HOUSTON – Playing in their home city for just the second time this season, the HCU softball team dropped a 4-1 game to the Houston Cougars on Thursday evening at the Cougar Softball Stadium.
HCU (8-4)Sophomore
Avery Drake opened the game with a double down the left field line and advanced to third on an
AB Garcia sacrifice bunt. The next batter struck out and a pop out stranded Drake at the third, however.
The Cougars (7-4) pounced in the first inning with a one-out single followed by an RBI double off the bat of Britaney Shaw. Shaw then moved up to third on a wild pitch and scored on a second wild pitch, making it a 2-0 game through one.
In the bottom of the second, UH got its first two batters on base but HCU pitcher
Katy Janes got a strikeout and a pair of fly balls to end the inning. The Huskies got on the board in the top of the fourth after Garcia led off by reaching on a throwing error and racing all the way around to third followed by
Kaicey Hagler drawing a walk. With two on and nobody out,
Jasie Roberts brought Garcia home with a groundout to second.
UH tacked on an unearned run in the fifth and an insurance run in the sixth. The Huskies stranded two runners in their half of the fifth and left another on base in the sixth.
Drake went 2-for-3 at the plate in the loss, raising her season average to .366. Janes took the loss in the circle, pitching six innings and allowing three earned runs while striking out four and walking two. She falls to 3-2 on the season.
The Huskies continue play in the Houston Tournament on Friday, Feb. 24, morning with a 10:00 a.m. first pitch against the Pitt Panthers at the Cougar Softball Stadium.
