With a chance to close out Houston, Tulane made far too mistakes to reach the American Athletic Conference championship game on its first chance in Clearwater, Florida, forcing a rematch with the Cougars later Saturday.
The seventh-seeded Green Wave (17-40) briefly led by a run in the fifth inning, but four errors and some base-running miscues cost it big time in an 11-8 loss. The issues ranged from a botched infield pop fly to a run scoring on a double steal to a wild throw on a bunt attempt.
Houston tied it on a solo home run leading off the fifth, went ahead for good on an infield error with two outs later in the inning and held off Tulane the rest of the way.
“We definitely had the will,” Tulane coach Jay Uhlman said. “You can’t gift other teams extra outs. When you shoot yourself in the foot and ground into double plays twice with nobody out, you take away the possibility for crooked innings.”
A run scored on two separate double-play groundouts by Brady Marget, but the Wave was looking for more on a day when a gusty wind blowing out to right field made it hard to keep the ball in the park.
Designated hitter Brennan Lambert hit a two-run homer to pull Tulane within 9-8 in the top of the seventh, but reliever Brendan O’Donnell limited the Wave to one single over the last 2⅓ innings while the Cougars added a pair of insurance runs.
Ricky Castro (4-6) took the loss in his second consecutive rough outing against the Cougars in the tournament, giving up seven runs on seven hits in four innings, although only two of the runs were earned. Chandler Welch, who was nearly flawless in relief of Castro in Tuesday’s win against the Cougars, yielded four runs in three innings this time.
Houston hit three home runs, primarily by launching high shots to right field and letting the wind do the rest. The second-seeded Cougars reached this game with back-to-back one-run victories in the losers’ bracket, but now the teams faced a winner-takes all meeting that was not finished by press time.