The nation’s home run leaders’ bats went quiet Tuesday night as Houston fell 2-0 to Lamar at Vincent-Beck Stadium.
The Cougars threatened to strike early as juniors left fielder Steven Rivas and first baseman Ryan Hernandez hit back-to-back singles with two outs in the top of the first, but UH was unable to come out of the inning with anything.
In the top of the fourth inning, Rivas, who entered the evening with the second-most home runs in the country with six, suffered an apparent leg injury when stretching out to first base on a bunt single. Rivas stayed in the game but was later pulled in the fifth.
Sophomore left-hander Cameron Prayer was the story of the night for UH. Prayer came out the Cougar bullpen and threw 4 and 2/3 innings of shutout baseball, striking out seven.
Prayer was relieved by sophomore right-hander Jaycob Deese with two outs and no one on base in the bottom of the eighth. That is when Lamar’s bats came alive. Four hits and an error later, Lamar was finally able to break the scoreless game, plating two runs.
The UH baseball team had a chance to tie the game in the ninth with a leadoff single, but the next three Cougars hitters were retired to give Lamar a 2-0 victory.
Sophomore Braxton Douthit earned the win for Lamar while Deese took the loss for UH.