May 13, 2005

Box Score

TAMPA, Fla. - A wild seventh inning that brought Kim Nesloney and Brandi Clark across the plate for a 4-3 win against USF in the Conference USA Softball Tournament in Tampa, Fla., propelled Houston into a matchup with regular-season champion Louisville on Saturday morning.

Houston improves to 2-1 in this season's tourney where the Cougars' lost their first game 2-1 to USF before defeating Southern Miss 3-1 earlier on Friday.

The Cougars (30-27) have now reached 30 wins in their last four seasons, and move on to play Louisville, where the two teams will battle to face DePaul in the C-USA championship game at 2:05 p.m. (EDT), to be televised live on Conference USA Television Networks.

Offense for Houston was produced by two leadoff home runs in the game with the first being fired out by senior Michelle Keith and the second by Jenilee Skender before the seventh inning theatrics.

In that seventh inning, pinch hitter Jeanie Davis reached base on an error by the second baseman, and junior Jaci Gonzalez re-entered the game for Davis at first.

Nesloney then singled safely to leftfield to move Gonzalez to second, bringing junior Brandi Clark to the plate. At that point the Bulls decided to pull pitcher Bree Spence and brought in Nicole Christensen with runners in scoring position and one out in the inning.

Clark was un-phased by the change and hit a single of her own into leftfield but Gonzalez was thrown out at home trying to score the tying run. However, the Bulls' putout of Gonzalez allowed Nesloney and Clark to advance to third and second, respectively.

The league's co-MVP in Houston's Kristen Glowacz then came to the plate. USF decided to intentionally walk the conference's home run queen, a choice that cost the Bulls the game.

On the first intentional ball to Glowacz, Christensen threw the ball between the catcher's legs for a wild pitch that brought home Nesloney and advanced Clark to third. The play wasn't over yet as Laura Wolf, the Bulls' catcher, tried to throw the ball back to the USF pitcher to protect the plate from the winning run and threw the ball past Christensen covering home and out to second base, allowing Clark to plate the dramatic game-winning run.

Through the first three innings of play, the Cougars and Bulls stood at 0-0 with Houston able to pick up three hits, but unable to convert any runs. However, pitcher Barbie Love kept the Cougars in control of the game, allowing just a single hit and striking out four to hold the Bulls scoreless.

Leading off the fourth inning, Keith took the first pitch she saw and sent it sailing over the leftfield fence for her seventh home run of the season and a 1-0 lead for Houston after four.

USF responded the next inning after Love forced the leadoff batter to pop out, walked the second, struck out the third, and allowed a single for the fourth batter to place runners on first and second with two outs.

Junior Crystal Briscoe entered the ballgame to relieve Love and get Houston out of the inning. However, with USF at the top of its batting order and the Bulls' home run leader at the plate, USF took a 3-1 lead with a three-run blast over left center.

Houston had an opportunity to close the gap in the bottom of the inning after junior Brandi Clark tripled to right center with two outs, but the Bulls managed to close out the inning without any damage by forcing senior Kristen Glowacz to ground out to the pitcher.

Skender tried to rally the Cougars in the bottom of the sixth with her seventh longball of the year, but the next three Houston batters went down in order.

The final inning of the game produced the theatrics for a memorable 4-3 victory for the Cougars.

Now holding a 6-6 all-time record in the tournament, fifth-seeded Houston will face No. 1-seeded Louisville for a ticket to the championship game. Action begins in Tampa at 10 a.m. Saturday morning.