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Sports

Cougars face two kinds of demons

Houston takes aim at exorcizing persistent pitching problems, Northwestern State tonight

by PATRICK FAIRMAN
The Daily Cougar 

The Cougars (3-5) are getting set for their game this evening at 7 p.m. at Cougar Field, against Northwestern State University Demons (4-3).

The Houston Cougars are coming off of a winless weekend against No. 23 Arizona State. The biggest highlight was when Dustin Kingsbury and Brad Lincoln, connected on back-to-back home runs in Game 3 of the series. The Cougars lost the three games with the scores of 4-3,11-1 and 8-6. 

During the second game of the series, staff ace Brad Lincoln (1-1) suffered his first loss of the season by giving up six runs, five earned from seven hits in 5.1 innings. He had two walks while recording eight strikeouts. For the season his ERA is still solid through three starts at 2.60.

Pitching has been a continuing problem this season for the Cougars. While getting swept by ASU they used a total of ten pitchers. Of the ten, excluding Lincoln, three pitchers have an ERA of less than 4.00. Brady Glos at 3.86, Ricky Hargrove and Barry Laird. Only Hargrove and Laird have yet to give up an earned run this season. 

Hargrove is set for his first start of the year against NSU. So far his scoreless inning streak is at 9.1. 

Leading the way hitting for the Cougars is Bryan Tully with a .360 bating average which is closely followed by Lincoln at .344. Lincoln currently leads the team in home runs at three and RBIs at nine.

The Demons plan to counter with Drew Brown (1-0). Brown has recorded three strikeouts in 6.2 innings of work with a 1.35 ERA on the season. 

Infielder Brandon Morgan leads the Demons with a .360 batting average along with six RBIs, while the only home runs on the year have came from the bats of catcher Michael Flower and outfielder Miles Durham. The Demons are coming off a three game sweep of Tennessee-Martin (0-3). 

During the stretch, Fraser Robinson picked up pitcher of the week honors in the Southland Conference after throwing eight shutout innings, while striking out nine and allowing just two hits in a 7-1 victory over TMU.

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