University of Houston Athletics
University of Houston
Louisville
Cougars Defeat Louisville 8-2
4/28/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 27, 2001
Louisville, KY -- On the strength of two four-run innings, the University of Houston baseball team coasted to an 8-2 Conference USA win over Louisville Friday night in Kentucky. With the victory the UH improved to 25-21 overall and maintained its lead in the league standings with a 16-3 C-USA record.
Louisville jumped out to a 1-0 lead off Cougar starter Brad Sullivan with three consecutive singles to start the bottom of the first inning. The first of three Houston double plays however got Sullivan out of the jam and the freshman right-hander from Nederland settled down and allowed only three more hits over the next six innings. He struck out six to earn his fifth win of the season.
Two big innings gave Sullivan the offensive support he needed. In the top of the third Houston's first three batters loaded the bases on a double by Chris Klosterman and consecutive walks by Sean Allen and Keith Ahrens. Klosterman scored on a wild pitch to tie the game 1-1 while both runners advanced to second and third. Gable Lucas then cleared the bases with a double down the right-field line to give UH lead it would not relinquish. One batter later Lucas scored on a two-out RBI single by Chris Snyder.
In the top of the fifth Houston broke the game wide open with four more runs on two hits and two Cardinal fielding errors. Ahrens and Michael Bourn led off with walks and Gabe Lucas' sacrifice bunt attempt was mishandled by the UL third baseman, allowing one run to score and runners on second and third. The next batter, Hyung Cho, singled to score both Bourn and Lucas and give UH a 7-1 advantage. Yet another Cardinal fielding error gave Houston hitter Josh Snook extended life and after advancing to second base on a wild pitch, Snook scored on a single by Sam Mitchell.
Louisville shortstop Adam Haley connected for a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh to make the score 8-2. Houston reliever Nick Torina entered the game in the eighth and worked two scoreless innings to close the game. The Cardinals fell to 25-23 on the year and 8-11 in league play. The teams will play game two of the three-game weekend series Saturday at 1:00 p.m. (Eastern time).
Conference USA Baseball LinescoreHouston 004 040 000 -- 8 9 1Charlotte 100 000 100 -- 2 7 3
Brad Sullivan, Nick Torina (8) and Chris Snyder. Mike Eilers, CarlosFernandez (3) and Fernando Isa, WP- Sullivan (5-5). LP - Eilers (4-2). Save-none. 2B- UH: Lucas, Klosterman, Ahrens, UL: none. 3B- none. HR- UH: none,UL: Haley (1). Time- 2:22. Att- 127. Team Records- Houston 25-21, 16-3,Louisville 25-23, 8-11.
