April 4, 2008

Final Stats

Complete Houston-UCF Game Book (April 4, 2008) in PDF Format

HOUSTON - University of Houston sophomore southpaw Wes Musick struck out a season-high eight batters in 6.2 innings to lead the University of Houston baseball team to a 5-3 win over No. 25 UCF on Friday at Cougar Field.

The Lufkin native did allowed only three hits through the first five shutout innings and recorded at least one punchout in each of the first six innings. With the win, he improved to 6-1, equaling his win total from the entire 2007 campaign.

Meanwhile, the Cougar offense handed Musick an early advantage with two runs off three hits in the first inning and never looked back. Senior second baseman Ryan Lormand went 3-for-4 with a run, while freshman utility player Matt Murphy went 2-for-4 with a triple that led to the Cougars' first two runs.

Freshman shortstop Blake Kelso batted 1-for-4 with a run, double and RBI, extending his hitting streak to a career-best nine straight games. It also marked the third straight game that the Pflugerville native recorded a double and an RBI.

Freshman righthander Chase Dempsay allowed a run off three hits with a strikeout in the ninth inning but collected his team-leading fourth save.

UCF starter Kyle Sweat collected the loss and fell to 3-2 after giving up five runs (three earned) off nine hits and a walk with four strikeouts in seven innings.

Catcher Robert Lara went 3-for-4 with an RBI to lead the Knights, who finished with 10 hits. Outfielder Tyson Auer batted 2-for-4 with a run and RBI in the losing effort.

With the win, the Cougars improved to 17-10 overall and 3-1 in C-USA games. The Cougars also enjoyed their 12th win at the friendly confines of Cougar Field, topping their home win total from all of 2007.

The series continues at 6:30 p.m., Saturday before wrapping up at 1 p.m., Sunday. 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.

The Cougars struck for the game's first runs with two in the first inning. Bryan Pounds led off with a single to left center and moved to second following Lormand's bunt single down the third-base line. Murphy then plated both runners with a triple down the right-field line.

The score remained that way until the fifth inning when the Cougars took advantage of a UCF infield miscue to score two unearned runs. Bryan Tully reached on a fielder's choice and moved up following the first of three Knight errors. Kelso then laced an RBI-double down the right-field line to plate Tully. Two batters later, Pounds lifted a high fly ball in the UCF infield that was misplayed, allowing both runners to score.

The Knights pulled to within 5-2 in the sixth inning on back-to-back RBI-singles from Auer and Lara.

In the ninth inning, UCF staged a rally with a single run on Colin Arnold's two-out RBI-single, but Dempsay retired Shane Brown to end the threat and the game.