After sweeping their competition during last week’s preseason tournament, the Cougars returned to earth as they were blanked Saturday in their doubleheader at the Spring Klein Girls Softball College Classic.
The Cougars were shutout 3-0 by Galveston College before being upended by Texas 1-0 in the nightcap to drop their record to 4-2.
The loss to Texas was especially frustrating as Amanda Crabtree’s dominating performance was again overshadowed by a lack of run support. She pitched seven innings and gave up only five hits and four walks while striking out eight Longhorns.
Head coach Kyla Holas said the games were won and lost by the Cougars at the plate.
‘This was a bad day for us at the ballpark,’ Holas said. ‘We needed to step up and put some runs on the board early to take some of the work off of our pitchers and did not. (It’s) tough to win when you do not score.’
In Saturday’s first game against Galveston College, UH pitcher Baillie Lott was tagged with the loss after only two innings of work before being relieved by freshman Bailey Watts.’
Holas linked Lott’s ineffectiveness to flu-like symptoms, as Galveston College was able to rebound from a 16-2 drubbing at the hands of the Cougars in last weekend’s Sugar Land College Classic.
A muggy weekend of showers and thunderstorms in the area forced Sunday’s games against Baylor and Stephen F. Austin to be cancelled. Holas indicated that the team would look to add two more games to the exhibition schedule before fall practice ends.
‘ Cross country stumbles at Notre Dame
The men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled north to South Bend, Ind. on Friday for the Notre Dame Invitational and faced off against 17 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association ranked opponents, including conference mates No. 11 Tulsa (men) and No. 27 Rice (women). The teams were unable to replicate their early-season success as the men placed 13th out of 21 schools in the Gold Division with 325 points overall. Nate Pineda, Jesse Rodriguez and Cole Bessner led the Cougars, with Pineda placing 40th out of 173 participants with a time of 24:51, while Rodriguez came in 60th with a time of 26:23 and Bessner came in 66th with a time of 26:25.
The UH women didn’t fare any better, finishing last in the blue division out of 25 schools with a total of 629 points. Sophomore Stephanie Aldea led all Cougars by placing 51st out of 178 participants with a time of 17:35, while the next Cougar to finish was Brandi Witte at a distant 137th in 18:55.’
The Cougars will look to regroup this week before they head to Bloomington, Ind., on Oct. 17th for the Sam Bell Invitational.’
