In a Sunday two-game sweep the Cougars scored four more runs than they had in the previous four games combined. | Hendrick Rosemond/ The Daily Cougar
UH opened its season with total of six games in three days — one against Iowa, two against Lipscomb and three against Texas State — in the Hilton Houston Plaza Classic this past weekend and finished 4-2 after going 1-1 Friday and Saturday and 2-0 Sunday.
“We try to practice as many hours as we can to get them used to and acclimated to (multiple games),” said head softball coach Kyla Holas.
The team started Friday night with a 4-2 loss against Lipscomb but came back in the second game against Texas State for a 3-1 win. The Cougars made key plays to come out win.
In the second game with the bases loaded, junior pitcher Diedre Outon, hit a low ball past second base to bring junior catcher Haley Outon and freshman Julana Shrum home and two go-ahead runs.
On Saturday, the team started out playing Texas State with sophomore pitcher Summer Groholski starting the game strongly, striking out three in the first inning.
In the bottom of the first with the bases loaded, senior outfielder Reina Gaber hit a sacrifice fly to bring in junior infielder Kendra Cullum for the first run of the game.
Texas State took the lead in the second inning with two runs, but UH won 7-5 after the seventh inning.
UH started out the second game of the day strongly against Iowa. Senior infielder Holly Anderson had a steal in the first inning and pitcher Bailey Watts shut down Iowa’s batters in the bottom of the first. But by mid game, the players began making mistakes.
“I think we have a lot of work to do as far as the details,” Holas said.
“We are making a lot of mental mistakes. We need to go in and practice and be a little bit more committed to the stuff that we’re asking them to do.”
In the bottom of the sixth, Cullum brought some momentum to UH with a great defensive play, but it wasn’t enough and the Cougars lost 4-1.
“Right now we are just really trying to find ourselves,” Holas said.
“Everytime you start over in a new season, you have to kind of say, ‘How are we going to win? What are the things we are going to build ourselves on? What are we going to be? How are we going to produce runs and strike people out and just kind of find our identity?'”
The Cougars turned it Sunday by taking the lead early in the first game Sunday after a three-run homerun put them up 3-1. They scored 10 unanswered runs and finished the game 10-1.
In the second game of the double header, UH blanked Texas State 7-0.
