Houston Topples Tigers in 8-5 Win

HOUSTON – Aided by 14 strikeouts from the Houston pitchers, the Cougars defeated Texas Southern 8-5 on Tuesday night at Schroeder Park.

An early explosive offense from Houston (3-5) was enough to move the Cougars to a 14-0 all time mark against the Tigers (7-3). Houston junior reliever Travis Phelps (1-0) earned his first win of the season working 2.0 innings with five strikeouts while sophomore pitcher Josh Ekness (0-0) came in for the final three innings of the game and tallied his first save of the year. Texas Southern's Domenic Martinez (0-1) was the pitcher of record for the Tigers and earned his first loss.

Player Highlights:

Zach Arnold: 2-3, 3 R, 1 RBI, 2B, HR, BB, HBP
Justin Murray: 2-5, 2 R, 1 RBI
Travis Phelps: W, 2.0 IP, 0 H, 1 ER, 5K
Josh Ekness: S, 3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 5K

Game Highlights:

Zach Arnold hit his first home run of the season on the first pitch of his first at bat against the Tigers.
Both Zach Arnold and Alex Lopez have successfully reached base in all eight games
In his first inning of work, Travis Phelps struck out the side, before tabbing two more strikeouts in the following inning to get out of a bases-loaded jam.
Josh Ekness threw 3.0 innings allowing only one run on two hits and striking out five of the twelve batters he faced.
The Cougars tallied 14 strikeouts on the night including five from both Travis Phelps and Josh Ekness
The Houston pitchers stranded 10 batters while also committing zero errors.

1^st | The Houston bats connected early as junior third baseman Zach Arnold knocked a 375-foot home run in the Cougars' second at bat of the night for a 1-0 advantage.

2^nd | Texas Southern answered back with two runs in the top of the second but left the bases loaded to end the inning. The bottom of the second inning produced five Houston runs on three hits, aided by two stolen bases and two Texas Southern errors. With two outs, five consecutive Houston batters reached base capped off by a deep Cameron Nickens two-run double to take a 6-2 lead.

4th | A Justin Murray single propelled the Cougars in the fourth which eventually yielded two more runs for Houston making the score 8-3.

After amassing an eight to three lead, Houston ultimately held off the Tigers after they added two runs in the fifth and ninth inning to make the final score 8-5.

UP NEXT
The Cougars make their second road trip of the season with a series match-up at UTRGV in Edinburg, Texas. The series begins on Friday with first the pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT.

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Players Mentioned

Zach Arnold

Josh Ekness

Alex Lopez

Justin Murray

Cameron Nickens

Travis Phelps