COLLEGE STATION – The Cougars overcame several obstacles to advance to Monday night’s College Station Regional championship game against Texas A’M at Olsen Field, and lack of fresh arms was one of them.
It showed against the top-seeded Aggies.
The Cougars’ pitchers were roughed up for 12 hits, including four home runs, in a 13-5 loss that ended their miraculous run through the postseason.
UH, which beat fourth-seeded University of Illinois-Chicago 14-11 (in 11 innings) and Texas A’M 4-3 on Sunday to force a deciding game against the Aggies, finished 3-2 in the regional and fell one win short of its first NCAA super regional appearance since 2003. Texas A’M (45-17) advances to its second consecutive super regional, where it will face No. 6 national seed Rice in a rematch of their meeting from last year’s postseason.
The third-seeded Cougars, who received an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament after winning this year’s C-USA Tournament, defeated second-seeded Dallas Baptist 9-5 in their regional opener Friday but stumbled in a 22-4 loss to Texas A’M in the winners’ bracket game Saturday.
From there, the Cougars (42-24) had to deliver a couple of amazing escapes to survive in the double-elimination tournament.
"I think we just ran out of a little bit of magic. Plus we ran into a very good ballclub," head coach Rayner Noble said. "Our pitching staff was on fumes for the most part. It’s really tough to get out there and do big things with the baseball when you’re tired.
"But I’m very proud of our guys, and I think that God’s hand was in this streak that we had. We came together as a ballclub, and the University of Houston should be proud of what we did over the course of the last three weeks."
The Cougars finished their season on a hot streak, winning 12 of their last 15 games. They won five of six games in the C-USA tournament, claiming their first conference tournament title since 2000 and reaching an NCAA regional for the first time since 2006.
The Cougars also got great performances in the College Station Regional, including a complete game from freshman right-hander Jared Ray in Sunday’s win over Texas A’M. It was the first complete game tossed by a UH hurler this season.
Unfortunately for the Cougars, the pitching couldn’t help them Monday.
The Aggies took a quick 1-0 lead when junior center fielder and College Station Regional Most Outstanding Player Kyle Colligan led off the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run to center field off Cougar freshman starter Ty Stuckey (3-4).
The Cougars rallied with two runs off Aggies sophomore starter Scott Migl in the top of the second to take their only lead of the contest. Junior first baseman Jimmy Cesario led off the frame with a solo shot to right field, and sophomore catcher Chris Wallace drove in senior right fielder Bryan Tully with a two-out single.
The Aggies put the contest away by scoring seven runs in the bottom of the second off Stuckey and sophomore left-hander Donnie Joseph. Texas A’M sent 12 batters to the plate who combined for five hits, three walks and a hit-by-pitch in that inning.
Aggies senior designated hitter Darby Brown and Colligan keyed the onslaught by combining to drive in six runs in the inning. Brown led off with a solo homer that tied the game at 2, Colligan hit a two-run shot that put the Aggies ahead 5-2, and Brown hit a three-run double to extend the lead to 8-2 when he returned to the plate.
"When you talk about numerous runs in an inning, you’re talking about walking guys, hitting guys and then elevating pitches in the strike zone, and that’s exactly what happened in the second inning," Noble said.
Cesario, Wallace, Ray and senior second baseman Ryan Lormand were all named to the College Station Regional All-Tournament team, but the awards were of little consolation to Cesario.
"The individual accolades are nice, but I would trade going 0-for in the tournament to come out with the win tonight," he said. "We had a pretty nice run over the last three weeks, and it’s tough to see it end."
Additional reporting by Scott Gonzales.
