University of Houston Athletics
Baseball Plays Host to TCU in Key Conference USA Series
5/15/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 15, 2002
HOUSTON, Texas - It all comes down to this weekend.
The University of Houston baseball team looks to win its third Conference USA regular-season championship in the last four years as it plays host to TCU in a three-game series, beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday at Cougar Field.
The series begins a day earlier in the week due to the traveling arrangements of all C-USA school as they prepare to compete at the C-USA Tournament on May 21-26 in Kinston, N.C.
Game two of the series will be at 7 p.m. Friday with the series finale to be played at 1 p.m. Saturday. Saturday's game time was changed from the original schedule on Tuesday due to TCU's traveling arrangements.
UH stands atop the C-USA standings with a 19-7 mark in league play, a half game ahead of the Horned Frogs and Louisville, which is at East Carolina this weekend. Southern Mississippi stands in fourth place, one game behind the Cougars, and will play at Tulane this week.
The Cougars (38-18), ranked No. 10 in the latest Baseball America poll, come into the series on the heels of a 5-4 win at 17th-ranked Baylor on Tuesday and have won five straight games overall.
Junior catcher Chris Snyder continues to lead the team with a .355 batting average and 60 RBIs. The Houston native was recently named one of 10 semifinalists for the Johnny Bench Catcher of the Year award, given to the nation's top collegiate catchers.
Junior Brett Cooley is tops among the Cougars with 15 home runs but saw his UH season-best 22-game hitting streak snapped against Baylor on Tuesday.
Junior utility player Jesse Crain added his name to the UH record book with his performance against the Bears. By recording the final out of the game from the mound, Crain recorded his third straight save in as many games and set a new UH single-season record with eight saves. He topped the old mark of seven set by Jason Farrow during the 1995 season.
But the players weren't the only ones moving up in the record book on Tuesday. With that win, UH head coach Rayner Noble became the third winningest coach in school history, moving past former head coach and current volunteer coach Dr. Bragg Stockton, with 284 wins.
Sophomore righthander Brad Sullivan looks to improve on his 9-1 record when he takes the hill against the Horned Frogs on Thursday. This season, the Nederland, Texas, native ranks among the national leaders in wins and with 11.9 strikeouts per game. With six strikeouts at Charlotte last weekend, Sullivan set a new UH single-season record with 125 strikeouts and has already tallied the single-game record with 16 punchouts against Memphis earlier this season.
TCU (28-24, 19-8) comes into the series after a 4-3 win over Texas-Arlington on Tuesday and has posted a seven-game winning streak with back-to-back conference sweeps coming against UAB and Cincinnati. Terry Trofholz leads TCU and all of Conference USA with a .461 batting average. Walter Olmstead is tops among the Horned Frogs with 12 home runs and 53 RBIs.
Sophomore righthander Clayton Jerome is scheduled to start game one of the series on the mound. This season, Jerome has posted a 9-3 record with 67 strikeouts and a 3.34 ERA in 97.0 innings.
