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Noble's cats ready to feed

UH's battle-tested troops should storm C-USA opponents with cunning captain

By Tom Carpenter
The Daily Cougar

A critic of Cougar baseball would be tempted to declare that this season represents head coach Raynor Noble's best effort as a coach, primarily because of the Cougar's 12-19 record. 

The pre-conference schedule was a stroll through Murderer's Row, and though the Cougars got mugged, they're still very much alive thanks to Noble's dugout machinations.

The Charlotte series that starts Friday evening at Cougar Field offers fans an opportunity to observe the Cougar coach at work, tweaking his lineup and making adjustments to scratch out a win any way possible.

Noble is paying the price of success, and it's the difference between another great year of Cougar baseball and a misfiring season of fine tuning and baling wire repairs on the fly.

The Boys of Summer are competitive, no doubt about it, and great fun to watch. But Cougar pitching has a tendency in the late innings to turn into Wal-Mart gas, watered down with no get up and go when it's time to slip into overdrive.

Noble got sandbagged by his own success when the pros plundered his pitching staff in the last draft by selecting Brad Sullivan, Ryan Wagner and Danny Zell in the first five rounds.

The wily Noble's maneuvers and acumen keep the Cougars close, but the formidable lefty can't pitch the ninth.

Conference USA rival Charlotte (13-13, 3-6 in C-USA) presents a great opportunity for the Cougars to sandwich a six-pack of wins around another tough loss to No. 4 Rice in spite of the 49ers' .286 team batting average. 

The 49ers come into town mired in a seven-game losing streak, and their 13 wins are deceptive. 

The Charlotte preseason schedule looks like a stroll through the doughnut shop with cream puffs Winthrop, High Point, LeMoyne, and William and Mary putting the weight on the win column: Texas, Cal-State Fullerton, Louisiana State and Long Beach State they are not. 

Noble said many times that he believes a tough pre-conference schedule makes a team more competitive. 

Baseball fans will have the chance to step into the laboratory and watch a Noble experiment when the Cougars take the field against Charlotte at 7 p.m. tonight.

Junior righthander Garrett Mock (2-5, 4.57) will open the series for the Cougars against righthander Zachary Treadway (1-3, 3.40).

To win, the Cougar pitchers must contain slugger Jamie Rusco, who leads the 49ers with a .362 batting average, 10 homeruns and 30 RBIs.

Games 2 and 3 will start at 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday respectively.

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