Fourth game of Silver
Glove takes place today
By Stuart H. Clements
Daily Cougar Staff
The Houston baseball team maintained its
position at No. 5 in the Baseball America poll after going 3-1 last week.
Brian Viney/The Daily Cougar
Junior catcher Chris Snyder
will lead the Cougars into battle against Rice tonight. Snyder led the
team in home runs last year and is
tied with junior Brett Cooley for the
team lead this year.
The Cougars went 2-1 against Conference
USA foe Southern Mississippi and shut out Fresno State to improve to 21-8,
7-2 in
league play.
At 7 p.m. today, the Cougars face cross-town
rival No. 3 Rice for the fourth game of the Silver Glove series at Cougar
Field.
The Owls enter the game knowing they've
taken a 3-0 advantage over the Cougars to win this season's Silver Glove.
The last game went 11 innings before Rice's
Austin Davis broke the 1-1 tie with a home run. The Owls went on to win
3-1.
Over the weekend, Rice polished off a three-game
sweep of Western Athletic Conference rival Fresno State, improving to 26-5
overall, 9-0 in the WAC.
Sophomore pitcher Danny Zell will take
the hill for his third start of the season. Zell has a 3.86 ERA in nine
and one-third innings of
work.
Zell, a southpaw and Houston native, recorded
his first decision last Tuesday against Fresno State. In just two innings,
Zell allowed
only two hits and added three strikeouts
for the win.
Juniors Anthony Scalise and Jesse Crain
lead the Cougar offense in batting average at .336.
Additionally, Scalise has tallied four
doubles, one triple and 20 RBI, while Crain has eight doubles, three home
runs and 19 RBI.
There is another tie among key offensive
players. Juniors Brett Cooley and Chris Snyder lead the team in home runs
with five
apiece. Snyder also leads the team in
RBI with 23.
Rice third baseman Hunter Brown was honored
as the sixth Owl to receive a WAC award either as Pitcher of the Week or
Player of
the Week.
Brown was honored as WAC Player of the
Week after totaling seven RBI, two home runs, two doubles and six runs
last week.
Rice's Vincent Sinisi and Eric Arnold lead
the Owl offense with batting averages over .400.
Sinisi has a .410 batting average, four
home runs and 39 RBI, while Arnold holds a .403 batting average, leads
the team in RBI with
44 and has six home runs.
Enrique Cruz leads the Owls in home runs
with seven.
Rice's starting pitcher has yet to be determined
for Tuesday's game.
The Silver Glove series will conclude April
16 at Reckling Park. The Cougars will travel to Greenville, N.C., to face
East Carolina in a
three-game C-USA series.
The Pirates are currently No. 8 in the
conference, and hold a 4-4-1 record in league play.
Houston won't play another C-USA game at
home until April 12, when Memphis will visit Cougar Field.
