HOUSTON – Missed opportunities at the plate and self-inflicted mistakes proved too costly for Northwestern State in Sunday afternoon's 5-0 loss to Houston.
On a day when the Lady Demons (12-11) had limited chances with runners on, the chances they had were left wanting on two critical occasions.
Down 1-0 after Houston manufactured a run in the bottom of the second on a sacrifice fly to center,
Tristin Court started the third with a single to left. After advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt and third on a groundout to second, she was left standing at third as a strikeout ended the inning.
The Cougars took advantage of the missed chance with a few self-inflicted injures by the Lady Demons. Two walks and a pair of wild pitches led to two more runs in the bottom of the inning giving Houston a 3-0 lead with just the benefit of two hits to that point.
The second missed chance to get back into the game for NSU came in the fifth inning on a
Kat Marshall base hit to start the inning. Eight pitches later Houston headed back to the dugout after two strikeouts and a ground ball to second ended the inning leaving Marshall stuck at first base.
"We've got a lot of things to get better at and we've got to go back to work," head coach
Donald Pickett said. "We have to get stronger and tougher between the ears and I think that's going to be the difference between us being able to be great or just pretty good. We've got to make that choice as to what we want to be."
The Cougars needed just three batters to add to their lead in the bottom of the inning with a lead-off double and a home run making it 5-0 through five innings.
Down the their final out of the game the Lady Demons picked up a pair of sharp singles from Marshall and
Derika Castillo, but a pop up in foul territory down the right field line ended the game and the tough weekend for the Lady Demons.
"It's going to be big to see how this motivates us coming out of a not so great weekend," Pickett said. "Hopefully we use this as motivation to do the things we've been asking them to do from an approach standpoint. If it takes a weekend like this to wake us up and help us get to that point, then it will be worth it."
The Lady Demons play a midweek doubleheader at Jackson State on Wednesday beginning at 4 p.m., before their final tournament weekend of the season in Memphis starting on Friday.
