May 20, 2004

Box Score

WACO, Texas - The University of Houston softball team's first ever game in the NCAA Tournament proved to be a tough one Thursday afternoon, as they dropped a 4-2 decision to the Seton Hall Pirates at Getterman Stadium on the campus of Baylor University.

Through the first three innings of play, the Cougars and the Pirates offenses were held in check by the pitching of Houston's Crystal Briscoe and Seton Hall's Megan Meyer. In the bottom of the fourth however, the Pirates cracked a 0-0 tie with two runs on three hits.

McKenzie Richards picked up the first hit of the game with a single to left field and scored the first run of the game on a double off the left field wall by Laura Taylor, giving the Pirates a 1-0 lead. Seton Hall added another run in the fourth when Mary Carroll Smith double to center field, chasing in Tracy Myhren who had pinch ran for Taylor.

The Pirates added to more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, taking advantage of two errors by Cougar first baseman Jenilee Skender, who was unable to find the bag on two different occasions. With runners at first and third, Seton Hall perfectly executed a double steal to take a 3-0 lead and added another run on an RBI single by D'arcy Djakalovic.

The Cougars picked up their first hit of the game in the sixth inning when Jaci Gonzalez led off the inning with a single to left field. Pinch hitter Brandi Clark then singled to left giving the Cougars traffic on the base paths for the first time all game. After back to back strikeouts by Kim Nesloney and Jamie Adams, Kristen Glowacz smacked a triple to right field, putting Houston within two at 4-2.

Glowacz hit however was the last the Cougars could muster, falling 4-2. Houston will be in action again Friday morning at 10 a.m. when they will take on the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders, who fell to top seeded LSU.

COUGAR QUOTES

Houston head coach Kyla Holas

Opening Statement

"The team that we wanted and we prepared did not show up today. We showed a Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde performance, and we definitely brought our alter ego."

On close plays in the 5th "I think the first one was close. The second one with Jennilee, she hasn't played first base all year, so we have been trying to work out some of the kinks in that. That is just one having a little bit more experince there, not double reaching for a bag. I think a little bit more performance there would have gotten that call. I would have gotten the appeal this year so far, but we just wanted to double check since this is a big game."

On Megan Meyer "She did a really good job. We were prepared, and we knew what they were going to throw at us. We worked on it all week, but I think any time it is your first time you have jitters and nerves you have to work through. We give them a lot of numbers and statistics sometimes to our advantage and sometimes to our disadvantage."

"We preach scoring first, and we've shown our numbers in wins vs. loses and when we don't score first we get a little jittery becuase we know that the numbers show that the team who doesn't score first loses.

" I told them in the post game is that there is double elimnation. Nothing is over yet, and at this point if the team we know they are shows up it will be a whole different ball game."

Houston pitcher Crystal Briscoe

"I think I just made a few bad pitches and they took advantage of it and they had the momentum."

Houston infielder Kristen Glowacz on her triple

"I was looking for a base hit and to score a runner. I was trying to battle, becuase my first at-bat was not very good. I was just trying to make contact and move the runner."