Coogs Sleepwalk Through 6-1 Loss to Bobcats

It was a chilly, dreary day at Cougar Field. One of those days you just want to stay in bed and sleep. And it's obvious, now that this afternoon's baseball game is over, that the Houston Cougars stayed in bed and slept throughout this day instead of showing up at the ballpark.

The Cougars (4-2) faced off against Texas State (3-3) in the second game of a three game series today. And the Bobcats showed up while the Cougars stayed away. The final score of 6-1 doesn't look as bad as the game was because the Bobcats were in control the entire game.

Surprisingly, the Cougars got 10 hits for the game. But they stranded nine runners, had one runner get thrown out at second when a batter failed to get a sacrifice down, and lost three other base runners to stupid mistakes -- mistakes that grew out of the Cougars trying to be aggressive on the bases and force some action, but instead resulted in runners getting thrown out at various bases.

"We're trying to do things to be aggressive," head coach Todd Whitting said, "but we're not executing.  Therefore it looks like we're making dumb mistakes when we're just not executing. We get base runners on. Our game is about applying pressure to the other team. But you have to execute. When you call a hit-and-run, it doesn't work if you hit a foul. When you call a bunt it doesn't work if you don't bunt it fair, or don't get it down."

And that was the day for the Cougars. They couldn't execute. And when the Cougars don't execute on offense, they're not going to win, no matter how good the pitching.

Jordan Lewis didn't have the best of days on the mound for the Cougars, lasting just four innings and giving up three runs in his final inning. That fourth inning started with Texas State's Casey Kalenkosky homering -- his second homer in two days, both coming in the fourth inning. And that was all Texas State needed.

The final game of the series is tomorrow, with the first pitch scheduled for 1:00.

P.S.: And wouldn't you know it, now that the game's over, the sun is actually beginning to peek through the clouds.