Houston baseball salvages Big 12-opening, run rule-rounded series against Kansas State

In a series that took just 23 innings to play, Houston baseball saw itself on both ends of run rules in dropping two out of three games to Kansas State in its Big 12-opening series at Schroeder Park over March 13-15.

By the end of the evening Saturday, the Cougars had been outscored 36-9 across two consecutive run rule defeats and were in danger of their second consecutive 0-3 start in Big 12 play.

But an 11-run eighth inning in a salvaging effort on Sunday in exchange effectively put Houston in the conference win column by the end of the weekend. 

Inoue, Wildcats leave 20-hit, 20-run dust cloud in opener

Senior infielder Shintaro Inoue’s 5-for-6, 6-RBI night composed just roughly a quarter of Kansas State’s hit and run totals, respectively, in a true slugfest that once saw its margins closing in the later innings. 

Adding to his two-out, three-run home run from the sixth inning, Inoue laced a two-out, two-run double down the line in left in the eighth, capping off an eight-run inning for the Wildcats that set the template for its 20-8 series-opening run rule of Houston Friday. 

The crooked eighth became a cushioning blow to the Cougars’ capitalization on a series of miscues from junior right-handed pitcher James Guyette, as he left with a bases-loaded, one-out situation still towards his books and a 10-3 Kansas State lead in the sixth.

Once redshirt junior left-hander Cole Wisenbaker came on in relief of Guyette, senior catcher Dylan Maxcey and freshman outfielder Blake Fields scored on back-to-back wild pitches to make it 10-5. 

It took a walk issued to sophomore outfielder McClane Helton for Kansas State coach Pete Hughes to go to his bullpen a second time in the inning, with redshirt senior right-hander Tazwell Butler on to face redshirt sophomore outfielder Xavier Perez.

After Perez brought home senior infielder Tyler Cox on a fielder’s choice, he stole his way into scoring position for junior outfielder Tre Broussard’s RBI single down the line in left, capping off the four-run sixth and cutting Houston’s deficit down to 10-7.  

Effectively, it left Gueyette with six earned runs on his tally across 5 ⅓ innings of work. 

But what ensued from the Wildcats’ offense rather put him in line for his third win of the season.

Junior infielder Dee Kennedy’s seventh-inning one-out RBI single to right began a stretch of 10 consecutive runs scored to create the late run rule cushion for Kansas State, a cushion that included a string of four consecutive no-out RBI doubles in the eighth. 

After Inoue capped off the Wildcats’ scoring with his second RBI extra-base hit of the night, all the Cougars could muster in response in the bottom of the eighth was a pinch-hit sacrifice fly from freshman outfielder Peyton Dickens before the game was called.

Second consecutive run rule paves for Duke’s complete game

Continuing its torrid offensive stretch from the series opener, Kansas State strung across 16 runs on 17 hits, with Inoue and redshirt senior infielder Carlos Vazquez going a combined 6-for-10 with six RBIs. 

Those efforts gave redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Tanner Duke just seven innings of work towards his 96-pitch complete game, handing Houston a 16-1 run rule loss Saturday and clinching the series for the Wildcats.

The lone run the Cougars scratched across in a largely disparate offensive effort was Dickens’ RBI single in the sixth, one of just three hits Duke allowed across his season-high nine-strikeout outing. 

On the other side of the matchup, however, sophomore right-hander Kendall Hoffman was tagged for six earned runs on nine hits in five innings towards being handed his first loss of the season. 

Junior right-hander Jackson Baker and senior right-hander Harrison Bouchele surrendered nine earned runs in 1 ⅓ combined innings out of Houston’s bullpen efforts. 

11-run eighth creates salvage run rule effort for Houston in finale

For the first two nights of the series, Houston had been on the receiving end of a run rule across multiple late crooked innings.

And with a 6-5 deficit in the eighth, the Cougars were six outs away from facing an 0-3 Big 12 start for the second consecutive season. 

But an ensuing 11-run explosion that began with an RBI single by Cox, and ended with Broussard’s two-out, two-run homer to left, thwarted away such a mark. 

It ultimately left Houston turning the tables in rule rule fashion towards its 16-6 win over Kansas State Sunday to salvage the series. 

Before Cox began the crooked eighth, he clubbed his first home run since his sophomore season at Dartmouth in 2023 with a sixth-inning game-tying solo shot down the line in left.

` But in response to an RBI single by Vazquez in the top of the eighth, he began a bottom frame tee-off that included a series of two-run hits from Maxcey, Perez, Broussard and senior infielder Antonelli Savattere.

Broussard’s second homer of the season, nearly 400 feet to deep center, came in walk-off fashion to complete the revenge run rule and leave Houston with a win in the opening weekend of Big 12 play for the first time since 2024.

Up next, the Cougars, at 12-7 overall, will conclude their season-long nine-game homestand with a midweek RPI top-15 opportunity, hosting Louisiana on Wednesday, March 18 at 6:30 p.m.