University of Houston Athletics
Softball Heads Back To North Carolina
3/24/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 24, 2005
HOUSTON - For the second time in as many weeks, the Houston softball team is headed to North Carolina for a Conference USA matchup, this time the Cougars will meet the Pirates of ECU in Greenville on Friday and Saturday.
Houston began its C-USA portion of the schedule with a three-game sweep of the 49ers in Charlotte, but then fell in a three-game sweep to visiting DePaul this week.
The Cougars enter the weekends' contest holding the No. 5 spot in the C-USA standings with their 3-3 C-USA mark and 18-15 over record. ECU, who holds a 38-8 overall record and is 4-2 in league play, comes in holding the No. 3 spot.
All-time against the Pirates, Houston holds a 6-3 advantage that includes last season's three-game sweep in Houston that culminated in a 9-0 run-rule win in Game 3.
This season, the Cougars have played a tougher opponent schedule while ECU has played a much busier schedule.
Houston has faced off in 11 games against teams that were ranked in the top 15. Of those 11 games, the Cougars came away as winners in three of them, while ECU hasn't played a ranked team this season. However, the Pirates have already played 46 games this year and have won more games than Houston has even played.
ECU is led by Kate Manuse, whose .391 batting average, 42 RBI and 10 home runs is tops for the Pirates, who also have five other batters hitting over .300.
In the circle, Keli Harrell leads a pitching crew that carries a 2.00 ERA with 13 shutout victories.
The ECU ace has gone 19-6 this year with a 1.39 ERA in 161 innings of work. She has given up 87 hits and 32 earned runs, while striking out a league high 210 batters.
For the Cougars, Kristen Glowacz is hitting .394 with 30 runs on 41 hits, has 33 RBI and a conference best 11 homers. Houston also has five other batters hitting above .300 on the season.
Leading the Cougars from the circle has been the duo of freshman Angel Shamblin (7-5) and sophomore Carla Kennimer (6-3). Shamblin has seen the most action of any Houston pitcher with 73 innings recorded and a team high 50 strikeouts.
Both pitchers have turned in historic performances already this season as Kennimer posted back-to-back no-hitters and Shamblin recorded the first perfect game in Cougar history.
The Cougars and Pirates get underway on Friday with the first pitch of their doubleheader scheduled for a noon (CDT) start, and Saturday's match also set for a noon (CST) start time.
