UH baseball third baseman Zach Arnold drove in four runs, including hitting his first home run of the season, in game one of Sunday’s doubleheader against UTRGV. | James Mueller/The Cougar
UH baseball improved to 4-3 early in the season, sweeping UTRGV in Sunday’s doubleheader at Schroeder Park.
The two games were on complete opposite ends of the spectrum, with the first being an offensive explosion by both teams and the second being a good old-fashioned pitchers’ duel.
Here’s a closer look at each game:
Game one
Offense was not lacking in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader, as UH and UTRGV combined for 26 runs on 33 hits.
The Vaqueros chased UH starting pitcher Nathan Medrano out of the game after two innings, putting up a pair of runs in both the first and second highlighted by two home runs.
Down 4-0, the Cougars responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the second after drawing back-to-back walks with the bases loaded followed by a hit by pitch.
Junior shortstop Ian McMillan evened the game in the next inning with an RBI single.
UTRGV responded by putting up three runs in the fourth and two more runs in the sixth to go up 9-4.
Once again, UH responded in a big way as the Cougars brought home 12 runs over the next three innings.
Sophomore third baseman Zach Arnold sparked the comeback with a 2-run homer to right in the bottom of the sixth.
In the bottom of the seventh, freshman right fielder Malachi Lott drove in two runs on a triple to right-center field. Junior left fielder Brandon Uhse followed with an RBI double before Arnold and senior first baseman Ryan Hernandez both singled to plate two more runs.
UH added five more runs on six hits in the eighth before junior right-handed pitcher Derrick Cherry shut the door, earning the save and securing a 16-10 win.
Junior reliever Maddux Miller earned the win, throwing 1 and 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball out of the bullpen.
Game two
While game one featured plenty of offense on both sides, hits came at a premium in Sunday’s second game.
UH junior right-handed pitcher Logan Clayton and UTRGV’s JC Ariza went back-and-fourth, throwing scoreless inning after scoreless inning.
Ariza tossed six innings of one-run baseball, allowing just two hits. Clayton one-upped Ariza, throwing seven innings allowing one run on two hits and striking out five.
Tied at 1-1 entering the bottom of the eighth, the Cougars’ offense broke through.
With the bases loaded, sophomore Alex Lopez pinch hit and came up in a big way, singling to center to drive in the go-ahead run.
Sophomore center fielder Samuel Tormos followed with an RBI single of his own to put the Cougars up 3-1.
Junior right-hander Ben Sears, who entered the game in the eighth, came back out for the ninth and got the job done to give UH a sweep of UTRGV. Sears tossed two scoreless innings to earn the win.
