Sugar Land Skeeters Win First Game in Team History; 10-1 Over York Revolution

By Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2012 TexSport Publications

SUGAR LAND, TEXAS (April 27, 2012) Capitalizing on two errors while scoring five runs on three hits in the seventh inning, the Sugar Land Skeeters totally dominated the York Revolution by the score of 10-1 for their first win in franchise history.

The Skeeters sent nine batters to the plate in the seventh inning, giving relief pitcher Omar Javier fits and a 9.00 ERA for the single inning.

Sugar Land got on the scoreboard in the first inning when first baseman Josh Pressley connected on a 2-0 pitch from Corey Thurman to send the ball over the left field wall for a two-run homer.

The 32-year-old went 2-for-4 for the night, scoring two runs and two RBI.

Catcher Colt Morton also got into the home run action in the fourth inning by swinging on the first pitch from starter Ryan Feierabend to take the score to 3-0.

Then the seventh inning onslaught began when Deybis Benitez was walked and then advanced to second on a passed ball.

Bubba Bell got on base when York catcher Salvador Paniagua dropped Bell's third strike advancing Benitez to third.

Bell then stole second base with Benitez scoring on a Javier wild pitch.

Alex Cintron next came to the plate and hit a single; advancing Bell to third.

Pressley also got to first on an error by first baseman Chris Nowak, which moved Cintron to second and scores Bell.

Designated hitter Drew Locke drew a single; moving Pressley to second and scoring Cintron for the third run of the inning.

Jimmy Van Ostrand then connects for a double; sending Locke and Pressley home for the final two runs of the inning.

The Revolution scored its single run when Danny Gonzalez scored from second on a double by Travis Scott in the fifth inning.

The York bullpen took a pounding in the game; sending three relief pitchers to the mound after Feierabend pitched 4.2 innings while giving up five earned runs on eight hits.

Santo Luis and Omar Javier each pitched a single inning for the Revolution.

Right handed pitcher Ryan McKeller got the win for the Skeeters; pitching four innings; giving up a single hit and a single unearned run.

The Skeeters connected for four doubles, one triple and two homeruns while leaving only four runners on base.

The third game of the four-game series is set for Saturday evening with a 7:05 p.m. start in Sugar Land.

Top Seeds Fall at US Men's Clay Court Championships

By Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2012 TexSport Publications

HOUSTON, TEXAS (April 13, 2012) Thursday action at the 2012 US Clay Court Championship saw the number one seed fall while the number two, four and five seeds advance in second round singles action.

Unseeded Michael Russell shocked the crowd at River Oaks Country Club by downing nop teeded Mardy Fish 6-3, 6-1.

Number two seed John Isner had a bit tougher time in his match, having to go to three sets to defeat Horacio Zeballos 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2.

Juan Monaco, seeded number four easily downed Tatsuma Ito 6-3, 6-3 while number five seed Kevin Anderson took three sets to dispatch Sam Querrey 6-3 (3), 3-6, 7-6 (2).

In addition action, Ryan Harrison beat Igor Kunitsyn 6-2, 6-4 and Ryan Sweeting downed Bobby Reynolds 6-3, 6-2.

In doubles quarterfinal matches, the top four seeds fell leaving only unseeded teams advancing to the semi-finals.

The duo of James Blake and Sam Querrey downed the top seeded team of Alex Bogomolov and Scott Lipsky 6-3, 6-3 while Treat Conrad and Dominic Inglot beat the number two seeded team of Mark Knowles and Xavier Malisse 3-6, 6-4, 10-8.

The number three seeded duo Michale Kohlmann and Alexander Waske fell to the team of Ivo Karlovic and Frank Moser 7-5, 7-5.

In addition, number four seeded team of Johan Nrunstrom and Dick Norman lost to Bobby Reynolds and Michael Russell 6-3, 6-2.

Action will continue on Friday will an adjusted start time of 1 p.m.

On the stadium court, Juan Monaco will face Kevin Anderson in the first match with Michael Russell taking on Ryan Harrison at 3 p.m.

Beginning at 6 p.m. Horacio Zenallos or John Isner will play Ryan Sweeting followed by the Feliciano Lopez-Carlos Berlocq match.

In doubles action, Blake and Querrey will face off against Karlovic and Moser at 4:30 p.m. on court 3.

Huey and Inglot will play Reyonald and Russell in the second match.

Singles semifinals and doubles action is scheduled for Saturday with the singles final set for Sunday.

Live coverage of the tournament begins with Friday's night session on Tennis Channel. It continues will all the matches on Saturday and Sunday.

No. 10 Arkansas Leads First Day at All-American Intercollegiate

Houston sophomore Curtis Reed tied for seventh at 140 to lead Cougars


HOUSTON, TEXAS (April 10, 2012) University of Houston sophomore Curtis Reed posted a second-round 69 to tie his season low and help lead the Cougars to a fifth-place team showing after the first day at The Woodlands All-American Intercollegiate.


Reed, a native of Castroville, Texas, drained at least four birdies in each round, starting the day with back-to-back birdies. Posting a 69 in the second round of last week’s Insperity Augusta State Invitational, Reed finished with a sub-par score for the third time in his last four rounds.


“Curtis got off to a great start and had a great finish to his first round,” third-year head coach Jonathan Dismuke said. “When Curtis gets comfortable, he has a lot of ability and a lot of game. I am happy to see him at the top of the leaderboard.”


Playing on the Tournament Course at The Woodlands Country Club, the Cougars overcame a slow start in the morning round to post a team score of 289. From there, the team added a 3-under-par 285 in the afternoon session to finish the first 36 holes at 574.

“We did a lot of things really well, and we were fortunate to claw back during a difficult stretch in the first round,” Dismuke said. “We will address some things and make some adjustments and hopefully put a better foot forward in the final round.”


