ZANE WILLIAMS & UHV-JAGUARS

[southland]

WILLIAMS POWERS JAGUARS

BY MIKE FORMAN - [email protected]

March 19, 2009 - 11:21 p.m.

University of Houston-Victoria baseball coach Terry Puhl had heard about Zane Williams' power and now he's seen it first hand.

Williams hit his ninth home run of the season, a towering grand slam, to highlight an eight-run seventh inning in the Jaguars' 12-2 win over Fisher College in a game stopped in the seventh because of the 10-run mercy rule on Thursday night at Riverside Stadium.

UHV improved to 17-10 and will return to Riverside Stadium on Friday at noon to play another single game against the team from Boston. The Falcons dropped to 4-9.

"That does not surprise me, I've seen him hit balls," Puhl said of Williams, who transferred to UHV from Southern Arkansas. "The ball he hit in Dallas (actually Fort Worth), I've never seen one ball hit so far in my life. This one right here was a pretty good poke too. That's a deep part of left-center, almost center field."

Williams hit his eighth double of the season in his first at-bat and drove a 2-1 pitch just to the left of the center-field fence.

"I was just thinking about my last at-bat," said Williams, who had flown out to left field. "Coach Puhl told me to have a good at-bat and to stop chasing curveballs so I knew just to sit back, get my foot down and trust my swing. I got a pitch to hit and I hit it well."

All eight Jaguars who came to the plate in the seventh inning reached base against starter Jarlin Gomez and two relievers. "They just started getting better pitches to swing at," Puhl said. "The first pitcher got into a pretty good rhythm around the fourth and fifth inning with his breaking ball and we went fishing on some pitches that I wasn't too happy about. Our team, they can hit, but they have to swing at pitches that are quality pitches to swing at."

UHV had six of its 10 hits in the inning, including a two-run triple by Josh Darnell, who hit a solo home run in the third inning, and Tony Rothman's team-leading 10th home run, a solo blast over the right-field fence to end the game.

"We've been seeing better pitching and we're starting to get used to it," Williams said. "This guy had some good stuff and we finally started getting used to him and stringing together some hits. We chased him and got to the bullpen and they weren't doing too good so we jumped on them too."

UHV pitcher Casey Newman (1-1) got into the win column by working six innings. Newman did not allow an earned run while striking out six, walking three and hitting a batter.

"He pitched through a lot of pitches tonight, he was up to 115 pitches," Puhl said. "He did a good job. (Pitching coach) Doug (Heinold) has been working with him about not rushing as much. Once he gets that part, when it sinks in for him, he's going to be a much better pitcher because of it."

No outs when game ended

Jarlin Olivera, Austin Brodie (6), Mark Dorso (6) and Edwin Pena. Casey Newman, Colter Zoch (6) and Josh Darnell. W: Newman (1-1). L: Olivera. Highlights: (FC) Mike Olivera 2-for-4. (UHV) Zane Williams 2-for-4, grand slam, 2B, 2 runs, 5 RBI; Josh Darnell 2-for-3 solo HR, 3B, 2 runs, 3 RBI; James Green 1-for-3, 3B, 2 runs, RBI; David Baker 1-for-1, run, RBI, SB; Tony Rothman solo HR; Jon McDonald 1-for-3, 2 runs, RBI. Records: Fisher College 4-9; UHV 17-10.

[24 over par]

zane had a great week last week and there should be something in the local papers soon

[southland]

THAT WOULD BE GREAT. THE ONLY WAY I CAN KEEP UP IS CONTACT THE FAMILY OR CHECK OUT THE UHV.EDU WEBSITE. IT IS NICE TO SEE A HOMETOWN PERSON EXCEL AT THE NEXT LEVEL. HE ALSO GOT AN INVITATION FROM THE MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON-VICTORIA CHAPTER OF THE GAMMA BETA PHI SOCIETY TO BECOME A MEMBER DUE TO HIS EXCEPTIONAL ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE.  WAY TO GO Z-TRAIN!!!!!!!

[rhino1877]

Great job Z!!!!