Final Stats

HOUSTON, Texas - A furious, two-inning rally from 15th-ranked Houston in the eighth and ninth innings tied the game at 5-5, and Ian Rice's RBI-single to center field gave the Cougars a 6-5 win in the tenth over the Lamar baseball team Tuesday night at Cougar Field in non-conference action.

Enrique Oquendo, who bailed the Cardinals (11-13, 3-6 Southland Conference) out in the 9th inning, sat down the first two batters he saw in the bottom of the 10th, but walked Josh Vidales and gave up a single to Chris Iriart before he was pulled for Galen Andrews. After working a 3-1 count, Rice lined one to center field that hit just in front of a diving Brendan Satran's glove and rolled to the wall to improve UH to 18-7.

Down 5-0, Iriat started the eighth inning rally after he was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Two batters later, Montemayor singled through the right side. Connor Wong was walked to load the bases and Iriat was able to score when Kyle Leggett uncorked a wild pitch.

Jacob Campbell punched in another run (Montemayor) with a single through the right side, and Wong took third on the single before he scored on a groundout to the right side from Ashford Fulmer. Joe Farley relieved Leggett and forced Zac Taylor into a groundout to end the inning.

Farley stayed on for the ninth inning and immediately gave up a leadoff single to Kyle Survance, who took second base on a balk. Josh Vidales walked, and both moved up on a wild pitch. Ryan Cawthon took the hill with two on and no outs and loaded the bases after he hit Iriat with a pitch.

Rice put up a sacrifice fly to center field that cut the lead to 5-4, but a good throw from Brendan Satran kept the back runners on their bags. Cawthon followed that with a walk to Montemayor to load the bases against just before a sacrifice fly from Wong tied the game at 5-5.

Cawthon worked a 3-0 count to pinch hitter Derek Dickerson before he was pulled for Oquendo, who walked Dickerson and ended the inning on a ground out from Fulmer.

Lamar struck first on an unusual play. With Reed Seeley on third base and Brandon Provost at first base, Nash bounced a chopper to the pitcher who looked Seeley back, turned and threw it to the shortstop to get Provost at second base. As Longville turned to throw to second, Seeley took off for home and shortstop Wong touched second looked at Seeley, hesitated, went to first and was late getting Nash.

Stijn van der Meer doubled in a run in the fifth inning to push the LU lead to 2-0. He scored Mason Salazar, who reached on a one-out walk, from second base. CJ Moore moved Salazar from first to second base with a single, and took third on van der Meer's double down the right field line.

Brendan Satran delivered a blow in the sixth inning on a two-run bomb over the left field wall that scored Kyle Markum. Markum pushed a run across in the at-bat before on a double to left center that scored Nash, who reached on a single that split the shortstop and third baseman.

Jayson McKinley, who started the game for Lamar, was perfect through 3.1 frames, and surrendered his first hit to the 11th batter he faced. He finished the game with two hits, one walk and two strikeouts. Will Hibbs relieved him in the sixth inning and worked two frames with one hit, four walks and three strikeouts.

Hibbs worked into some trouble in the sixth inning. He stuck out the first batter he faced, walked the second and third, struck out the fourth and then walked the bases loaded to Justin Montenayor. Wong came up with the bases loaded and two outs, but Hibbs worked out of it with a called third strike to end the inning.

Lamar's pitcher of record was Oqunedo who worked one inning, but suffered his first loss of the season on a single run.

The Cardinals had plenty of chances to increase their lead before Houston's late inning rally.

In the first inning. Van der Meer reached second after dropping a blooper in to left field that bounced over Corey Julks head, ruled a single and an error. Seeley followed with a strikeout and Provost roped a liner at the second baseman, who caught van der Meer at second before he could get back.

LU led off the second inning with a leadoff walk to Nash, but two nice plays from Vidales kept the runner from scoring. Nash made it to third base in the inning.

Lamar had another chance in the seventh inning when van der Meer reached with his third hit of the game on a double to the left field wall. He was stranded after a strikeout and couple of nice plays by the UH middle infielders.

The Cardinals loaded the bases in the eighth with a single from Markum and Salazar and a walk to Moore, but another nice play from the UH middle infield kept it at a 5-0 lead. Cards had another opportunity to add to the lead in the ninth, but a double play ended the inning without any damage to Houston.

Austin Moore (1-0) took the win for the Cougars on 1.2 innings of work and was perfect. David Longville started the contest and pitched 4.1 innings and surrendered two runs on five hits and two walks.

For the Cardinals, van der Meer was 3-of-5 with a run batted in. Seeley and Markum both finished with two hits in the game and Satran had two RBI in the contest.

The Cougars pushed their win streak to 10 games with the victory, and LU ended its nine-game road swing, the longest of the season.

Lamar continues non-conference play with a Southland Conference opponent on Friday at 6:00 when they host Abilene Christian. The second game of the three-game set is scheduled for 2 o'clock on Saturday and the finale at 1 o'clock on Sunday.