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Sports

Musick making the most of his opportunities

Freshman gets his chance to shine after missing 2006

by RONNIE TURNER
The Daily Cougar

A season ago, excitement was high for the UH baseball team as the Cougars sprinted to a runner-up finish in Conference USA and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. But while his teammates were having fun on the field, pitcher Wes Musick could only watch from the bench with arm and knee injuries and wait his turn.

That wait had already seen Musick undergo Tommy John surgery on his left elbow and a knee operation. After that came the grueling rehab required before he could throw from the mound again.

Musick, a redshirt freshman, finally got his turn when he was given his first collegiate start in the Cougars' season opener against Stephen F. Austin on Feb. 7. He tossed three shutout innings in that outing and has been dealing strikes ever since.

His next two starts were rough ones in which he was rocked for at least five runs in each. But since that difficult stretch, he has been one of the team' s most consistent pitchers.

Musick (4-3, 3.11 ERA) has claimed victories in three of his last five starts. In two of those starts, the lefty was flat out dominant.

Against Central Florida on Saturday, Musick tossed eight shutout innings and tied his career-high in strikeouts with 10 to lead the Cougars to a 3-0 victory. Two weeks before that, he allowed only one hit and struck out 10 batters in a 5-0 victory over Princeton.

Because there' s a good chance that injured junior right-hander Ricky Hargrove may not pitch at all this season, the Cougars (14-12, 3-0 C-USA) need Musick to continue picking up the slack. 

Look who' s back

A season ago, East Carolina was largely a forgotten entity in Conference USA as it stumbled down the stretch to a 33-26 finish and missed out on the postseason. However, the Pirates figure to turn some heads in 2007.

ECU (19-6, 3-0 C-USA) has its eyes set on returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005, and the Pirates are running over all teams who stand in their way. One such team is Memphis, which left Greenville, N.C., empty-handed this weekend after being swept by the Pirates in a three-game series.

That sweep extended ECU' s winnings streak to 13 games and gave the team some extra momentum. It' s still early in conference play, but the Pirates, who are ranked No. 19 in this week' s Baseball America poll, could be in the mix for the league' s top spot come season' s end.

"The guys have been playing great," ECU head coach Billy Godwin told the Daily Reflector following the Pirates' sweep of Memphis. "I can' t say anything that would come close to justifying how I feel about how they' re playing right now. We' re clicking on all cylinders.

"It' s important for us to continue to do this. It will be tough to do that, but it' s really important."

These guys should get out more

Every team loves playing at home as much as possible because of the comfort familiar settings provide. But is there such a thing as having too much home-field advantage?

Central Florida will soon find out the answer to that question. Of the nine Conference USA teams, the Golden Knights have enjoyed the most home-field advantage so far, having played all but three of their 27 games at Jay Bergman Field in Orlando. Their only three road contests came at LSU from Feb. 23-25, and they dropped two games in that series.

One would think the Golden Knights have been raking in the victories with such a favorable schedule, but the team has been largely mediocre to this point. Central Florida (14-13, 0-3 C-USA) is 13-11 at home after being swept by Houston in the two teams' first foray into conference play this weekend. 

By the numbers

ECU' s 13-game winning streak is the sixth-longest in Conference USA history...The Houston pitching staff has not allowed an earned run in its last 28.2 innings...Alabama-Birmingham currently has the top three batters in the league: senior outfielder J.R. Bond (.396), senior third baseman Ryne Lovdahl (.380) and junior first baseman Ryan Keedy (.380).

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