HOUSTON — Columbia Baseball (5-9, 0-0 IVY) lost the second game of its weekend series at Houston (12-7, 0-0 AAC), 10-4, with the Cougars using two innings to outscore Columbia in a Saturday night game at Schroeder Park.
 
Houston scored four runs in the third and five in the sixth to create a deficit that the Lions could not overcome.  The Lions bats were held at bay by solid pitching from Houston's starting pitcher, Nathan Merrano, while Columbia's starting pitcher, Joe Sheets (0-1) had trouble keeping Houston from scoring early.
 
Defensively, the Lions did have a great night, highlighted by catcher Weston Eberly catching three Cougars stealing, including one at second and another at third.  While at first base, Tyler MacGregor bounced back from an early error to record eight putouts and he found himself at the receiving end of several flashy plays by Columbia infielders.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED: Sheets started the game well, only allowing one baserunner while giving up only one hit over the first two innings.  But in the third, Houston got to the Lions starter, scoring four runs on three hits.
 
The big blow in the third came from a three-run home run with one out and one run already scored for Houston.  The home run, given up by Sheets, gave Houston a 4-0 advantage after three innings.
 
Sheets sat Houston down in order in the fourth, but in the fifth his night came to an end.  After giving up a leadoff triple, an RBI ground out gave Houston a 5-0 lead and after giving up another hit, Sheets was taken out of the game for Brandon Madrigal finishing with a line of 4.1 IP 5 H 5 ER 2 K.
 
Eberly's defense showed up to end the fifth inning, catching Houston's Zach Arnold attempting to steal second for his first caught stealing of the game.  After a single from Alex Lopez, Eberly was again on point as he noticed Lopez was too far off first, and after coming out of his crouch began a 2-4-3 caught stealing to end the inning.
 
Houston added five more runs to go up 10-0 after the sixth inning.  In the seventh, the Lions got on the board, with an RBI single by Eberly scoring Griffin Palfrey and a run scored by Eberly after getting to third on a MacGregor single to right.
 
In the seventh, Eberly added another caught stealing, gunning down Anthony Tulimero at third.  But over the final three frames, the Lions scored only four runs, and after MacGregor hit a solo home run in the ninth, the final out was recorded in Houston's 10-4 win.
 
GAME NOTES: Anton Lazits and Joshua Solomon each extended their hitting streaks to five games … This was the fourth straight game Columbia hit at least one home run … Columbia got 2.1 scoreless innings of work from Camron Hubble and Phil Healy.
 
UP NEXT: Columbia will look to win the series and wrap up their long road trip with a victory in the final game at Houston, with that game set to get going on Sunday, Mar. 20 at 1 p.m. EST.
 
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