UH baseball could not pull out the second win against Tulane, losing in the AAC semifinals. | Ben Solomon/American Athletic Conference
UH Baseball’s season came to a crushing end on Saturday evening following a double-header against Tulane with a spot in the American Athletic Conference championship final on the line.
Game 1
UH’s first chance at revenge against the Green Wave – who beat them in Houston’s first game of the tournament – was a success, coming away with an 11-8 victory in Saturday afternoon’s matchup.
After Tulane scored a lone run in the top of the second inning, Houston answered with a resounding four-run frame in the bottom of the inning. A right-field single from senior outfielder Brandon Uhse brought three runners home, followed shortly thereafter by Uhse stealing home plate for the Cougars’ fourth score.
Tulane stayed close behind in the third inning, scoring two runs to trail 4-3 before a solo homer from junior utility player Alex Lopez in the bottom of the inning extended UH’s lead once again.
In the fifth inning, Tulane moved ahead of UH for the first time since the second inning. The lead was short-lived, though, as junior infielder Zach Arnold hit a home run to right-field and junior utility player Justin Murray scored an unearned run to return the advantage to UH.
UH piled on the runs further in the sixth inning, leading 9-6 by the end of the period thanks to a center-field homer from graduate student utility player Drew Bianco.
A two-run homer for Tulane brought it within a single run of Houston in the seventh, though Tulane was unable to retake the lead as the Cougars would go on to score two more runs before all was said and done, winning 11-8.
Game 2
The decisive matchup of Houston’s American Athletic Conference championship run ended with an 11-8 defeat against the Green Wave.
Both sides got out to a quick start, with the Cougars answering Tulane’s solo home run in the top of the first period with a solo homer of their own courtesy of junior utility player Justin Murray.
In the third inning, Tulane moved far ahead of Houston with a five-run explosion, leading 6-1 entering the fourth period.
The bottom of the fourth inning saw Murray hit another home run, this time scoring two runs in the process and cutting into the Tulane lead.
On a fly out from Uhse, Houston saw another runner reach home plate in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 6-4 in Tulane’s favor.
Tulane hit yet another homer in the seventh, this time accounting for three runs to return solidly to the game’s drivers seat despite four runs for UH in the bottom of the inning marked by a three-run homer by junior infielder Zach Arnold.
The Green Wave put the final nail in the coffin of Houston’s season in the eighth inning, where they scored two more runs to bring the deficit to 11-8 to eliminate Houston with the same score as the Cougars had defeated them earlier in the day.
Notably, Saturday evening’s defeat served as Houston’s final American Athletic Conference event, as the Cougars will return in the fall as members of the Big 12.
