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May 27, 2006

Final Stats |  Quotes

HOUSTON, Texas - Houston starter Luis Flores struck out seven in a complete-game effort and got 13 hits from his offense as the Tulane University baseball team dropped a 6-0 decision to the Cougars in day four of the 2006 Conference USA Tournament Saturday morning at Rice's Reckling Park.

With the loss, Tulane falls to 41-19 on the year and eliminates the Green Wave from the C-USA Tournament. The Green Wave will now await their NCAA postseason destination and opponents over the next two days as the host sites will be announced on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. and the 64-team bracket will be released on Monday at 11:30 a.m. Houston (39-19), advances to the C-USA Tourney championship game where it will take on the winner of the Rice/Memphis game at 1 p.m.

"Louis Flores pitched so good today," Tulane head coach Rick Jones said. "He has beaten us twice and he is a tremendous competitor. I don't think we played well enough to be able to offset a great pitching performance that we saw against us. I thought we looked a little tired today. This was our fourth straight day playing, and they had a day off yesterday. It's just tough when you fall into the loser's bracket."

Flores worked efficiently, tossing just 118 pitches in his first career complete game. Tulane averaged more then 12 hits over the first three games of the championship tourney, but the Cougars' C-USA All-Freshman Team honoree held the Green Wave to just three singles, one of which came in the ninth.

Tulane starter Stephen Porlier did not allow an earned run in six solid innings, but he did walk a career-high seven batters and the Cougars turned a defensive lapse into a pair of runs in the third. After issuing a pair of free passes, Porlier got Cougar second baseman Isa Garcia hit into what could have been a triple play with a pop-up to second base as the runners were moving on the throw.

Tulane second sacker Brad Emaus gloved the ball cleanly, but his throw to first sailed over the head of Mark Hamilton and into the dugout for a two-base error. Shortstop Travis Cougot scored and left fielder Jake Stewart went from first to third on the play, and a wild pitch by Porlier gave the Cougars all the runs they would need.

"I thought Stephen battled," Jones said. "He did not have his best command, but he battled and had a chance to get out of that inning there. E did something we don't do very often. We've been such a great defensive club. Wehen you're fielding .979, you know you make most of your plays, and a lot of tough ones. Today, we had two errors and that cost us too."

The 2-0 lead held for most of the game, and the Green Wave threatened in the sixth as rookie third baseman Seth Henry and freshman pinch-hitter Nate Simon walked and singled, respectively, to lead off the inning. Tulane tried to sacrifice the runners up 90 feet, but senior left fielder Matt Riser's bunt attempt saw Simon get thrown out at second. The Green Wave still had runners on the corners with only one out, but Flores got back-to-back fly balls to right to get out of the inning unscathed.

Porlier kept the Cougars off the board throughout the rest of his outing, and freshman right-hander Nathan Newman tossed a three-up, three-down seventh. An inning later, however, Newman fell prey to a bit of bad luck as first baseman Josh Stirneman blooped a single to left and centerfielder Bryan Tully dropped a double right on the chalk about 200 feet down the left field line as Houston had two runners in scoring position with only one out.

Catcher Brett Logan came through with a two-run single to right, and with two away, right fielder Matt Weston hit a bases-loaded RBI single to shallow left to make it a 5-0 ballgame. UH designated hitter Brad Lincoln closed out the scoring with a leadoff homer in the ninth.

Porlier (7-4) was tagged with the loss after allowing two runs on five hits while striking out a pair. Newman went a career-best 3.0 innings, giving up four runs on eight hits with four strikeouts and no walks.