After a cold front dropped game-time temperatures into the 40s, the bats needed some time to percolate. Of course, the Game 1 starting pitchers – Montana Parsons for Baylor and Mitch Ullom for Houston – may have had as much to do with that development as anything.

Parsons and Ullom breezed through much of the game, staying ahead of hitters and limiting baserunners. When the pitchers did work themselves into a bind, they were able to untie those knots with little issue.

Parsons masterfully painted the outside corner of the plate on his way to three inning-ending strikeouts where the Houston hitter didn’t take the bat off his shoulder.

Parsons said he realized early on that the home plate umpire had a forgiving strike zone on the outside corner, so he tried to use that to his advantage.

“You’ve got to keep going to it, especially if you’re going to have a bigger zone,” Parsons said. “That was probably the biggest zone this season, today. It definitely helps. If he’s going to give it to me, which he did early, then I’m going to keep going to it.”