Middle relief and a walk-off RBI single propelled the Cougars to a 5-4 win over Stephen F. Austin Tuesday at Cougar Field. Houston (9-5) struggled early, offensively and on the mound, but late inning runs allowed the team to make its sixth come-from-behind win of the season. With the loss, the Lumberjacks are now 8-6.
The Cougars held a 4-2 lead headed into the ninth with their newly anointed closer, freshman Chase Dempsay (2-1), on the mound. After allowing a lead-off walk, Dempsay gave up a two-run game-tying homerun to Lumberjacks junior first baseman Sean Meyers.
Leading off the bottom of the inning, sophomore catcher Chris Wallace reached base on an error and sophomore centerfielder Zak Presley advanced the runner to second on a base hit up the middle. After a sacrifice bunt by freshman shortstop Blake Kelso moved the runners to second and third base, senior left fielder Jake Stewart lined a single through the left side to bring in the game winning run.
After going 0-for-2 with two walks and a run, Stewart was happy to have the chance to win the game.
"I kind of struggled earlier in the game. I was just happy to get up there in that last at bat," Stewart said. "That’s the situation that everybody wants to be in and, fortunately, I was the lucky one that got the opportunity to win the game for us."
After a rocky second start from sophomore John Touchton (1-1), who threw 85 pitches over four innings, giving up two runs on five hits, junior pitcher Chris Wright (0-0) proceeded to dominate Lumberjacks hitters over the next four innings, allowing the Cougars to mount their comeback.
Wright had an excellent outing, not allowing a base runner and striking out a career high eight batters over 50 pitches.
"The slider was just working phenomenally," Wright said. "I don’t think I’ve thrown a slider like that in my life. It was working really well.
"It was a tough outing just because our hitters weren’t putting up all the runs they always do and I knew it was big to keep us in the game," he said. "I just did everything I could."
While the offense has been able to score runs this season, the pitching has struggled at times. Head coach Rayner Noble expects more from his pitching and hopes they can learn from their struggles thus far.
"It’s just one of those outings where (Dempsay) just got away from his strength and got beat tonight with his second and third best pitch" Noble said. "I think if he’d went out there with his number one, it might have been a different story.
"Chase needs to learn how to be successful in these roles and it was probably good that he wasn’t successful tonight because he learned a lesson."
The Cougars will play Sam Houston State at 6:30 p.m. today in Huntsville. Freshman pitcher Matt Murphy will likely make his second start of the season against the Bearkats (9-5), who are coming off a 12-8 win over Texas-Pan American on Sunday.
