Junior third baseman Justin Montemayor was huge for the Cougars in their 8-6 win over the Rainbow Warriors as his sixth inning triple brought in three runs to tie the game at 5-5. | Brittaney Penney/The Cougar
The Cougars snapped their four-game losing streak, closing the Houston College Classic with an 8-6 comeback win against Hawaii’s Rainbow Warriors on Sunday night at Minute Maid Park.
The night became increasingly unfavorable for the Cougars despite a 1-0 lead as they struggled in the third and fourth inning where senior starting pitcher Aaron Garza gave up two runs in each, allowing the Rainbow Warriors to take a 4-1 lead.
Garza pitched for 3.2 innings, striking out two and allowing five hits before freshman Seth Romero took the mound for the next 5.1 innings. Romero gave up two runs on five hits and two walks, earning praise from Houston head coach Todd Whitting;
“Romero threw out almost 100 pitches and then relieves. He was outstanding tonight,” said Whitting. “He had a lot of his fast balls, and his secondary stuff was good enough. He didn’t pitch like a freshman, so I’m really proud of him.”
After being scoreless since the second inning, Houston rallied back in the sixth as freshman pinch hitter Zac Taylor hit a triple at the beginning of the inning and scored Houston’s second run on a ground out RBI from junior right fielder Kyle Survance.
The inning proceeded as junior second baseman Josh Vidales and junior catcher Jacob Campbell each hit a single to load first and second. Junior first baseman Chris Iriart would walk to first after fighting a full count, advancing Vidales and Campbell to load the bases. Junior third baseman Justin Montemayor answered the call with a 3-RBI triple to center field, scoring Vidales, Campbell and Iriart to tie the game. The inning ended with Montemayor at third.
The Cougars continued to battle as they scored two more runs in the bottom of the seventh with an RBI single from Vidales, scoring Survance. Vidales would walk to second on a balk and score from an RBI single from Campbell.
“That’s what I’ve been looking for about two weeks now. A team that’s resilient, places energy and doesn’t stop,” said Whitting. “We needed that one so that was good. The way we did it wasn’t pretty, but we probably needed a win like that — a come-from-behind and (scoring) a bunch of runs.”
