{"id":134663,"date":"2026-02-15T21:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T21:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/134663\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T21:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T21:40:08","slug":"houston-baseball-stays-undefeated-in-puerto-rico-with-narrow-victory-over-manhattan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/134663\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Baseball Stays Undefeated In Puerto Rico With Narrow Victory Over Manhattan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"51\">Houston baseball put together a late rally to remain a perfect 3-0 on the season by <a href=\"https:\/\/uhcougars.com\/news\/2026\/2\/15\/baseball-remains-undefeated-with-late-surge-over-manhattan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">defeating Manhattan<\/a> 4-2 on Sunday morning in Ponce, Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"54\">The Cougars have shined in the Puerto Rico Challenge by winning their first three games over No. 21 Wake Forest, Boston College and Manhattan.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"57\">Next up, Houston will face the Washington Huskies on Monday at 12 p.m., who are 0-2 to start the season. A win would make the Cougars the champions of the Puerto Rico Challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Houston vs Manhattan Game Recap<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/01khhg1bc18jyftkbb3c.jpg\" alt=\"Houston basebal\" title=\"Houston basebal\" width=\"7509\" height=\"4223\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"5k\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jun 19, 2025; West Sacramento, California, USA; A detail view of official Rawlings Major League Baseballs before the game between the Athletics against the Houston Astros at Sutter Health Park. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images | Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5o\">Manhattan struck early in the first inning by scoring a run on an RBI double by Manhattan&#8217;s Vincent Samuel to take a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5r\">In the third inning, the Cougars responded with two runs of their own. Sophomore left fielder McClane Helton smoked an RBI ground rule double to right field, which scored senior shortstop Carter Sintek.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5u\">Redshirt sophomore right fielder Xavier Perez then singled to advance Helton to third, and he scored on a wild pitch later in the inning to give Houston a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5x\">Just as the Cougars were rolling on the mound, Manhattan&#8217;s Hunter Sute hit a two-out single to right field to knot the score at two each.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"60\">The turning point of the entire game came in the eighth inning, when Houston managed to plate two important runs to seal the game.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"63\">Sophomore third baseman Jackson LaLima began the rally by recording an RBI single to center field, which scored freshman outfielder Peyton Dickens.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"66\">With two outs in a one-run game, senior infielder Cade Clime came up big by smoking an RBI triple to right center to score LaLima, which propelled Houston to victory.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"69\">While the Cougars only managed to record six hits in the game, their pitching staff had an outstanding performance to pick up the slack.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6c\">Junior pitcher Alex Solis recorded the win by tossing three innings, where he allowed one earned run and three hits. In his outing, he was also able to strike out four batters.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6f\">Junior pitcher Richie Roman also impressed as he was dominant in his five innings against Manhattan. He finished the game allowing one earned run on four hits, while striking out five hitters.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">Overall, veteran head coach Todd Whitting has his team playing well early, and they are on the verge of being named the Puerto Rico Challenge champions.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">Houston will finish off its time in Puerto Rico will one final game against the Washinton Huskies on Monday, at 12 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston baseball put together a late rally to remain a perfect 3-0 on the season by defeating Manhattan&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-134663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-manhattan","9":"tag-manhattan-headlines","10":"tag-manhattan-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}