Houston continued its winning ways of late by defeating Southern 16-7 at Schroeder Park on Wednesday night.
With two outs in the bottom of the third inning, Alex Lopez singled to reach base and ended up on third base after an errant throw to first by the pitcher on a pickoff attempt . . . Cameron Nickens (3-for-6) followed with his second two-run home run in the two days to tie the game at two.
Still tied in the bottom of the fourth inning, the Cougars bats came alive . . . Justin Murray led off the frame with a home run to left field to give Houston its first lead of the night . . . One out later, Drew Bianco homered to straight away center field just to the left of the batter’s eye, a two-run shot and the Cougars led 6-2.
RBI singles by Lopez and Anthony Tulimero added to the Houston seven running and Houston led 9-2 going to the fifth inning.
Kyle Ayers made the midweek start for Houston . . . Ayers struggled in the first inning but was throwing hard and stayed in through four innings, striking out nine batters along the way.
A six-run seventh inning padded the Houston lead 16-5.
Despite some mound troubles, Houston closed out the Jaguars by a 16-7 final score, the fifth consecutive win for the Cougars . . . Tommy Egan and Braden Forsyth contributed scoreless frames in the Wednesday victory with Forsyth claiming the win after his solid outing.
Houston has a day off before a weekend series opens at Schroeder Park on Friday . . . The possible weather problems this weekend have altered the Friday first pitch, which is now scheduled for 3pm . . . The Cougars will face UT Arlington on Friday and Sunday, and Northwestern on Saturday night.
Houston Cougars Baseball Beat 