Jake Runte and the Cougars could not come close to sniffing out a victory Tuesday at Don Sanders Stadium in Huntsville. After defeating Sam Houston 9-3 less than a month ago, the Bearkats struck back with a 9-0 win. | Aaron Cisneros/The Daily Cougar
Did you feel that breeze coming in from up north yesterday? It wasn’t a cool front — it was the Cougars swinging and missing en route to a 9-0 loss against Sam Houston State on Tuesday in Huntsville.
Even though they only had six hits scattered throughout the contest, UH had several chances to score early in the game with runners reaching base via walks and batters hit by pitches. However, the Cougars’ offense could not get timely hits at the necessary junctures.
Instead, UH will remember only its missed opportunities.
“Offensively we had opportunities to score,” head coach Todd Whitting said. “We just didn’t execute, we did not play well tonight.”
Whitting said that the root of the Cougars’ problems is that the players are in a bit of a mental funk. However, he expects them to recover and be ready to play this weekend.
“Any time you’re playing bad it’s usually a mental thing,” Whitting said. “We just need to have a good game, a well-pitched game where we play good defense and have a good offensive game.”
The pitching staff didn’t help the team’s chances of winning either. The team used six pitchers and allowed nine runs on 11 hits.
Starting pitcher Codey Morehouse (2-5) had a below-average performance, going 1 1/3 innings and giving up four runs on five hits.
“Codey just didn’t have his stuff tonight,” Whitting said.
“I was looking forward to watching him pitch tonight, and was hoping that he’d go out and repeat what he did against Texas A&M. It just didn’t happen for him.”
Sam Houston State (23-12, 8-7 Southland Conference) jumped on the Cougars early, scoring four runs in the second inning.
They added three more in the fifth, including a one-run home run by designated hitter Chris Andreas, to push the lead to 7-0.
The Bearkats scored another insurance run in the sixth inning and capped off their scoring for the night in the eighth frame with a home run by second baseman Ryan Mooney.
Sam Houston State used four pitchers to stifle the UH bats, as they collectively struck out 10 Cougars.
UH will try to bounce back from the loss and stay in its four-way tie for first place in the conference standings as they resume C-USA action this weekend against the last-place Marshall Thundering Herd (11, 15, 1-5).
