University of Houston
11-10, 0
UCF
15-9, 0
Baseball Evens Series with 7-3 Win Over UCF
3/27/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 27, 2010
HOUSTON - The University of Houston baseball pitching staff struck out 14 batters, guiding the Cougars to a 7-3 win over UCF on Friday night at Cougar Field. The win evens the three-game series 1-1 with the finale slated for Sunday at 1 p.m.
William Kankel went a career-long 6.2 innings in his third start this season. He earned the win surrendering just three runs with a career-high seven strikeouts. Mo Wiley and Matt Creel went the final 2.1 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts.
"William did a great job pitching himself out of the jam and weaseled out of a lot of situations but he hung in there and pitched tough when he needed to," head coach Rayner Noble said. "He did a great job for us."
Both teams played a scoreless game until UCF plated a run in the top of third inning. Ryan Breen scored on Chris Duffy's single up the middle after reaching base on a walk. The Golden Knights wouldn't hold the lead long, as Travis Trial quickly evened the score, hitting the first home run of his career to right field to open the home half of the inning. Blake Kelso continued the momentum with a triple to left center and Austin Gracey hit the second home run of the inning to left field, pushing the Cougar lead, 3-1. The long ball was the first of his UH career.
Houston added a fourth run in the fourth inning after Zak Presley led off the inning with a triple before scoring on a Chris Wallace ground out to third base.
UCF pulled within one, 4-3, to start the fifth inning but Houston ended the comeback attempt with three runs in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Joel Ansley reached base on an error by the UCF shortstop. M.P. Cokinos reached on a walk and Codey Morehouse scored the three runs on his home run to left field, his second of the year.
Of the Cougars' 12 hits, seven of those were extra base hits, including three home runs.
Houston also improves to 11-10 on the year and 1-1 in Conference USA action.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Kankel, William (1-1)
L: Johnny Sedlock (1-2)
Batting:
3B: Darnell Sweeney 1
RBI: Shane Brown 1 ; Chris Duffy 1 ; Darnell Sweeney 1
SF: Shane Brown 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Ryan Breen 1 ; Austin Johnston 1 ; Darnell Sweeney 1
SB: Ryan Breen 1
CS: Ronnie Richardson 1
HBP: Beau Taylor 1 ; Ronnie Richardson 1
Batting:
2B: Cokinos, M.P. 1
3B: Kelso, Blake 1 ; Presley, Zak 1 ; Trial, Travis 1
HR: Gracey, Austin 1 ; Morehouse, Codey 1 ; Trial, Travis 1
RBI: Gracey, Austin 2 ; Morehouse, Codey 3 ; Wallace, Chris 1 ; Trial, Travis 1
SH: Kelso, Blake 1 ; Trial, Travis 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kelso, Blake 1 ; Gracey, Austin 1 ; Ansley, Joel 1 ; Cokinos, M.P. 1 ; Morehouse, Codey 1 ; Presley, Zak 1 ; Trial, Travis 1
SB: Gracey, Austin 1 ; Ansley, Joel 1
CS: Gracey, Austin 1
PO: Presley, Zak 1
