Baseball has its sights
set on College World Series
By Stuart H. Clements
Daily Cougar Staff
The Houston baseball team will open the
season next weekend at the Astros College Classic, held at Enron Field.
The Cougars
will see if their practice pays off when
they battle Baylor, Texas and Texas A&M.
Pin Lim/The Daily Cougar
From left, sophomores Hyung
Cho and Austin Faught, junior Chris Snyder and sophomores Brad Sullivan
and Michael Bourn
are ready to make Cougar Baseball's 2002
season a winning one.
"We're ready to go. We've got just about
everybody healthy that we need healthy," head coach Rayner Noble said.
Houston is a young team, consisting of
many sophomores returning from last year's successful season. They will
be taking the
field at 4 p.m. Friday.
"I think it's going to really benefit our
cause just having a year of the competition we had last year under our
belts," Noble said.
Of 11 returning sophomores, five were named
to the 12-member Conference USA all-freshmen team last season, including
outfielder Michael Bourn, pitchers Brad
Sullivan, Gene Flores and Austin Faught and third baseman Hyung Cho.
Sullivan was also named to the C-USA first
team, and returning junior catcher Chris Snyder joined Bourn and Faught
on the
second team.
"We're a young team, but everybody got
out in the trenches last year, so we've got the experience we need," Snyder
said.
Houston will begin the season ranked No.
27 in the nation by Baseball America magazine and No. 2 in C-USA in the
conference's preseason coaches' poll.
"It'll probably be the best year for the
league from top to bottom since we've been in it. I think every team is
going to be very
competitive, but I feel like we've got
a chance to win the conference," Noble said.
Although Tulane is picked to defend its
2001 C-USA title with Preseason Player of the Year Michael Aubrey, there
is no reason
the Cougars can't prove themselves worthy
of a conference championship, and possibly a shot at the College World
Series.
"For the team I expect nothing less than
going to Omaha. We've got a team right now that I think can do it," Snyder
said.
Preseason honors went to Sullivan, Cho
and Bourn as they were placed on the C-USA All-Conference preseason team.
"We all like to think that we can coach,
but it really helps to have solid players — guys that can play at the next
level," Noble said.
The Cougars battle the Baylor Bears for
their first game of the season. The Bears have a plethora of returning
pitchers from last
year's outstanding pitching staff.
Baylor also traditionally has a killer
offense, but the real challenge for Houston will be to get some runs. The
team will have to
fight very hard on offense.
Baylor is ranked No. 16 in the ESPN coaches'
poll and will probably be Houston's fiercest game of the weekend, but the
Cougars
have to play Texas at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
The Longhorns have had to make some adjustments
from last year, and so the team will be a little different. Texas, however,
has
a long tradition of excellence in the
sport, so it should manage to put together an outstanding ball club.
Head coach Augie Garrido is in his sixth
season at UT and has always been a fabulous recruiter, so any changes made
should
be for the best.
After playing Texas, Houston's schedule
gets easier, but not much easier. Its first 16 games are against ranked
teams.
"What we're really going to have to do
is just stay as healthy as we can, get quality pitching and play good defense.
I think if we
can do that we'll be all right and have
a chance to win," Noble said.
Chris Snyder is going to be a key player
this year because of his experience and talent. Snyder, a Houston native,
is a two-year
letterman and a wonderful catcher.
"He's one of our veteran players, and we're
gonna lean on him pretty heavily for leadership and the experience factor,"
Noble
said.
Last summer Snyder was a member of the
2001 Team USA.
"Team USA was about the most fun thing
I've ever experienced," Snyder said. "I got to play with people that I
don't know where
they'll end up in the draft, but there
were some pretty big names out there."
Snyder will be well scouted for the draft.
He is one of the best catchers in the nation.
"Professional people are looking at him
to go pretty high in the draft, but it just depends on what kind of year
he puts together and
how healthy he stays during the year how
high he'll go in the draft," Noble said.
In addition to Snyder's responsibility
to support the team, Noble is counting on some new recruits to dazzle the
competition.
Two freshmen, pitcher Ryan Wagner and infielder
Cameron Blair, will be pulling their weight to help the team succeed, and
junior college transfers Brett Cooley
and Jesse Crain will be called upon for big plays.
Crain and Cooley are both juniors, and
are good, versatile players who can play in the infield or fill in at the
pitcher's mound if
necessary.
It looks like the start of a brilliant
season for the Cougars. Noble has set high goals for the team, and the
players certainly have
equally high expectations. With a lot
of work and a little luck, the Cougars could prevail.
