Cougars hold a 4-14 road record following final road series. | Raphael Fernandez/The Cougar
Houston baseball lost their final road series of the year to Kansas this past weekend 1-2.
Game One
UH dominated the first game of the series on Friday and won 13-5. Senior utilityman Justin Murray started the offensive barrage with a solo homer in the third. It was followed up by a five-run fourth inning where Murray hit his second home run of the day, a two-run shot to right center.
Senior second baseman Harold Coll also hit a two-run blast that made the score 6-0. A bases-loaded walk, hit by pitch and fielder’s choice added three more runs to the tally in the fifth inning. Redshirt senior catcher Jonathan French had an RBI double in the next inning as well as junior designated hitter Kenneth Jimenez with an RBI single.
Murray continued bringing the heat, hitting an RBI single to make it 12-0, and brought his RBIs total to four on the night. Kansas scored five runs in the sixth and seventh innings combined, but it was too late. The 13 runs scored by Houston were the most in a conference game this season.
Cougars junior starter Cade Citelli obtained his fourth win of the season with six innings of three-run baseball with seven strikeouts.
Game Two
Houston started quickly but ultimately lost 11-9. Cougars senior outfielder Cary Arbolida continued his incredible year with a three-run bomb in the first inning. Arbolida hit another home run, this time a solo shot in the third inning. French added an RBI single followed by a sacrifice fly and RBI single from Murray that made the lead 8-1.
The Cougars blew the lead in the next two innings, as the Jayhawks scored four runs in the third inning and five runs in the fourth inning, which included three home runs, to take a 10-8 advantage.
The only run UH would manage after that was a solo blast from Jimenez in the fifth inning.
Houston senior pitcher Antoine Jean gave up eight earned runs in 3.1 innings.
Game Three
Houston lost the final game of the series on Sunday, 9-6. Kansas took the early 3-1 lead through three innings.
Freshman shortstop Anthony Avalos tied the game with a two-RBI double followed by a go-ahead RBI single from Jimenez in the fourth.
The Jayhawks answered right back with a five-run fourth inning to take the 8-4 lead then added on another homer in the next inning.
The Cougars added one run in the eighth with Arbolida’s team-leading 16th home run of the year and another run in the ninth inning, but it was too late.
Houston dropped to under .500 on the season overall with a 25-26 record and a 7-19 Big 12 conference record. The Coogs are now in the midst of their last week of the 2024 season.