For Dismuke, one of his program’s biggest highlights of the first day was its resiliency during the opening 18 holes. As a team, Houston endured a combined 10 bogeys on the front nine before settling down to finish only 1-over-par.


“Golf has its ups and downs. You just have to battle through those tough stretches togive yourself an opportunity to salvage a round and post a decent score,” Dismuke said. “I stress to our guys that it’s not always about what you do when you play great. There is an element of damage control when you are not playing your best.”


No. 10 Arkansas led the first day with a score of 556, four strokes ahead of No. 32 North Texas and six strokes better than No. 14 Texas A&M. SMU finished the first day in fourth at 571, while No. 19 Clemson (575), No. 27 Baylor (576), Southeastern Louisiana (576), Tulsa (579) and Louisiana-Lafayette (580) rounded out the top-10 team leaders.


Texas A&M’s Geoff Shaw stood atop the individual leaderboard at 136 after rounds of 69-67. He joined Arkansas’ Kolton Crawford (68-69-137) as the only player with consecutive rounds in the 60s.


SMU’s Marc Sambol and North Texas’ Curtis Donahoe were tied for third at 138, while Arkansas teammates Thomas Sorensen and Sebastian Cappelen were tied for fifth at 139.


Cappelen provided the low round of the day and etched his name in the All-American Intercollegiate records book with a second-round 65. He became only the seventh player in the history of the tournament with an 18-hole total that low and the first since Louisiana-Lafayette’s Mike Etherington posted that total in the first round on April 13, 1993.


Four of the five Cougars enjoyed at least one round of par of better Monday. Sophomore Jesse Droemer fired an opening round 71 and was tied for 26th at144. Junior James Ross posted an even-par 72 in the second round and was tied for 33rd at 145.


Making a return to the Cougar starting lineup, sophomore Bryn Flanagan tallied a 71 in the second round and was tied for 52nd at 148. Freshman Roman Robledo was tied for 58th at 149.


Playing as individuals, sophomore Wesley McClain fired back-to-back 72s and was tied for 26th at 144. Senior Eric Adler finished with a 72 in the second round and was tied for 39th at 146, while junior Will Dusenbury was tied for 64th at 151.


TUESDAY'S FINAL ROUND
The tournament wraps up with the final 18 holes, beginning at 8 a.m., Tuesday, on the 7,018-yard, par-72 course at The Woodlands Country Club. Admission is free, and all fans are invited to attend.


Fans can follow live scoring by visiting GolfStat.com or by clicking here.


ALL-AMERICAN INTERCOLLEGIATE HISTORY

Monday’s start marks the first time since 2009 that the Cougars have played host to The Woodlands All-American Intercollegiate. For years, this event ranked as one of the nation's premier collegiate tournaments, featuring some of the country's top student-athletes and teams.


“It’s a honor to have the quality field we have. Hosting this event at The Woodlands CC has a lot to do with the quality teams we drew. This is a great field on a great course. We were fortunate to have some great weather, and the first day was really fun.”


The tournament was played every season from 1955 to 1990. After a one-year break in 1992, the tournament picked up and was played again from 1992 to 1997. The All-American Intercollegiate resumed in 2006 and was played each season through the 2008-09 campaign


The Cougars lead the way in their tournament with 23 team titles and 20 individual championships during its history.


UP NEXT


The Woodlands All-American Intercollegiate will be the Cougars’ final regular-season tournament of the season. Following this week, the Cougars will take a break before competing at the Conference USA Championships on April 22-24 at Texarkana Country Club, in Texarkana, Ark.


The winner of the league’s annual postseason event will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals

US Men's Clay Court Championship: Sunday Q Results and Monday Schedule

Fans were on hand for Sunday's qualifying matches
at the 2012 US Men's Clay Court Championships.

Photo by Robert H Kelly, Copyright 2012 ,

TexSport Publications, All Rights Reserved

By Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2012 TexSport Publications

HOUSTON, TEXAS (April 8, 2012) Day two of pre-tournament qualifying for the 2012 US Men’s Clay Court Championship concluded on Sunday and the final draw in both singles and doubles was released.

With the withdrawal from the tournament of the Bryan brothers late Saturday afternoon, the second seeded duo of Alex Bogomolov Jr. and Scott Lipsky will become the top seed and will play their first match later in the week.

During Sunday’s singles qualifying, eight players advanced to the tournament field which will begin Monday at 12 p.m.

The schedule for Monday matches is as follows:

Stadium Court: start at noon.
Michael Russell vs. Daniel Kosakowski
Go Soeda vs. Tommy Haas
Michael Kohlman and Alexander Waske vs. Robert Kendrick and Ryan Sweeting

Stadium Court: not before 6 p.m.
Carlos Berlocq vs. James Blake
Eric Prodon vs. Sam Querrey

Court 3: start at noon.
Horacio Zeballos vs. Jan Hernych
Ricardo Mello vs. Catalin-Ionut Gard

Court 3: not before 4 p.m.
Bjorn Phau vs. Diego Junqueira

Sunday’s results in the qualifying matches are as follows:
Go Soeda defeated Robby Ginepri 6-4, 6-4
Horacio Zeballos defeated Nicholas Naumann 6-3, 6-1
Ricardo Mello defeated Peter Polansky 7-5, 6-3
Michael Russell defeated Denes Lukacs 6-4, 7-5
Tommy Haas defeated Chris Wettengel 6-3, 6-3
Catalin-Ionut Gard defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili 7-5, 4-6, 6-2
Daniel Kosakowski defeated Yuichi Sugita 7-6 (4), 6-4
Jan Hernych defeated Michael Yani 7-6 (5) 10 retired

Check back for results and commentary from the tournament.