University of Houston Athletics
Cougars Claim 12-2 Win Over Charlotte
4/20/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
HOUSTON, Texas - The University of Houston baseball team had a big night from three freshmen to claim a 12-2 Conference USA win over Charlotte Friday night at Cougar Field.
Freshman third baseman Hyung Cho went 4-for-6 with 6 RBI and a stolen base while centerfielder Michael Bourn was 3-for-4 with a walk, a steal and four runs scored. Combined with a solid pitching performance from right-handed pitcher Brad Sullivan, UH (now 22-21 overall and 13-3 in C-USA) maintained its two-game lead over Tulane in the league standings.
The Cougars jumped out to an early 5-0 lead after the first two innings. In the bottom of the first, Bourn led off with a walk, stole second and scored on a one-out single by Cho. After Cho advanced all the way to third on a Charlotte fielding error, he then successfully stole home on a delayed double steal to make the score 2-0.
In the second, freshman Sam Mitchell opened the inning with a walk and stole both second and third base. He then scored on a single by Bourn and two batters later Cho slugged a two-out double to right-centerfield that scored two more.
Charlotte chipped away for runs in both the third and sixth innings to make the score 5-2. In the third George Sandel singled, advanced to second base on a balk and scored on a single by Brad Erwin. In the sixth Brad Sullivan hit Eric Shanks to lead off the inning. Shanks then stole second base and advanced to the next two stations on consecutive ground outs to the shortstop.
The balk and hit batter helped lead to 49er runs, but with three double plays backing him up Sullivan managed to hold Charlotte in check for 7.0 innings. He scattered seven hits, walked three and struck out five to earn his team-leading fourth win of the season.
The contest was still close at 5-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh, but the Cougars exploded for five runs in that inning and added two more in the eighth to give UH its first game with a dozen runs since February 21. The big blows were a 2 RBI single by Cho and 2-run home run by Josh Snook. Sam Mitchell also hit a homer in the eighth while Cho capped off his stellar night with a final RBI single to make it 12-2.
The 49ers fell to 16-21 on the year and 6-10 in league play. The teams will play game two of the three-game weekend series Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
Other Conference USA Scores...
South Florida 5, Louisville 2
Tulane 6, Southern Miss 4
Memphis 2, UAB 1
Charlotte 2 (17-20, 6-9 C-USA) Houston 12 (22-21, 13-3 C-USA)
AB R H RBI AB R H RBI
Bowman cf 5 0 2 0 Bourn cf 4 4 3 1
Sandel 2b 5 1 2 0 Lucas lf 5 1 1 0
Lamm ss 4 0 1 0 Cho 3b 5 2 4 6
Erwin 1b 3 0 1 1 Snyder c 5 0 0 0
Bowker lf 2 0 1 0 Bertillon c 0 0 0 0
Shanks 3b 3 1 0 0 Snook dh 4 1 1 2
Taylor rf 4 0 1 0 Papavasiliou 1b 4 0 0 0
Brake c 4 0 0 1 S.Mitchell rf 3 2 1 1
Nalls c 0 0 0 0 Allen 2b 4 0 0 0
Blackmon dh 2 0 1 0 Ahrens ss 2 2 0 0
Butts dh 1 0 0 0 Sullivan p 0 0 0 0
Maine p 0 0 0 0 Torina p 0 0 0 0
Hamby p 0 0 0 0
Totals...... 33 2 9 2 Totals...... 36 12 10 10
Score by innings: R H E
----------------------------------------------
Charlotte 001 001 000 - 2 9 3
Houston 230 000 52 - 12 10 1
----------------------------------------------
E - Lamm; Bowker; Hamby; Cho. DP - Houston 3. LOB - Charlotte 9; Houston 4.
2B - Bourn; Cho. HR - Snook(7); S.Mitchell(4). SB - Bowker; Shanks; Taylor;
Bourn; Cho; S.Mitchell 2.
IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF Fly Gnd
Maine L 8-5 6.1 4 7 6 3 8 0 0 1 0 24 28 6 5
Hamby 1.2 6 5 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 12 12 2 2
Sullivan W 4-5 7.0 7 2 2 3 5 0 1 2 0 25 30 1 11
Torina 2.0 2 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 8 8 1 1
HBP - by Sullivan (Blackmon); by Sullivan (Shanks); by Maine (Ahrens). BK -
Sullivan.
Strikeouts - Bowman; Sandel; Lamm; Erwin; Shanks 2; Brake; Blackmon; Butts;
Bourn; Cho; Snyder; Snook 2; Papavasiliou; S.Mitchell; Allen 2. Walks -
Erwin; Bowker 2; Bourn; S.Mitchell; Ahrens.
Umpires - Home: David Rogers 1st: John Ausmus 3rd: Scott Johnston
Start: 7:05 PM Time: 2:32 Attendance: 421
Game Notes:
First of three-game Conference USA series
