May 2, 2008
Box Score
HOUSTON -
Houston 7, Memphis 4 
Memphis (16-29, 4-11 C-USA) 200 000 200 - 4 8 0
Houston (28-18, 9-7 C-USA) 121 000 030 - 7 11 0
Houston's Jimmy Cesario broke a 4-4 tie with a three-run blast in the bottom of the eighth to push the Cougars past Memphis 7-4 in the series opener at Cougar Field on Friday night.
With the game knotted at 4-4, Jake Stewart and Bryan Pounds knocked back-to-back base hits before Cesario's blast. The Cougars first baseman's third home run of the year sent Memphis down for the 16th straight time in regular season play at Houston. It was also the Tigers' 19th consecutive regular season loss in the city of Houston. They are 0-16 versus Houston and 0-3 against Rice.
Memphis struck the scoring column first on the strength of a two-run jack to leftfield by Trey Wiedman. Wiedman followed a walk by Bret Bowen with his team-leading sixth home run of the year to give the Tigers an early 2-0 advantage. The round-tripper was also Wiedman's first since March 18.
Just as the Tigers gained the first bit of momentum from the Wiedman blast, Houston's pulled got it back into the home dugout with a leadoff home run to left by Blake Kelso to make it a 2-1 ballgame.
The Cougars claimed their first lead of the game in the second inning. Ryan Lormand got things started with a single through the left side and Bryan Tully singled up the middle in the next at-bat. Zak Presley successfully executed a sacrifice bunt to push both Lormand and Tully into scoring position for Chris Wallace. Wallace banged a two-run single for the 3-2 UH lead.
Houston extended its cushion to 4-2 in the third on a solo shot to left centerfield by Jake Stewart. Stewart's blast was his 13th of the year.
While Houston got on the board for four runs, its starter Wes Musick held the Tigers scoreless from the second to sixth innings before Memphis's offense again came alive with a pair of runs. On as a reserve for Robby Graham, who was injured while running to first base early in the game, junior Chris Newsom ignited the inning with a solo shot to left that cut the Tiger deficit to 4-3. Newsom's first home run of the year and second of his career gave Memphis a big lift as Chris Kirkland worked a walk and Eric Farrell continued the rally with a single through the left side. K.K. Chalmers then drew a walk to load the sacks. Chad Zurcher came through with a critical at-bat lining a sac fly to center to bring Kirkland in for the 4-4 tie.
Hudgens settled into the contest and held Houston scoreless in his final three innings of work before handing the ball over to freshman reliever Marcus Barnes. Hudgens and Barnes hung zeros in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings before the three-run eighth. In his first career Friday night start, Hudgens fanned two and gave up four runs on seven hits. Barnes was tagged with the loss after allowing three runs on four hits in two innings.
Memphis continued to fight hard and even brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but UH closer Chase Dempsay was able to hold off the comeback bid to register his eighth save of the year.
UH reliever Chris Wright picked up the win in relief of Musick. Wright struck out two in an inning of work. Musick sat down eight Tigers on strikes and allowed four runs in a seven-inning start for Houston. Dempsay struggled in the ninth, but recovered to strike out two in the ninth.
The Memphis offense recorded eight hits and was led by Wiedman's 2-for-4, two-RBI night. Farrell also banged out two hits for the Tigers. Houston got two hits from Stewart, Cesario, Lormand and Tully to out hit Memphis 11-8 in the contest.
The loss was the fourth straight league setback for Memphis, but the Tigers hold its grip on the seventh-place spot in the C-USA standings thanks to losses by UCF and UAB.
The Tigers and Cougars will meet up for game two of the series on Saturday evening. First pitch at Cougar Field is slated for 6:30 p.m. Join "The Voice" of Tiger Baseball, Jeff Brightwell as he calls the live play-by-play action on WUMR 91.7FM. Pre-game begins at 6:15 p.m.
