Houston Baseball Pulls Off Miraculous Comeback Against No. 2 Texas

Even when the Cougars trailed late, there was enough fuel left in the tank to take the lead and steal a 9-7 win from one of the nation’s highest-ranked teams in collegiate baseball.

Feb 19, 2006; Tempe, AZ, USA; Houston Cougars first baseman (18) Brad Lincoln hits home run against the Arizona State Sun Devils in the 3rd inning to give his team a 5-1 lead at Packard Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images Copyright Rick Scuteri | Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

Expect the unexpected.

That applied to Tuesday night's game between Houston and Texas baseball, which looked all but over, but it wasn’t.

The Longhorns learned that the hard way.

Caleb Kimble took the mound for the Cougars in his three-inning pitch and was credited with the win after his three innings of scoreless baseball, where he allowed two earned runs off no hits with four free passes and three punchouts.

Saving the day for Houston after trailing by seven runs at one point was the discipline at the plate, with Blake Fields credited for the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning after drawing the RBI walk. Entering for the ninth inning was Ryne Rodriguez, who closed the game out strong with a punchout to send the Longhorns home disappointed as head coach Todd Whitting and Co. went to bed satisfied as the program moved to 13-11 overall.

Longhorns Collapse

Going into the bottom of the fifth, Texas had looked very comfortable and got a little too greedy, letting the 7-0 lead balloon before it deflated. There was one run recorded in the top of the first inning, followed by three runs in the third inning and three in the fourth inning to set up the pitching staff to take care of business. Obviously, head coach Jim Schlossnagle and Co. were unable to execute late in the game.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Tyer Cox grounded out to third to send a runner home to score the first Cougars run of the evening. That was followed up by a Tre Brossard 2-run RBI single up the middle to cut the deficit to four runs with three runs scored off two hits and an error.

After holding the Longhorns scoreless in the sixth and seventh innings, it was another 3-run inning for the Cougars to get within a run, which was generated first by Winfield smashing the baseball over the left field fence. Broussard reached base on a fielder's choice after an error by the shortstop sent Jackson LaLima home to score, before another poor fielding sequence by the catcher opened the door for Broussard to score after stealing second and rounding the bases.

A window of opportunity for Texas to hold onto its lead was quickly blown after there was a third inning in which three Houston runs were scored, which gave Texas only three outs to work with.  Riley Jackson’s bomb to straight away center field and Cox’s RBI single almost capped off the inning, but Fields delivered one more run to seal the game up.

On the night, the Cougars were able to tally nine runs off 10 hits with three errors on the evening that luckily didn’t come back to haunt them.