University of Houston
<b>$ RICE</b>
Pounds Powers Baseball Past No. 12 Rice 8-5
3/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 26, 2008
HOUSTON - Senior Bryan Pounds blasted two home runs to lead the University of Houston baseball team to an 8-5 win over Conference USA-rival No. 12 Rice in game two of the 2008 Silver Glove Series, Wednesday in front of 1,524 fans at Cougar Field.
Pounds followed his two-run shot in the first inning by belting his first career grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Cougars their first lead of the game at 7-4.
Rice would add a run in the eighth to cut the deficit to 7-5, but would get no closer as Houston rolled on to victory.
Pounds finished the night 4-for-5 at the plate, driving in a career-high seven RBI and tallying 11 total bases. The Houston native homered twice in a game for the second time this season, pulling the feat against Texas on March 8 in the Houston College Classic.
Houston (16-7) won its third straight and has notched victories in 12 of its past 15 games. The Cougars also evened the Silver Glove Series at 1-1 with only a three-game C-USA series at Reckling Park on May 9-11 remaining to decide this year's winner.
Freshman Ty Stuckey notched his first save of the season, sending the Owls down in the ninth to close out the game for Houston.
Freshman Chase Dempsay picked up his third win of the season, tossing 2.2 innings of relief. He allowed one run and fanned three after replacing freshman starter Jared Ray in the sixth inning.
Rice (18-7) saw its 10-game winning streak come to a halt, as the Owls lost for the first time since March 11. Reliever Bryan Price earned the loss, tossing one inning and allowing four earned runs.
The Cougars return to action this weekend when they open a three-game, weekend series at San Diego State. The series is scheduled to open at 8 p.m. (CDT) Friday.
Fans can hear Cougar Baseball games live at UHCougars.com by clicking the appropriate links. Jeremy Branham will call the play-by-play action while former letterwinner Pat Cauley provides color analysis. Fans always can follow live stats by clicking on the Gametracker link. Rice plated three runs in the first off a pair of singles, a wild pitch and a balk. Jess Buenger and Jared Gayhart had back-to-back singles and both advanced a base on a wild pitch. Diego Seastrunk lined out the center field to score the first run, Aaron Luna singled to score the next run and later scored after a balk.
Pounds ripped his fifth home run of the season off the awards board in left center field, scoring Kelso and moving the score to 3-2. On the next play, Jimmy Cesario belted a hit down the left field line and was thrown out at second while trying to leg out the double. He injured his wrist on the slide and left the game. His status is day-to-day.
Houston tied things up in the fifth after Pounds sent a double down the left field line, scoring Stewart from first.
Rice retook the lead in the top of the sixth, plating a run on Jess Buenger's RBI-single up the middle.
Following Pounds' grand slam in the seventh, Rice scored a single run in the top of the eighth on Jared Gayheart's RBI-single.
Houston increased its lead to 8-5 in the bottom of the eighth, scoring a run on back-to-back doubles from Kelso and Stewart.
