Texas baseball falls 4-3 to Houston

HOUSTON – Chase Wellbrock threw 3 2/3 scoreless innings in relief as the Houston Cougars won their sixth-straight game with a 4-3 win over the Texas Longhorns in non-conference action at Cougar Field. The Cougars (17-4) held off a Longhorn rally in the sixth after UH built a 4-0 lead.

Freshman catcher Jeremy Montalbano (Katy, Texas) went 2-for-4 with two RBI for the Longhorns (12-8) while freshman left fielder Ben Johnson was 2-for-4 at the plate. Toller Boardman, Ty Marlow and Ty Culbreth combined to throw 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief for the Longhorns.

Aaron Garza (3-1) earned the win for Houston with 5 1/3 innings, giving up three runs (all unearned) on six hits with two walks and six strikeouts. Chad Hollingsworth (3-1) suffered his first collegiate loss for the Longhorns with 1 2/3 innings, giving up three runs on four hits with two strikeouts.

Jacob Campbell singled to left with one out in the second, followed by Frankie Ratcliff’s double to right. Survance then hit a hard grounder off Madison Carter’s glove as the two-run single gave Houston a 2-0 lead. After stealing second and third base, Survance then scored on Josh Vidales’ single to cap the three-run second inning for the Cougars.

Kyle Kirk led off the bottom of the fifth with a single off Travis Duke. With two outs, Duke walked three straight batters to force in a run and make it a 4-0 Cougar lead.

The Longhorns got on the scoreboard in the sixth. Ben Johnson reached on a fielding error by Vidales as Mark Payton and C.J Hinojosa drew walks to load the bases. Matt Moynihan lifted a sacrifice fly to left, plating Johnson. Madison Carter walked to load the bases one more time as Jeremy Montalbano hit a two-run single, cutting the Houston lead to one, 4-3.

Erich Weiss reached on a three-base fielding error with two outs in the seventh, but was thrown out at the plate as Payton laid down the bunt down the third base line with Kirk making the throw as Caleb Barker applied the tag. Wellbrock finished by throwing two perfect innings to close out the win for the Cougars.

Texas travels to Minnesota for a three-game series this weekend. Friday’s game starts at 6:35 p.m. with a 2:05 p.m. start on Saturday and 1:05 p.m. start on Sunday.