Houston baseball suffers second consecutive home sweep to BYU

Big 12 series wins have been hard to come by for Houston baseball in its third season in the league, and particularly at home, where its mark is now 1-8 after suffering its second consecutive sweep at Schroeder Park at the hands of BYU over the course of April 9-11. 

Where Houston suffered an average defeat margin of 3.3 runs in the series, that narrow margin came true in going 2-for-20 with runners in scoring position and stranding a total of 25 baserunners.

In turn, Houston entered the halfway point of Big 12 play with its league-worst 3-12 start, sitting at dead-last in the standings and three full games out of contention for the conference tournament in Surprise, Ariz. 

Its staff has surrendered an average of 9.5 runs per game towards being outscored 142-87 in the span, holding 6.01 earned run average overall as a team.

Crane, Sumner anchor Houston’s bats in opener

Three hits. Two solo homers.

Between the combined efforts of BYU senior pitchers Wayland Crane and Garrison Sumner, that was all Houston scratched across in its series-opening 3-2 loss on Thursday. 

With Crane anchoring Houston to one for its first nine at the plate, it didn’t take long before redshirt junior outfielder Xavier Perez answered senior infielder Easton Jones’ first-inning RBI single, taking his ninth homer of the season 401 feet to deep left field to tie the game 1-1. 

Perez’s homer was just the second hit within the first three innings for Houston, but an 0-for-13 stretch at the plate ensued for the next 4 ⅔ while facing a 3-1 deficit off back-to-back productive groundouts in the fourth from senior infielder Luke Anderson and sophomore infielder Ezra McNaughton. 

Senior infielder Cade Climie snapped that stretch with one out in the eighth, locating a 2-2 pitch over the plate off Sumner and taking it over the wall in left to bring Houston back within a run. 

But Climie’s third homer of the season wound up being Houston’s last hit of the night, as Sumner held on for five more outs to cap off 4 ⅔ innings of relief with seven strikeouts towards his second winning decision of the season for BYU. 

Middle-innings miscues lead to six unanswered in BYU’s series-clincher

Sophomore right-hander Kendall Hoffman entered the sixth inning retiring 15 of the first 18 batters faced, holding onto an early 2-0 lead given by Climie’s second extra-base hit of the series, a two-out, two-run double down the line in left in the first. 

But in issuing a sixth-inning leadoff walk to Anderson, Hoffman let up a game-tying two-run home run to McNaughton, which only became the first of a middle-innings unanswered spurt towards BYU’s 6-2 win on Friday to take the series. 

McNaughton’s homer put an end to Hoffman’s earned tally on the day, but no end was near to the four-run inning once BYU capitalized on senior left-hander Ryne Rodriguez’s miscue in relief. 

With sophomore outfielder Tu’alau Wolfgramm reaching on Rodriguez’s transfer error, it set up a bases-loaded, no out situation for senior outfielder Bryker Hurdsman.

The proceeding damage, though a miniscule productive out, became BYU’s difference with Hurdsman’s go-ahead RBI groundout, scoring junior infielder Ryder Robinson to make it 3-2. 

Sophomore outfielder Ryker Schow followed with a productive out of his own, scoring Jones on a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2 and cap off the crooked sixth. 

While Rodriguez retired eight of the next 11 batters he faced, a one-out hit-by-pitch issued to sophomore catcher Ridge Erickson set the template for BYU’s ninth-inning insurance. 

Robinson and Jones provided that insurance with an RBI singles and doubles, respectively, to put BYU up 6-2 and bring an end to Rodriguez’s tally. 

Houston, on the other end, could not provide an answer outside of Climie’s two-run double, as it became the first and only hit of the night with runners in scoring position toward finishing 1-for-8 on the mark. 

All translated to Houston falling below .500 for the second time in 2026 and just the second time in 12 days. 

Houston’s bullpen falters as BYU piles five unanswered late to complete sweep

With senior right-hander Paul Schmitz keeping Houston at bay with a 1-1 tie off of sophomore infielder Jackson LaLima’s solo homer in the third, a pivotal quality outing appeared in the works towards a salvage effort. 

But after 5 ⅓ innings of one-run ball from Schmitz, that possibility became dashed when a pair of singles from Anderson and Robinson in the sixth set the template for difference-making damage let up by junior right-hander Richie Roman in relief. 

In turn, Houston once again had no answer to middle-innings bullpen woes, finishing with just one hit with runners in scoring position towards falling 6-1 in the series finale Saturday and suffering its third sweep in Big 12 play.

The beginning of that damage came with Jones’ sixth hit of the series in 13 at-bats, a go-ahead RBI double to right to score Anderson and make it 2-1.

Two batters later, Hurdsman tagged on to inflate the lead with a two-out, two-run single to right, making it 4-1 and capping off BYU’s second crooked sixth inning in under 24 hours. 

Anderson and redshirt junior outfielder Keoni Painter provided late insurance and a hill too tall for Houston to climb with solo home runs in the seventh and ninth innings, leaving BYU’s efforts to hold firm towards moving to 8-7 in Big 12 play. 

But as a result of the sweep, Houston fell to 3-11 in Quadrant 2 games and saw its RPI down to the 100s as of Sunday. 

That road doesn’t get any easier either, as it now sits 16-18 overall through over 60% of the regular season.

It continues when the Cougars open a four-game top-15 road trip gauntlet, beginning in College Station with a midweek affair against No. 10 Texas A&M at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park Tuesday, April 14 at 6 p.m.