University of Houston Athletics
Baseball Meets Saint Louis in C-USA Three-Game Series
4/25/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 25, 2002
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - After a dominating win earlier in the week, the University of Houston baseball team returns to action this weekend when it faces Conference USA rival Saint Louis in a three-game series.
The series starts at 3 p.m. Friday at the Billiken Sports Center and concludes with 1 p.m. games on Saturday and Sunday. Game times on Friday and Saturday were moved up several hours earlier in the week due to school activities on the SLU campus this weekend.
The Cougars (30-12, 13-5), who have already surpassed their win total from all of last season, come into the series on the heels of a 6-1 win over Sam Houston State on Wednesday at Cougar Field. In that game, five UH pitchers combined to hold the Bearkats to one unearned run and two hits and faced the minimum number of batters over the final eight innings.
However, the UH offense was just as effective against SHSU, pounding out 14 hits. It marked the fourth straight game and the ninth time in the last 10 games that the Cougars posted double-digit hits.
Sophomore righthander Brad Sullivan takes the hill in game one of the series. In his last outing, Sullivan struck out 12 batters while scattering four hits and one run in eight winnings to help lead UH to a 10-2 win over Cincinnati on April 19 at Cougar Field. It was the seventh straight victory for the Nederland, Texas, native who has posted 103 strikeouts and a 1.62 ERA in only 72.1 innings of work this season.
He also received two pieces of good news earlier this week when he was named as one of 19 collegiate players invited to the 2002 USA Baseball National Team Trials and was placed on the Smith Award Watch List, an honor given to the nation's top collegiate player.
Southpaws Danny Zell (4-0, 2.52) and Austin Faught (1-2, 3.96) are scheduled to start the second and third games of the series, respectively.
Junior catcher Chris Snyder continues to lead the team with a .350 batting average and has added nine home runs and a team-best 42 RBIs. Junior Brett Cooley tops the Cougars with 11 home runs and has hit safely in his last 13 games and 19 of the last 20. In addition, the Round Rock, Texas, native has tallied 10 straight games with at least one RBI.
Saint Louis (15-22, 5-12) enters the series on the heels of a 10-0 loss to Missouri on Tuesday. Kurt Evans leads the Billikens with a .349 batting average while Jim Bredenkoetter and Corey Lawson are tied with a team-best four home runs each. Ryan Murphy is tops with 28 RBIs.
Kris Weber (1-0, 4.82) is scheduled to start game one of the series against UH.
