Jones' mind filled with Olympic dreams

Sports Opinion

Spoiling Rice's home-opener would provide sweet redemption 

By Josh Gajewski
Daily Cougar Staff

The UH baseball team entered their season-opening series at Texas this past weekend with a No. 6 ranking and a boatload of confidence knowing that their top two guns were taking the hill in games one and two versus the Longhorns.

Despite both Kyle Crowell and Shane Nance's valiant performances, UH dropped two out of three to Texas and dropped to No. 12 in the most recent poll. A dreary Monday afternoon provided for reflection, practice was moved indoors and the bitterness began to settle.

"We were down after Sunday for a lot of reasons," UH head baseball coach Rayner Noble said. "Expectations were very high for us to take at least two of three from UT and we're going to have to rectify that."

Redemption begins today.

Nothing would ease the Cougars' pain more than a win this afternoon against cross-town rival Rice, who dropped to No. 22 in the rankings after losing their first three games of the year on the road.

Brandon Caraway

Senior Brandon Caraway will rightfully get the first crack at making Texas a distant memory. After going 2-for-14 in Austin, Caraway will be the first-ever player to officially step up to the plate at Reckling Field, Rice's fancy new home, which opens today.

"I didn't do my job against Texas and that's one of the reasons we lost," Caraway said. "I'm the catalyst of the offense and my job is to get things going and I didn't do that -- I just had a uniform on and showed up. For me, I'm just looking to turn things around against Rice."

Greg Runser gets the nod and will take the mound today for his second outing of the year and his first starting assignment of 2000. He picked up the loss in game one against Texas despite throwing 2.1 innings of strong relief work, only to give up the winning run in the 11th as UH fell 2-1.

Greg Runser

"This is a big game," Runser said. "My job is just to keep us in the ball game and give us an opportunity to win. All of my preparation has been leading up to this and we'll just have to go out there and see what happens."

"He threw the ball well in Austin and has the kind of stuff that could give (Rice) some problems," Noble added. "We could very well see the same type of game we saw on Friday (UT's 2-1 win)."

Noble said he would like to squeeze five innings of work out of Runser and will limit his pitch count to 75-80 at most. If needed, however, the rest of the UH staff will be available in relief.

Senior right-hander Jeff Nichols will be the likely starter for Rice, who lost three straight games to Atlantic Coast Conference opponents to start the year.

A crowd of over 4,000 is expected to fill the seats at the new ballpark. Full capacity is estimated at around 5,000.

"This game means as much to us as it does to them, no matter whose ballpark we're in," Caraway said.

The game marks the beginning of the annual Silver Glove Series, sponsored by Sterling Bank. Rice has come away with the trophy both of the past two seasons, with the Owls winning three of five games last year.

After today, UH will continue its tough eight-game stretch in which the Cougars face three teams that made it to the Regionals last year.

UH's home opener at Cougar Field is Friday, when the Cougars play host to Southwest Texas State, which will look for revenge after being knocked out of the postseason in Cougar Field last year.

UH infielder Tyson Sweitzer, recovering from a hamstring pull, should make his first showing of the season this weekend.

Kyle Crowell will likely get the start Friday, with Shane Nance taking the mound against the Bobcats on Saturday.

"This gives us experience for the postseason more than anything else," Runser said. "These are the caliber of teams we'll be facing in the Regionals, the Super Regionals, and hopefully, in the College World Series."

First pitch this afternoon is scheduled for 2 p.m.