Baseball Sports

UH baseball stays hot over the weekend

Freshman third baseman Will Pendergrass hit his first two career collegiate homers in UH baseball's victory Saturday | Andy Yanez/The Cougar

Freshman third baseman Will Pendergrass hit his first two career collegiate homers in UH baseball’s victory Saturday. | Andy Yanez/The Cougar

Houston continued its strong start to the 2021 season, defeating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in two out of three games over the weekend at Whataburger Field to improve to 6-1 on the young season.

Here is a recap of how each game went down:

Game one

In a game that turned out to be a pitching duel, the Islanders struck first scoring two runs in the bottom of the third to grab a 2-0 lead.

UH picked up its first run of the game in the top of the sixth on an RBI-single to left field from senior outfielder Tyler Bielamowicz.

TAMU-CC added a run in the eighth, which proved to be the difference in the game. The Cougars scored one run in the top of the ninth but ultimately failed to complete the comeback, falling 3-2 for their first loss on the season.

Leo Perez earned the win for the Islanders while junior left-hander Robert Gasser took the loss for UH.

Game two

It seemed as if every ball the Cougars made contact with left the park as UH crushed a school-record eight home runs in a dominating 14-1 victory.

Junior outfielder Steven Rivas, the reigning American Athletic Conference Player of the Week, continued his tear at the plate, with his second multi-home run game of the week.

Rivas hit two bombs and drove in four on the night, bringing his season home run total to six in UH’s first six games.

True freshman third baseman Will Pendergrass also hit two homers in the contest, driving in three runs on the game.

Sophomore right-hander Ben Sear was extremely efficient on the mound. Sears needed only 60 pitches to throw seven innings of four hit, one run baseball to earn the win.

Game three

In another pitching duel, both teams were held scoreless through six innings.

TAMU-CC finally broke through in the bottom of the seventh, scoring two runs sparked by a UH error.

In the eighth, the teams traded solo home runs. Sophomore infielder Brad Burckel hit a shot to left field to get UH on the board followed by a Josh Caraway homer to left to give the Islanders a 3-1 lead heading into the ninth.

Bielamowicz started the Cougars rally, leading off the inning with a home run to left-center on the first pitch he saw.

A few batters later, freshman Dylan Post came to the plate with the bases loaded and no outs. Post hit a ground ball which the Islanders turned into a double play, but it allowed sophomore designated hitter Andrew Papantonis to score, tying the game at three and forcing extra innings.

With a runner on second to start the 10th, sophomore outfielder Brandon Uhse doubled down the left field line to give UH its first lead of the game.

This proved to be the winning run, as sophomore closer Derrick Cherry did his job and secured a 4-3 UH victory.

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