University of Houston
UCF
Baseball Eliminated at C-USA Tournament
5/24/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 24, 2007
Houston-UCF Boxscore (May 24, 2007) in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Freshman southpaw Wes Musick struck out five in a complete-game effort, but it was not enough as the University of Houston baseball team was eliminated from the 2007 Conference USA Tournament with a 1-0 loss to No. 8 seed UCF Thursday morning at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
The Lufkin native allowed only six hits and a walk in eight innings but was the victim of the Cougars' fourth shutout loss this season and ended the year with a 6-5 overall record.
The game was scoreless until the sixth inning when the Knights struck for a run. Matt Horwath reached on a leadoff single and moved into scoring position following Dwayne Bailey's sacrifice bunt. After Auer's infield single put runners at the corner, Kiko Vazquez grounded out to shortstop but not before Horwath raced in for a 1-0 UCF lead.
While that proved to be enough for the Knights, the Cougars threatened to send the game into extra innings in the final frame. First baseman Josh Stirneman ripped a leadoff double to straight-away center. That would be as far as he would get, however, as UCF closer Justin Weiss came out of the bullpen to retire the final three batters of the ballgame to leave the potential-tying run 180 feet away from the pay station.
UCF outhit Houston, 6-5, but the Cougars stranded eight on base during the ballgame, including six in scoring position. In addition to Stirneman in the ninth, Houston stranded runners at second and third in the third inning, left the sacks full in the fifth and left a runner at third in the seventh.
Stirneman went 1-for-3 to finish his collegiate career on a 13-game hitting streak, the second longest by any Cougar slugger in 2007.
Tyson Auer went 2-for-3 with a pair of infield singles, while Eric Kallstrom batted 2-for-3 in the winning effort.
With the loss, the Cougars ended their season with a 28-28 overall record. UCF improved to 27-31 and will meet the loser of the Rice-Memphis game at 2 p.m. (CDT), Friday.
