University of Houston Athletics
Baseball to Meet C-USA Rival UAB in Weekend Series
4/1/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 1, 2004
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The University of Houston baseball team returns to action this weekend when it meets Conference USA rival UAB in a three-game series at Young Memorial Field in Birmingham, Ala.
The series begins at 7 p.m., Friday, continues at 2 p.m., Saturday and wraps up at 1 p.m., Sunday.
The series can be heard live on KAXF 88.3 FM with Nick Torina and Pat Cauley calling the action or over the Internet at www.UHCougars.com. Fans can follow live stats of all three games at www.UHCougars.com by clicking on the Gametracker link on the bottom of the main page.
The Cougars (9-18, 2-4 C-USA) come into the series on the heels of an 8-3 loss at No. 4 Rice on Tuesday in Game Three of the annual Silver Glove Series. With that win, Rice took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-5 series.
Junior righthander Garrett Mock is expected to get the Game One start against UAB on Friday. This season, Mock has thrown to a 1-5 record with a 4.81 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 33.2 innings.
However, the Houston native has enjoyed two consecutive solid starts recently. Despite allowing only one unearned run off four hits with a season-best seven strikeouts in his last outing against TCU on March 26, Mock was the no-luck losing pitcher in a 1-0 setback to the Horned Frogs.
Senior DH Brett Cooley remains the Cougars' Triple Crown leader with a .301 batting average, five home runs and 25 RBIs.
UAB (14-10, 2-3 C-USA) comes into the series after falling 6-5 to No. 24 Mississippi State on Tuesday. Southpaw Griffin Zarbough (2-0, 4.31) is expected to take the hill for the Blazers.
Nathan McCorkle leads UAB with for home runs and a .342 batting average while Cole Helms tops all players with 22 RBIs.
This marks the eighth consecutive season that the Cougars will meet UAB on the baseball diamond. The series began in 1997 when UH joined Conference USA, and the Cougars have posted a 17-4 all-time record against the Blazers during that time.
UH enters this weekend's series as the winner of its last three and 16 of its last 17 games against UAB. However, the Cougars have not dominated as nearly as the numbers seem to indicate with 11 of those 16 contests being decided by two runs or less.
A year ago, the Cougars swept the regular-season series against the Blazers but did so by only one run in each contest. The series finale at Cougar Finale was capped in dramatic fashion as Brian Martin blasted a walk-off homer to give UH a 3-2 lead.
The Cougars have recorded a 6-1 all-time record against UAB in Birmingham.
