Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Wallace Guides Baseball to 14-7 Win over UTSA

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS (April 1, 2009) The University of Houston baseball team won their third-straight game Wednesday night, defeating UTSA 14-7 at Roadrunner Field. Chris Wallace guided the Cougars to the win hitting two home runs with six RBIs in his first action since sustaining an injury against on March 1 at the Houston College Classic.

Wallace's two home runs mark the second time this season that he has hit two home runs in a single game. Incidentally, the last time he hit two home runs in a game was against UC Irvine on Feb. 28, his last full game before missing 18 games for injury. He also set a career-high with his six RBIs.

With the two home runs, Wallace now has a team-high four home runs.

The Cougars put together five runs in the first inning. Zak Presley scored the Cougars first run of the game on a single to left field by Caleb Ramsey after reaching base on an error by the Roadrunners second baseman. William Kankel followed that up with a single to right center plating Chase Dempsay who singled to right field.

Wallace would hit his first home run of night, a three-run bomb over the center field fence to give Houston the 5-0 lead.

After holding UTSA scoreless the first two innings, Houston gave up four runs on four hits in the third inning to allow the Roadrunners to pull within one run, 5-4.

But the Cougars would pull away once more taking a 6-4 lead in their next at bat. Zak Presley scored his second run of the night on a wild pitch by UTSA pitcher Andy Benedict after singling up the middle to reach base.

Houston had another strong inning in the fifth, posting three runs to take a 9-4 lead. Wallace led off with a single up the middle and advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved to third on a single from David Murphy. Wallace would go on to score on a Taylor White double. With two outs, a Presley single scored two more Cougar runs, plating Murphy and White to extend their lead.

UH followed up a strong fifth inning by scoring two runs in the top of the sixth off a two-run home run from Wallace, scoring Ramsey who led off with a single to third base.

UTSA added one more run to their total in the seventh inning, while scoring two runs in the eighth.

With the lead at four, 11-7, Ty Stuckey led off with a walk in the ninth and scored on a triple to right center from Blake Kelso and he would score in the next at bat off a single through the middle by Dempsay. Ramsey advanced Dempsay to third on a ground out to second base and scored on a double from Wallace to give Houston their final run total.

On the night the Cougars recorded 18 hits for their 11th double-digit game this season. The Cougar pitchers also combined for 12 strikeouts, the third consecutive game that Houston's pitchers have struck out at least 10 batters.

LOOKING AHEAD
Houston will return to Cougar Field for a three-game series against UT Pan Am this weekend. The first game of the series is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. start on Friday and Saturday and will conclude at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

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