Baseball

Cougars fall to Bulls in extras

Houston’s winning streak came to an end.

The Cougars fell to the USF Bulls with a 2-1 score in extra innings to open the conference series Friday night.

Both teams were scoreless through the fourth inning until Houston set the tempo at the top of the fifth. Freshman outfielder Corey Julks doubled to right field and advance to third on a fielding error. Junior third baseman Justin Montemayor scored Julks with a sacrifice fly which would be the Cougars’ only run.

‘Mr. Friday Night,’ sophomore Andrew Lantrip dominated the mound through his tenure, keeping the Bulls scoreless for six innings. The Bulls stepped up in the seventh, however, scoring a run to tie the game and go into extra innings.

Lantrip pitched for 8.1 innings, recording six hits, one run, two walks and 13 strikeouts through the game. In the bottom of the ninth, Lantrip was relieved by junior Patrick Weigel.

Weigel would pitch for 1.2 innings, recording zero hits, one run, one walk, one hit-by-pitch and no strike outs after having faced six batters. The Ventrua native was later replaced by freshman Aaron Fletcher to finish the game.

Fletcher stepped to the mound with batters at first and second and no outs. The freshman gave up two hits: one which gave the Bulls the walk off win of the night, and one strike out for the night.

Lantrip was credited with the loss, giving him a record of 6-3 and the Cougars are now 7-6 in the American Athletic Conference.

Houston has a chance of capturing its first victory of the series as the Cougars squares off against the Bulls a second time Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

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