MORGANTOWN, W.Va. \u2014 Houston entered its three-game series at No. 15 West Virginia the second-lowest scoring team among 14 in the Big 12 Conference.<\/p>\n
The Mountaineers, meanwhile, had allowed 144 runs \u2014 the fewest of any team in the league.<\/p>\n
You\u2019d never have known based on Friday\u2019s result.<\/p>\n
The script flipped and the Cougars pounded out six extra-base hits among their 10 total, including a two-run home run from both Cade Climie and Blake Fields. Combined with a strong start from pitcher Kendall Hoffman, that was enough to propel Houston to a 10-7 victory over the Mountaineers in the series opener at Kendrick Family Ballpark.<\/p>\n
WVU (25-9, 10-6) is now 2-4 in Big 12 series openers and 8-2 in its 10 other conference contests.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t really been able to get the momentum going on Fridays,\u201d Mountaineer coach Steve Sabins said. \u201cWinning the Texas Tech Friday night game [last week] was awesome, because we haven\u2019t done it a ton. You want to do that and have the momentum. At some point, you have to start series with wins.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou go into postseason play and you have to start on the right foot. Maybe the guys respond well with their backs against the wall and that\u2019s a good attribute to have, but we need to get off to better starts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Houston (17-19, 4-12) gained the lead for good with a four-run third inning that featured four hits and three in consecutive fashion \u2014 a run-scoring single from Xavier Perez, Riley Jackson\u2019s run-scoring double and a two-run home run that Climie blasted 422 feet to right-center.<\/p>\n
WVU answered with its first run in the home half of that inning, which Zahir Barjam scored on a Matt Ineich single.<\/p>\n
The Mountaineers hurt their cause in the fifth when starting pitcher Dawson Montesa threw a wild pitch and an errant pickoff attempt that allowed Tre Broussard to advance from first to third.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Broussard scored shortly after when Jackson singled to third on a hard-hit ball that deflected off of Tyrus Hall.<\/p>\n
While Houston built its lead, Hoffman prevented the Mountaineers from recording a hit in five of the first six innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarly in counts, we took less than aggressive swings,\u201d Sabins said. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t any stress on him really throughout the game. We blasted some balls that didn\u2019t find gaps and that\u2019s baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cougars added to their advantage in the seventh, which featured more defensive miscues, including Perez reaching on an Ineich error after Broussard\u2019s double.<\/p>\n
Jackson then laid down a bunt that was misplayed by Armani Guzman at first, and the fielder\u2019s choice led to Broussard scoring his team\u2019s sixth run.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose kind of stack up against teams in our league and it\u2019s difficult to win,\u201d Sabins said.<\/p>\n
Two batters later, Fields belted a two-run double to left-center that marked the end of the outing for relief pitcher Carson Estridge.<\/p>\n
WVU battled back in the home half of the seventh starting with Hall\u2019s leadoff home run.<\/p>\n
When Ineich singled home Matthew Graveline with two outs, the Cougars elected to bring in Richie Roman and Hoffman\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n
Roman initially struggled with his control and issued consecutive walks on full count pitches to Gavin Kelly and Paul Schoenfeld, the latter of which forced in a run.<\/p>\n
A catcher\u2019s interference with the bases loaded that awarded Sean Smith first base made it 8-5, before Roman struck out Hall to end the inning with his team on top by three.<\/p>\n
Fields crushed a two-run home run to left off David Perez in the ninth, and it proved important when the Mountaineers got two back in the ninth on Smith\u2019s single to right.<\/p>\n
Hoffman was charged with five runs, four of which were earned, over 6.2 innings. He struck out two and walked one.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was attacking us with aggression and got us out of our approach a little bit,\u201d Ineich said. \u201cUsually, we\u2019re able to make adjustments quickly. We didn\u2019t make adjustments as quickly as we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fields drove in four and joined teammates Tyler Cox, Perez and Jackson with two-hit efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ineich led all players with three hits.<\/p>\n
Montesa was charged with five runs, including four earned, over 4.1 innings. He struck out six and walked a pair.<\/p>\n
\u201cFastball down is what they struggle with, but Dawson rides the fastball and pitches up in the zone,\u201d Sabins said. \u201cWe may have called too many fastballs down and pitched to the scouting report too much instead of to the pitcher\u2019s strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n
WVU\u2019s Brodie Kresser pinch-hit in the ninth inning marking his first plate appearance since April 4 as he works his way back from injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been rehabbing his back and getting healthy. Today was the first time he\u2019s taken full batting practice and played defense,\u201d Sabins said. \u201cI liked his bat speed. We need to bring him along and get him into a game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The teams meet again in Game 2 at 11 a.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MORGANTOWN, W.Va. \u2014 Houston entered its three-game series at No. 15 West Virginia the second-lowest scoring team among…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-255184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-headlines","10":"tag-houston-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}