University of Houston
<b>RICE</b>
Baseball Drops Silver Glove Series Finale to No. 5 Rice
4/15/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 15, 2007
Houston-Rice Boxscore (APril 15, 2007) in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
HOUSTON - No. 5 Rice rapped out 16 hits on the way to an 11-6 win over the University of Houston baseball team Sunday during the finale of the 2007 Silver Glove Series at Cougar Field.
After the Cougars grabbed a 2-1 lead in the second inning on Ryan Lormand's two-run, two-out single to center field, the Owls grabbed the lead for good with four runs in the fourth inning and never looked back. UH pulled to within 6-5 after six innings, but the Owls answered by scoring five runs in the next two innings to win the regular-season series.
Dustin Kingsbury went 2-for-4 with a run and RBI, while senior first baseman Josh Stirneman batted 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs. Freshman outfielder Zak Presley batted 2-for-4 with a run, and sophomore outfielder Jimmy Cesario went 1-for-5 with a run, double and RBI to extend his career- and UH-season-best hitting streak to 13 games.
Jess Buenger went 4-for-5 with two doubles, two runs and two RBIs to pace a Rice offense that outhit the Cougars 16-11 and recorded 10 extra-base hits. Tyler Henley went 2-for-5 with two runs, a homer and two RBIs, while Jared Gayhart finished the day 2-for-5 with a run, two doubles and an RBI.
Travis Reagan batted 2-for-4 with a run, triple and RBI, and Diego Seastrunk went 2-for-4 with two runs, a double and three RBIs.
UH starter Luis Flores, making his first appearance since March 11 against Princeton, picked up the loss and fell to 1-1 after giving up four runs off four hits with a strikeout in 3.1 innings.
Rice reliever Scott Lonergan collected the win and improved to 4-0 after holding the Cougars hitless with a pair of strikeouts in 1.2 innings.
Kingsbury, Cesario, Presley, Lormand and pitchers Aaron Brown and Chris Wright were named to the 2007 Silver Glove All-Series Team. Rice pitcher Ryne Tacker was honored as the Series' Most Outstanding Player.
With the loss, the Cougars fell to 19-16 overall, 6-3 in C-USA games. Rice improved to 29-11 overall and 10-2 in C-USA games.
The Cougars return to action at 7 p.m., Tuesday, when they begin a nine-game road swing, starting against Texas A&M at Olsen Field. Fans can hear Cougar Baseball games live on UHCougars.com with former Cougar letterwinners Nick Torina and Pat Cauley calling all the action. Fans can follow live stats by clicking on the "Gametracker" link on the front page of UHCougars.com or on the Schedule and Results page off the Baseball main page.
Fans always can follow live stats by clicking on the "Gametracker" link on the front page of UHCougars.com or on the "Schedule and Results" page off the Baseball main page.
Rice grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the first inning when Tyler Henley led off with a home run to right field.
In the second inning, the Cougars grabbed their first lead, thanks to a two out rally. Presley and Bryan Pounds started the rally with back-to-back singles, and Chris Wallace drew a walk to load the bases. Lormand then slapped a single into center field to plate Presley and Pounds and hand the Cougars a 2-1 advantage.
The Owls regained the lead for good in the fourth inning with four runs, thanks to Seastrunk's two-run double down the right-field line, Danny Lehmann's sacrifice fly to left field and Henley's RBI-double.
In the sixth inning, Travis Reagan gave the Owls a 6-2 lead after a solo home run to left field.
The Cougars pulled to within a run in the bottom of the frame, though, off three this. Lormand reached on a fielder's choice with one out and moved to scoring position following a wild pitch. After a Chris Joseph single put runners on the corners, Cesario smashed a double of the wall in right-field to plate Lormand. Kingsbury then grounded out to short but not before Joseph raced in from third base. Stirneman followed with an RBI-single up the middle to plate Cesario for the final run of the inning.
The Owls iced the game with three runs in the seventh inning on Buenger's RBI-double, an RBI-single from Diego Seastrunk and Lehmann's RBI-triple.
Rice added two more run in the eighth inning on Gayhart's RBI-double and Buenger's RBI-single.
The Cougars clawed to within 11-6 in the bottom of the frame on Stirneman's RBI-single to left center, but that would be as close as UH would get.
2007 SILVER GLOVE ALL-SERIES TEAM
P - Aaron Brown, Houston; P - Ryan Berry, Rice; P - Chris Wright, Houston; C - Travis Reagan, Rice; 1B - Joe Savery, Rice; 2B - Jess Buenger, Rice; 3B - Dustin Kingsbury, Houston; SS - Brian Friday, Rice; OF - Jimmy Cesario, Houston; OF - Tyler Henley, Rice; OF - Jared Gayhart, Rice; OF - Zak Presley, Houston; Wild Card - Ryan Lormand, Houston; Most Outstanding Player - Ryne Tacker, Rice.
