Sports

UH needs to swing for fences

Cougar Pause

Christian Schmidt

Whatis wrong with the Houston baseball team?

The team that once had hopes of a national championship (or at least reaching the College World Series) doesnit even have a winning record. The team that only lost 17 games a year ago might equal that total before the end of March.

Itis easy to point fingers when things arenit going well. And to their credit, the Cougar players and coaches have stayed unified as they try to work through their difficulties.

The Houston pitching staff has been doing well, approaching the levels it reached last year when the Cougars were among the best in the nation in ERA. The team had a collective ERA of 3.31 heading into Wednesday nightis Rice game, only marginally higher than last yearis 3.20. The opponentis batting average is .231, exactly the same as in 2002.

All-American and staff ace Brad Sullivan has returned to his best form after struggling a little in his first few starts. His ERA is down to 1.93, and his last three starts have been nothing short of excellent.

With junior Danny Zell swiftly achieving superstar status and closer Ryan Wagner pitching at a high level, the Cougars are formidable on the mound.

So what is wrong with the team? In a word, hitting. The Cougars havenit been doing a good job on offense. The team has scored two or fewer runs in 10 games this year, forcing the Houston pitchers to be nearly perfect.

The Cougars are hitting a paltry .231 as a team, compared with last yearis .310 average. The team is scoring an average of 3.15 runs per game, compared with 6.43 last year. Without that scoring, itis tough for any team to win, even one with UHis pitching.

Houston built its offense around its sluggers, but without big hitters who can drive home runs, the Cougars havenit been able to score. Last season, catcher Chris Snyder and shortstop Jesse Crain were the hitters who made the UH scoring machine run, accounting for 118 RBIs combined.

This season, without their presence, the Cougars are slumping, with only first baseman/designated hitter Thanos Papavasiliou in double digits with 10 RBIs.

Snyder and Crain helped the hitters around them as well, allowing other hitters in the lineup to get better pitches and raise their batting averages.

Head coach Rayner Noble said earlier this week that six or seven of his players are going through hitting slumps right now and having a tough time breaking out.

One player whois not in a slump is junior third baseman Hyung Cho, who may be having the best stretch in his career as a Cougar. Chois batting average is a team-leading .346 and heis second on the team with six RBIs.

But only one other player, junior outfielder Gabe Lucas, is hitting better than .300. Senior Brett Cooley led last yearis squad with 18 home runs and was second in batting average at .339. Thus far, heis been mired in a slump, batting just .286 with one home run.

Noble publicly stated his goals ­ breaking the UH single-season wins record and making the College World Series ­ before the season began. With an overall losing record and a losing record in the young conference season, it looks like neither goal will be met this season.

That isnit to say the Cougars have no chance of making the College World Series, which they missed by a small margin a year ago.

But first the team will have to turn things around in a big way. With 34 games remaining in the season, the Cougars need to start winning. And that means they need to start hitting. Soon.

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