Junior second baseman Josh Vidales was a leader in Saturday’s walk-off win, going 3-5 at the plate with 3 RBI. Sophomore Jordan Stading played for him Sunday. | Brittaney Penney/The Cougar
They probably wouldn’t be too well-known save for the dedicated baseball scout or faithful college baseball fan. But leaving Cougar Field, those associated with UH know well what the mounds men of Columbia are capable of.
Only one, junior right-hander Kevin Roy, could possibly be called intimidating as he flirted with 92 miles an hour on Saturday afternoon. The rest seemed to specialize in a collection of junk balls that were as valuable as 24-karat gold for Columbia’s pitchers. The series scores swayed back and forth with scores of 3-0, 5-4, 8-7 and finally the 12-7 offensive shooting gallery that saw Columbia split the series.
“It’s great to see our guys play good baseball,” said Columbia head coach Brett Boretti. “We have a veteran group and they responded well. We’ve been in tough atmospheres before, and there’s a belief in our dugout that we can compete with anybody. Houston’s a great club and they’re going to have a great season, but I’m excited about how our guys responded to the situation.”
The Columbia bats, which put up 20 hits alone in the last game of the series, complied 24 runs through four games against a Houston offense that rang in with 19 runs.
The difference, Boretti noted, was his pitching staff. The Lion pitchers put together 31 strikeouts, many of them well-timed and slower than the power-pitching Houston batters are used to.
“Command both sides of the plate,” said Boretti, explaining his staff’s approach. “The ultimate equalizer is the guy on the hill. Our guys did a nice job of being able to locate their stuff, (which) guys honest as much as possible.”
Throwing everything at speeds ranging from 70-85 mph and painting corners in ways not seen since Van Gogh, the Lions left the Cougars splitting their four game series against No. 3 ranked Houston.
“We have a philosophy of getting ahead,” said Columbia pitcher Ryan Marks. “If we don’t get early contact, we mix well. We mix pitches well, we mix speeds well. We’ll even pitch backwards. It’s something our pitching coach preaches. We do it pretty well across the board.”
Marks, who struck out four over the series, got the save in 3.1 innings of work on Sunday, kept Houston hitters off balance enough to split the series among back and forth, offensive outburst-prone nature of the four games.
“All we do is try and get ahead and throw strikes,” said Marks. “We know that top to bottom on our staff we have a lot of strike throwers, so we’re confident in everyone who goes out there. If one guy struggles another guy is going to come in and throw strikes and get the job done.”
