AUSTIN, Texas – Houston entered Sunday one win away from advancing to the program’s third NCAA Super Regional, but the Cougars fell to Texas twice in the Austin Regional final. Houston dropped the first game of the day by a 5-2 score to set up a winner-take-all game Sunday night that the host Longhorns won by a 7-0 mark.
Houston finishes the season with 39 wins, its most in a single season since 2013.
In the opening game, Houston took the lead in the second on Savannah Heebner’s RBI single down the right field line, but Texas took control with a five-run third frame. Arielle James and Maya Thomas each had two hits to lead Houston, while Kelli Montgomery drove in the Cougars’ second run with her single back up the middle in the fifth. Heebner took the loss in the circle, allowing the five runs on eight hits and three walks.
The nightcap was a pitcher’s duel between Presley Bell and Texas’ Miranda Elish, broken by a solo homer just over the center field wall in the top of fifth from Kaitlyn Washington. Brooke Vannoy just missed tying the game in the bottom of the fifth when her double down the left field line hit off the top of the wall and she was stranded to end the inning. Texas opened the game up with six runs in the top of the seventh to bring the game to its final score. Vannoy and James each had two hits each for Houston. Bell took the loss, surrendering the seven runs on nine hits.
The American concludes the 2019 season with 249 wins as a conference, the second-most in league history (256 wins – 2018).