With an 8-3 victory that marked UH’s fourth straight win over Rice dating back to last season, the Cougars improved to 14-7 Tuesday night through an unusual feat of playing six freshmen during the game, including winning pitcher Seth Romero.
“It’s good to go up one-nothing,” said Houston head coach Todd Whitting. “Rice has a really good team, but I thought we played outstanding tonight.”
The game was a defensive and pitching battle until the fourth when Houston put five runs on the board and never looked back. Romero, along with relievers Aaron Fletcher, Jared Robinson and Aaron Garza, held Rice to three runs in the final three innings while the offense supplied insurance.
“Seth Romero was really, really good. He set the tone for us,” Whitting said. “There were some tough breaks, but he kept us right in there to give us chances to score.”
Spacing 11 hits through the game, the UH offense continued to find its tune in the Cougars’ sixth straight win.
“(The win) felt good,” said second baseman Josh Vidales, who went 1-4 with two RBI. “It didn’t feel good during my first at bat when I had to take one in the leg, but that’s baseball. We were just trying to work the ball the other way. You can’t make things too complicated as a hitter.”
Whitting, watching from his perch on the dugout steps, saw the events of the game from a different lens.
“I thought one of the biggest plays of the game were the last two runs we scored when Kyle Survance got down the line,” Whitting said. “I tell the team all time that if you play hard and you play fast, you force the other team to make mistakes. That was a big blow for them.”
Rice is a pretty solid team making this an encouraging win.