The Houston Cougars dropped a game against UAB in the second round of the Conference USA tournament, but have battled back to win three consecutive games and reach the championship game.
After defeating East Carolina, UH (38-22) had to defeat UAB (26-34) just to force another elimination game against the Blazers, which UH had to win to advance to the finals.
With a 10-5 victory in game one on Saturday, the Cougars continued their dominance of the Blazers and beat UAB 3-1 in the elimination game to earn their ticket to the C-USA finals.
Sophomore center fielder Zak Presley scored all three of the Cougars’ runs. In the top of the second, Presley reached base on a fielder’s choice and was brought home by freshman Caleb Ramsey, who singled to center.
Presley struck again in the fourth, hitting a single to the left to reach first. With the bases loaded, sophomore catcher Austin Goolsby reached base on a throwing error to score Presley and put the Cougars up by two.
Presley was first to bat for the Cougars in the eighth and singled to reach first. He was brought in by sophomore catcher Chris Wallave, who singled to left.
With three unanswered runs on the board and one out in the bottom of the ninth, UAB junior outfielder Brint Hardy singled to reach first and stole second. He scored on Blazer senior pitcher Billy Lichtner’s single to give UAB their first run.
However, it was also their only run of the night, and Houston held on to capture the victory against UAB.
UH freshman pitcher Jared Ray gave up just two hits and no runs in 6.2 innings. Sophomore pitcher Wes Musick gave up just one hit in 1.1 innings, while junior pitcher Chris Wright gave up two hits and the only run of the night in 1 inning.
Marshall defeated Southern Miss Saturday night to force an elimination game on Sunday morning. The winner of that contest will face Houston on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Greer Field in New Orleans.