Redshirt junior pitcher Alex Solis inherited one of the most precarious position baseball can present a reliever: a bases-loaded situation with no outs.
Solis entered the second inning in relief after freshman Caden Cooper walked three consecutive batters to put Sam Houston in a prime scoring opportunity.
He limited the potential damage to two runs, both off of sacrifice flies, one to left field and the other to center field.
It served as the first of five hitless innings for Solis, delivering much-needed composure for a Houston team that had dropped its last two games entering Tuesday night. Solis would also tally six strikeouts in his outing.
On Sunday, coach Todd Whitting praised his team’s fight during the two-game skid, believing the Cougars were just a few hits or extra plays away from getting back on track.
The Cougars embodied that in the sixth frame.
Following a one-out walk from freshman infielder Blake Fields, senior catcher Dylan Maxcey managed to drill a 1-0 pitch to left field for his first home run of the season.
It gave Houston a 5-2 lead, which it would need all of.
Freshman reliever Connor Udland, who was able to avert a crisis in the seventh inning, escaping a one-out bases-loaded jam, didn’t have the same fortune in the eighth.
Udland managed to record the first two outs before walking the next batter on four consecutive balls.
It set up a two-out, two-strike home run for junior infielder Hunter Alvord to trim Houston’s lead to just one.
Houston had read this script before, seeing UTRGV surge in the latter innings of its last two games of the series.
However, senior closer Tyler Bryan managed to deal his most effective outing, facing the final four batters of the game and dispatching them with four strikeouts on only 15 pitches.
Bryan recorded his third scoreless appearance—and save of the season—after rebounding from a blow-up in which he allowed four earned runs in 2.1 innings pitched against UTRGV.
Houston improves to 6-2 with the win, and will next head to Frisco, Texas, to face Oregon State on Friday, Feb. 27, at 2 p.m. in the first of three Frisco Classic games.
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