Sugar Land Cannot Complete Wednesday Comeback, Drop Afternoon Contest 8-6
Even with some late-inning scoring, the Sugar Land Space Cowboys (23-12) could not overcome an early Oklahoma City Baseball Club (21-14) advantage as they dropped Wednesday afternoon’s contest 8-6 at Constellation Field. Oklahoma City was quick to take the lead in the first when Drew Avans scored on two throwing
Even with some late-inning scoring, the Sugar Land Space Cowboys (23-12) could not overcome an early Oklahoma City Baseball Club (21-14) advantage as they dropped Wednesday afternoon’s contest 8-6 at Constellation Field.
Oklahoma City was quick to take the lead in the first when Drew Avans scored on two throwing errors from a failed pickoff attempt. After Oklahoma City’s RHP Elieser Hernández (W, 4-1) retired the first six Sugar Land batters, back-to-back doubles from Quincy Hamilton and Cooper Hummel tied it up at one each heading to the fourth.
Sugar Land fell behind in the fifth 6-1 on RBI doubles from Avans, Trey Sweeney and Andre Lipcius, and then an RBI single from Chris Owings off RHP Miguel Díaz. Oklahoma City tacked on a couple more from Jonathan Araúz in the seventh with a single just barely out of reach of second baseman Jesús Bastidas to take an 8-1 lead.
The Space Cowboys would not go down easy, though. After back-to-back walks put two runners on in the bottom of the seventh, Luke Berryhill stepped up to the plate and cranked his fourth home run in the past eight games to cut Oklahoma City’s lead in half.
Don't count us out. pic.twitter.com/bpB9amlu1C
— Sugar Land Space Cowboys (@SLSpaceCowboys) May 8, 2024
RHP Blair Henley (L, 1-2) walked and struck out three in his start against Oklahoma City, giving up two runs, only one earned, in four innings of work. RHP Ray Gaither pitched a clean sixth inning but could not escape a seventh-inning jam, ultimately surrendering two runs on three hits and two walks. LHP Bryan King lowered his ERA below 2.00 for the year, hurling 1.1 innings and only allowing just one hit. Hummel was given the ball to pitch the ninth inning, where after giving up a lead-off double he retired the side in order to give the Space Cowboys one last chance at a comeback.
With one out in the ninth and following a walk of Hummel, Berryhill struck again with an RBI double in the left-center gap to bring Sugar Land within three runs. Corey Julks then grounded one straight to the shortstop Trey Sweeney, who threw it away to allow Julks to reach base and Berryhill to score. However, RHP Michael Petersen struck out the next batter he faced to close out the game.
The Space Cowboys play their third game of the series against the Oklahoma City Baseball Club Thursday night. RHP Misael Tamarez (3-1, 5.34) will take the mound opposite of RHP Ben Casparius (NR) for a 6:35 pm CT first pitch. The game can be heard on ESPN 92.5 FM or online here and seen on MiLB.TV, MLB.TV or Bally Live.
ABOUT THE SUGAR LAND SPACE COWBOYS:
The Sugar Land Space Cowboys are the Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros and compete in the Pacific Coast League. They began play as the Astros Triple-A affiliate in 2021 and began playing under the Space Cowboys brand in 2022. The Space Cowboys play at Constellation Field, located at the corner of Hwy-6 and US-90 Alternate in Sugar Land, Texas. Follow the team on Twitter (@SLSpaceCowboys), Instagram (@slspacecowboys), Facebook (SLSpaceCowboys) and their official website (slspacecowboys.com). Fans can purchase full-season and partial-season plans, as well as single-game tickets, by visiting slspacecowboys.com/tickets.