University of Houston Athletics
Baseball Opens Conference USA Play this Weekend
3/13/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 13, 2003
HOUSTON - The University of Houston baseball team opens its Conference USA season this weekend with a three-game series against East Carolina at Cougar Field.
The series begins with 7 p.m. games on both Friday and Saturday before wrapping up at noon Sunday.
The series can be heard live on KAXF 88.3 FM or over the Internet at www.UHcougars.com. Fans can also follow the action batter-by-batter over the Internet through www.UHcougars.com and by clicking on the "Gametracker" link on the "Daily Calendar" at the bottom of the main page.
The Cougars (7-10), who have lost four of their last five games, will be looking for some revenge against ECU, which won three of the four meetings last season. Included in those games was a 4-0 win over UH in the 2002 C-USA Tournament championship in Kinston, N.C.
However, history will be on the side of the Cougars. In six years as a member of Conference USA, UH has never lost the season-opening league series and has lost the season-opening game only once in 1998 at Tulane.
UH comes into the series on the heels of a 15-4 loss at Baylor on Tuesday, the second double-digit loss to the Bears this season.
In that game, freshman outfielder Matt Farrington went 2-for-4 with a run and triple and junior outfielder Gabe Lucas batted 2-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to a season-best six straight games. Lucas enters the series as the team's hottest hitter, batting .354 with a double, home run and two RBIs.
Junior righthander Brad Sullivan will make his seventh start of the year on Friday during the series opener. After losing his first three starts, Sullivan is again displaying the form that made him a 2002 consensus All-American.
This season, the Nederland, Texas, native has thrown a team-best 42 strikeouts with a 2.45 ERA and a 2-3 record in 36.2 innings of work. However, he has thrown a UH season-best-tying 11 strikeouts in each of his last two starts against Louisiana-Lafayette and East Carolina.
Junior southpaw Danny Zell (4-1, 1.57) and sophomore righthander Garrett Mock (1-2, 3.80) are expected to start games two and three of the series, respectively.
East Carolina (11-5-1) comes into the series as winners of three of hits last four games, including an 8-6 win at North Carolina A&T on Wednesday.
Righthander Davey Penney is expected to start Friday for the Pirates and has assembled a 2-2 record with 21 strikeouts in 20.1 innings of work.
Offensively, Jamie Page leads the team with a .333 batting average, while Darryl Lawhorn and Ryan Norwood are tied for the team lead with four home runs and 14 RBIs apiece.
