Houston earned a 5-3 victory over No. 22 Arizona State on May 16 during Senior Weekend at Schroeder Park. Senior Harrison Boushele led the Cougars by pitching five shutout innings in relief, allowing only two hits against an Arizona State team that had averaged more than eleven hits per game this season.
The win marks Houston’s fourth victory over a ranked opponent this year, the most since the team recorded five such wins in 2019. Head Coach Todd Whitting has now secured four or more victories against ranked teams in eight of his sixteen seasons leading the program and has totaled seventy-one wins against ranked opponents overall.
Key players for Houston included Cade Climie, who went two-for-four with a double and an RBI; Blake Fields, who hit his third home run of the season; Irvin Weems III, who contributed a double and stolen base; Antonelli Savattere, whose hitting streak reached eleven games; and Paul Schmitz, who notched his fifth appearance of the year with at least five strikeouts. The Cougars have outscored their opponents fifty-seven to forty-one over their last ten games while posting a team earned run average of 3.29 during that stretch.
Arizona State began the game with back-to-back home runs but was held to just three runs as Houston rallied in the third inning to tie the score before taking control late in the game. Fields broke a tie with a leadoff homer in the seventh inning, followed by Riley Jackson being hit by a pitch with bases loaded to give Houston its final margin.
Looking ahead, Houston will play its final regular-season game against Arizona State on Saturday afternoon.
