An orange moon slowly rose beyond the right field wall and up into the night as Houston dropped their opener with Columbia 9-5 on Friday night.
A Columbia lead off home run in the third was followed later in the inning with a three-run home run and the Lions led 4-0 . . . An inning later a lead off triple was followed by a sacrifice fly that pushed the lead to 5-0.
Trailing 9-0 in the sixth, the Cougars offense got started with three straight hits . . . Zach Arnold (2-for-4) drove in the first run and another run came home on an Anthony Tulimero sacrifice fly to right field . . . Cameron Nickens then pinch hit and hit the first pitch he saw into deep right-center to make the score 9-3 . . . Samuel Tormos followed with a pinch hit single of his own into left field two drive in two more in the five-run inning.
Two Lions walked to open the seventh inning and Houston went to the bullpen for right-hander Derrick Cherry . . . Cherry struck out the first two batters he faced before a ground out to short ended the frame and prevented further damage.
Cherry took the game the rest of the way and kept the Lions from adding to their lead while the Cougars offense was silent over the final three innings as they fell 9-5 . . . Brandon Uhse extended his hit streak to fourteen straight games in the loss . . . Only three Cougars registered multiple base bits in the game.
The Cougars and the Lions will face off again on Saturday evening at 6:3pm at Schroeder Park . . . Nathan Medrano will take the mound for the Cougars . . . And a reminder in case you had not heard, Sunday’s game at Schroeder Park has been moved up one hour and the first pitch will take place at 12 noon.
Houston Cougars Baseball Beat 