Tulane University
Houston
Missed Opportunities, Miscues Cost Baseball At Houston
Mar 23, 2002 | Baseball
March 23, 2002
HOUSTON, Texas - Missed opportunities and defensive lapses spelled doom for the Green Wave as the Tulane University baseball team dropped an 11-1 Conference USA contest to Houston Saturday evening at Cougar Field.
The Green Wave committed four errors, had two baserunners get picked off at first and left six runners on base as Tulane falls to 13-11 on the year and 1-4 in league action. Houston, meanwhile, improves to 17-7 overall and 4-1 in C-USA play.
Centerfielder Jon Kaplan, second baseman Turner Brumby and outfielder Gerald Clark each had two hits, and Michael Aubrey struck out three in seven solid innings on the mound. But the Green Wave made too many mistakes and let too many scoring opportunities slip through their fingers.
Houston got on the board first with a two-out rally in the second when Brett Cooley walked, Daron Bertillion hit a single to right and Michael Bourn laced a shot back up the middle that hit Aubrey in the leg to plate Cooley. Gabe Lucas kept the Cougar rally going in the next at-bat with a single to right that plated Bertillion from second.
The Green Wave had a chance to get some of it back in the top of the third as Tommy Manzella reached on an error before Jon Kaplan and Turner Brumby hit back-to-back singles to load the bases with one out. James Jurries laced a shot down the left field line one batter later, but Cougar third baseman Hyung Cho made a great diving play to keep the ball in the infield, touched the bag and threw across to first to snuff out the threat.
After getting Cho to fly out to left to open the bottom of the third, disaster struck for the Green Wave as Jesse Crain and Stuart Musslewhite reached on back-to-back Green Wave errors before Chris Snyder banged a two-run double off the wall in center and Cooley smashed a towering home run to left center as Houston increased its lead to 6-0.
Tulane snapped a 22-inning scoring drought in the fifth when catcher Scott Madden hit a double to left center, advanced to third on a groundout by Shankle and scored on an RBI single by Kaplan. But the Cougars got the run back in the bottom of the frame when Crain hit a leadoff single, Musslewhite walked, the pair advanced a base on a wild pitch, and Snyder's can-of-corn poke to shallow left fell between three Green Wave players to make it 7-1.
The Green Wave had another chance to scratch some runs across in the eighth as Manzella and Brumby had singles to put two on with only one out. But Cho again made a great play on a hard shot off Jurries' bat and Musslewhite was in perfect position in a shot hit deep into the hole by Aubrey to end the inning without a runner scoring.
Then, just like in the third, Houston scored four runs and capitalized on a pair of Green Wave errors to close out the scoring.
The Green Wave closes out the Houston series on Sunday with a 1 p.m. showdown at Cougar Field.
