Houston baseball played the South Florida Bulls at Schroeder Park and won their third consecutive series, taking two out of three to improve to 20-16 on the season.
Game 1
In the 1st game of the series on Friday night, the Cougars held on and beat the Bulls 6-5.
Down 3-0 early, Houston responded by tying up the game in the second inning, thanks to an RBI triple by junior utility man Justin Murray, and RBI singles from sophomore second baseman Brandon Burkel and senior shortstop Ian McMillan.
The Cougars quickly took the lead in the next inning by scoring two runs to make it 6-4. Murray came up huge with a two-RBI double and sophomore left fielder Cameron Nickins added an RBI single to drive in Murray.
Junior relief pitcher Owen Woodward ended up getting the win and improving to 3-0 on the season, pitching five innings of one-run ball with 4 strikeouts and no walks.
Murray also ended up with his 5th save of the season, finishing a monster night with 3 RBIs, 3 hits, and 1 strikeout.
Game 2
Houston ended up winning their third straight conference series on Saturday in an offensive explosion 16-10 with four different players hitting one out of the park. This was the fourth straight game with 10+ hits for UH.
The Cougars broke the game open by scoring ten runs within the first three innings.
Junior utility man Alex Lopez got the hitting party started with a two-run homer to right field in the first.
Sophomore two-way player Malachi Lott had a two-rbi single in the second inning followed by a huge three-run homer to center field by junior third baseman Zach Arnold.
Senior centerfielder Drew Bianco had an RBI single, and Arnold had another RBI in the third inning.
Houston continued to pile on runs with Lott hitting the second home run to center field of the night in the fifth inning.
Junior catcher Anthony Tulimero added three more runs to the total via an RBI single in the seventh and a two-run homer to left field in the eighth inning.
South Florida added seven runs in the last three innings, but it was too late.
Sophomore reliever Dan Wright ended up with his first win of the season, pitching two shutout innings.
Game 3
The Cougars dropped the final game of the series on Sunday afternoon 13-2.
South Florida got out to an 8-0 lead at the end of five innings thanks to two early two-run homers to center field by Boser and Monque.
The Bulls hit three homers total on the day and added four additional runs in the last two innings.
Sophomore starting pitcher Cade Citelli took the loss for Houston, giving up four earned runs, two walks and two strikeouts in 3.2 innings.
Up next, the Cougars will play HCU on Tuesday at home.