza to end the game.

Tully allowed only one run over the final two innings to earn his first save and preserve the victory for redshirt sophomore right-hander Chris Wright (1-0, 4.50 ERA), who entered in relief of Joseph and allowed only one run in 3.2 innings.

Joseph, who saw his ERA rise to 9.45, struggled heavily through 3.1 innings, but his UTSA counterpart, Blake Brannon, had a much worse outing. Brannon (0-2, 30.86) struggled mightily with his command and walked four batters en route to being tagged for nine runs in only two innings of work.

The Cougars were fortunate to escape with their second consecutive win, but they'll certainly need better efforts from their starting pitchers to find success over the duration of the tournament.

Houston will meet tournament host Dallas Baptist tonight at 7 p.m. Junior right-hander Aaron Brown (1-0, 4.76) will probably get the start. 

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