BATON ROUGE — Houston pounded out 14 hits — three for home runs — and took advantage of four LSU errors to snap the Tigers’ nine-game winning streak, 10-5, Saturday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium.
The game was played before a paid crowd of 8,683, the largest paid attendance figure in Alex Box Stadium history.
Designated hitter Brett Cooley homered twice, including a three-run shot with two outs in the seventh that put the game away. Cooley collected five RBI, while Cougar right-hander Brandon Roznovsky (1-0) handcuffed the Tigers between the sixth and eighth innings to earn the win in relief.
“It just wasn’t our day,” said LSU head coach Smoke Laval. “They swung the bats today and their go-to guys hit the homers with guys on base.”
LSU (No. 1 Collegiate Baseball, No. 3 Baseball America, No. 4 ESPN/Sports Weekly) dropped its second contest of the season, falling to 11-2. Houston improved to 5-8 on the season.
The two teams will battle in a rubber match set for 1 p.m. Sunday. Senior right-hander Nate Bumstead (1-0, 4.15) will make the start against freshman right-hander Brad Lincoln (1-0, 4.00).
Sunday’s contest will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Network (98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the internet at www.LSUsports.net.
Tickets for Sunday’s game are available at www.LSUsports.net or at the Alex Box Stadium ticket office, which opens at 11 a.m.
Houston jumped on LSU starter Lane Mestepey (2-1) in the first inning, producing a three-run attack highlighted by Cole Bruce’s three-run homer over the right field wall, scoring Jake Stewart and Travis Tully who both reached on singles to start the game.
The Cougars extended the lead to 4-0 in the third on Cooley’s solo shot off of “The Intimidator” billboard in right field.
Down by four runs, Derek Hebert ignited a two-run fourth for the Tigers by drilling a leadoff double into the right-field corner. Following a Ryan Patterson walk, Blake Gill singled up the middle to plate Hebert. Patterson would come around to score on Matt Liuzza’s RBI single, one batter later. Liuzza extended his hitting streak to 12 games, tying a career-high set during a 12-game stretch in 2003.
Liuzza and Gill combined to go 4-for-9 with two RBI.
Houston countered with two runs in the fourth, taking advantage of two critical Tiger errors to chase Mestepey. Brett Logan singled to begin the inning and then came around to score when Mestepey, attempting to pick off Stewart at first, fired the ball past Clay Harris into right field. Stewart touched home two batters later on Cooley’s RBI single that caromed off of Ivan Naccarata’s glove deep in the hole at third to stretch the lead to 6-2.
Michael Bonura entered the game in relief of Mestepey, who allowed six runs (four earned) on nine hits in 3.2 innings.
Houston starter Matt Varner left in the fifth after surrendering a walk to Gill and a single to Liuzza. Roznovsky came in and shut the door on the Tigers, retiring eight out of the next nine Tiger batters.
The Tigers committed back-to-back errors in the seventh, allowing Matt Farrington and Stewart to reach and keep the inning alive. Sophomore left-hander Greg Smith came on and was greeted by Cooley’s second homer of the day, a towering three-run shot that upped the lead to 10-4.
“When those guys are up, you can’t make an error when you are facing a club like Houston,” said Laval. “Today it happened and that is just part of the game. We’ll learn from it.”
LSU mounted a threat in the eighth with back-to-back singles by Nick Stavinoha and Naccarata. Jon Zeringue cut into the defecit with his ninth double of the season, scoring Stavinoha. Roznovsky then struck out Hebert and J.C. Holt to hold the lead at 10-5.
Kevin Roberts worked a scoreless ninth for the Cougars.
UH — 301 210 300 – 10 14 0
LSU — 002 110 010 – 5 13 4
WP — Roznovsky (1-0)
LP — Mestepey (2-1)
E — Gill (3), Hebert (2), Mestepey (1), Bonura (1) LOB — UH 10; LSU 9 2B — Musslewhite (3); Gill (2), Zeringue (9), Hebert (3); HR — Cooley 2 (3), Bruce (2); SB — Bruce (2); CS — Tully (1)
Time — 3:01
Att. — 8,683 (paid – largest paid crowd in Alex Box Stadium history); 6,074 (actual)