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Sports

UH to try for a repeat at UTSA

Cougars beat Roadrunners at 12-10 in last week's contest

by LOUIE VERA
The Daily Cougar

The UH baseball team will conclude its four-game road trip when it faces Texas-San Antonio for the second time in six days at 6 p.m. tonight at Wolff Stadium.

Houston (6-6) beat the Roadrunners 12-10 on Thursday in the Southwest Diamond Classic en route to finishing the tournament with a 2-1 mark.

UH head coach Rayner Noble has yet to decide on the starting pitcher for tonight's game against the Roadrunners (2-7). But he announced Monday that it would be either junior right-hander Dereck Cloeren or freshman right-hander John Touchton.

Should Cloeren (0-2, 20.25 ERA) get the call, it will be his first career start in a UH uniform. 

Last season, he pitched for Northwestern State and posted a 1-1 record with a 3.55 ERA in two starts.

In Touchton's last relief appearance against McNeese State last week, he tossed 2.1 innings and allowed only one run on three hits to earn the victory.

Touchton enters tonight's matchup sporting a 1-1 record with a 14.85 ERA in 6.2 innings of relief this season.

Junior outfielder Bryan Tully could also be called upon to pitch in the late innings if needed. 

Tully (1-0, 1.59) has been one of the team's most consistent relievers and Noble said the Cougars will continue to utilize him.

"I thought Tully came in and did a nice job (against UTSA)," Noble said. "He's emerging as one of the guys we're probably going to lean on a lot late in ball games."

The Cougars have struggled on defense lately. 

In their 7-5 loss to Dallas Baptist on Friday, the infield committed five errors, including two detrimental infield errors in the eighth inning, which gave the Patriots the lead for good.

The defensive collapse prompted Noble to severely alter the infield for the team's game against Texas-Arlington on the final day of the tournament. 

The Cougars won that game 8-3.

Noble moved junior Ryan Lormand from shortstop to second base, junior Bryan Pounds from second to third base, and senior Dustin Kingsbury from third to shortstop. Noble said he plans to keep these moves in place for at least four to six more games. 

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