University of Houston Athletics
Baseball Opens Three-Game Series vs. Tulane on Thursday
5/19/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 19, 2004
HOUSTON - Winners of 12 of its last 15 games, the University of Houston baseball team wraps up its 2004 regular season schedule when it meets Tulane in a three-game, Conference USA series this weekend at Cougar Field.
After winning two of three games at C-USA rival Louisville last weekend, UH finally reached the .500 mark with a 26-26 overall record. It marked the first time since the second game of the season on Feb. 14 that UH stood at .500 at the end of the day.
The Cougars will use this weekend's series as a valuable tune-up for the 2004 C-USA Tournament sponsored by Sterling Bank at their own Cougar Field on May 26-30. For UH's NCAA postseason hopes to continue, the Cougars must give a good showing at the league's annual postseason event.
The series opens with 7 p.m. games on both Thursday and Friday before wrapping up at 1 p.m. Saturday. All three games can be heard live over the Internet at www.UHCougars.com with Nick Torina and Pat Cauley calling the action.
In addition, both Thursday's and Saturday's games can be heard live on 88.3 FM KAXF. Fans can follow live stats at www.UHCougars.com by clicking on the Gametracker link on the bottom of the main page.
Sophomore Brad Lincoln makes his first return to the Cougar starting rotation after sitting out more than a month with a back injury. While he made a relief outing at Louisville last weekend, Lincoln will make his first start since being taken out after the first inning against Charlotte on April 10.
This season, the Clute, Texas, native has compiled a 3-2 record with 29 strikeouts and a 4.84 ERA in 44.2 innings of work.
In his last outing, Lincoln surrendered four runs off one run and two hits with a pair of strikeouts in 1.2 innings of relief at Louisville in the nightcap of a doubleheader on May 15. He retired five of the first six batters that he faced before the Cardinals started their rally.
This will be the first time that Lincoln has faced Tulane.
Sophomore utility star Kevin Roberts continues to lead the Cougars with a .377 batting average, while senior third baseman Nick Bott is tops with eight home runs. Junior catcher/outfielder Rob Johnson, who was honored Monday as the C-USA Hitter of the Week, tops the Cougars with 42 RBIs.
Sophomore outfielder Travis Tully brings a 20-game hitting streak into this weekend's series and has posted the fourth-longest streak in school history.
For the eighth consecutive season, the Cougars will meet Tulane on the baseball diamond. Tulane owns a 15-14 record in the all-time series, which began in 1986 but has been continued uninterrupted every year since 1997.
The series began in 1986 and went into hiatus for several years until it picked up again and 1992 and 1993. After a one-year break, the series continued in 1995 and picked up in 1997 when both teams joined Conference USA.
A year ago, Tulane enjoyed its first-ever sweep of the Cougars with three consecutive wins at Turchin Stadium in New Orleans. That is the longest winning streak for Tulane at any time during the series.
Tulane is one of only two current C-USA teams (East Carolina) to enjoy a winning all-time record against the Cougars.
The Cougars have enjoyed tremendous success against Tulane in Houston posting an 8-3 record there. In addition, UH is 6-3 all-time at Cougar Field.
In the teams' last meeting there, the Cougars recorded their first ever sweep against the Green Wave on March 22-24, 2002. And those games weren't close with UH winning by an average of nearly nine runs per game. UH enters this weekend as winners of four of its last five games against Tulane in Houston.
Junior outfielder Matt Barket leads the Green Wave with a .400 batting average, while junior catcher Greg Dini is tops with 10 home runs.
Sophomore southpaw Brian Bogusevic is slated to take the hill in Game One for the Tulane. This season, Bogusevic has compiled an 8-4 record with 74 strikeouts and a 3.81 ERA in 85.0 innings. In addition, he is batting .332 with nine home runs and a team-best 60 RBIs.
-- UH --
