Space Cowboys sweep weekend series against the Salt Lake Bees

Written by Ashton Grissom, SFL Writer  | Photo by Oscar Herrera, SFL Photographer

With many players currently called up to the Astros roster, Sugar Land’s new look team came out of the break hot by winning three straight games over the Salt Lake Bees.

The Space Cowboys outscored the Bees over the weekend by a combined score of 12-4, led by solid performances from the pitching staff.

In Friday’s game, starting pitcher Jason Alexander earned the win by tossing 6.2 shutout innings allowing just one hit and striking out nine. With his performance he lowered his season ERA to 1.55.

Relief pitcher Nick Hernandez earned his third save of the season with his shutout performance in the ninth inning ending the night with no hits and two strikeouts.

For the offense, Luis Castro was the star, recording RBIs in the first and fifth inning to propel the Space Cowboys to a 2-0 victory in the home opener.

Sugar Land’s offense turned it around in Saturday’s game with a 7-3 victory. Omar Narváez singled in the first inning to score Shay Whitcomb Jr. and take a 1-0 lead. In his next at bat, Narváez crushed a two-run home run to center field to jump out in front 3-0.

In the fifth inning, the offense rallied for four more runs led by Jesús Bastidas’ three RBI double followed by Bryan Lavastida’s RBI single later in the inning.

The Bees rallied for two runs in the seventh and one in the eighth inning to cut the lead to 7-3, but relief pitcher Blake Weiman tossed a scoreless ninth to close the game.

Starting pitcher A.J. Blubaugh earned his fifth win of the season by throwing 5.1 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and only allowed two hits.

In the series finale on Sunday, pitching continued to dominate with starting pitcher Miguel Ullola recording 11 strikeouts and no runs through 5.1 innings.

To begin the game, Colin Barber scored on a throwing error to take an early 1-0 lead. In the sixth inning, Tommy Sacco Jr. hit his second homer of the season and drove in Price to lead 3-0.

Salt Lakes’ first baseman Zach Humphreys doubled in the seventh inning to score Yolmer Sánchez and cut into the lead 3-1.

Relief pitchers Jordan Weems and Rhett Kouba combined for 2.1 scoreless innings to close the game out for the Space Cowboys and Kouba recorded the save.

With the successful weekend series, the Space Cowboys improved to 50-44 on the season.

Next up, Sugar Land heads out west for a six-game series against the El Paso Chihuahuas beginning Tuesday, July 22, at 6:35 p.m.

The Space Cowboys next home series will begin Tuesday, July 29, at 7:05 p.m. against the Tacoma Rainiers.