University of Houston Athletics
Baseball Hits the Road Again to Face Southern Miss
4/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 24, 2008
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Fresh off a non-conference win, the 28th-ranked University of Houston baseball team will leave the city limits for the final time during the Conference USA regular season when they meet Southern Miss at Pete Taylor Park at Hill Denson Field in a three-game series.
The Cougars come into the series on the heels of a 7-4 win over McNeese State on Tuesday night. Although the Cougars have a road series at No. 4 Rice on May 9-11 at Reckling Park, the team won't need to leave the city limits.
The series begins at 6:30 p.m., Friday, continues at 4 p.m., Saturday and wraps up at 1 p.m., Sunday. Fans can hear all Cougar Baseball games on the Internet at UHCougars.com with Jeremy Branham calling the play-by-play action and former letterman Pat Cauley providing color analysis.
Fans always can follow live stats by clicking on the GameTracker link at UHCougars.com.
Sophomore southpaw Wes Musick will make his 10th consecutive weekend start during the series opener Friday. This season, the Lufkin native has posted a 7-2 record with 54 strikeouts and a 3.32 ERA in 59.2 innings.
He leads all Cougar hurlers in wins, ERA, starts, innings pitched and strikeouts and leads all C-USA hurlers with his win total.
With his impressive totals, he also ranks among the Top-Nine Conference USA leaders in all three pitching Triple Crown categories (win, ERA, strikeouts). He joins Tulane's Shooter Hunt (1.59 ERA - 1st; 78 Ks - 1st; 6 wins - t-2nd); Southern Miss' Barry Bowden (1.80 ERA - 2nd; 48 Ks - 8th; 5 wins - t-6th); East Carolina's Justin Bristow (3.15 ERA - 7th; 51 Ks - 7th; 5 wins - t-6th) and Seth Maness (3.12 ERA - 6th; 52 Ks - 6th; 6 wins - t-2nd) and Rice's Ryan Berry (2.87 ERA - 4th; 61 Ks - 3rd; 5 wins - t-6th) in that exclusive group.
Earlier this season, Musick made his second straight Opening Day start against Pacific, becoming the first player since 2006 National Player of the Year Brad Lincoln to achieve that milestone. In starting the 2007 opener, Musick became the first freshmen hurler since Jason Hart against Texas Southern on Feb. 7, 1991 to accomplish that feat.
In his last start, Musick collected his second loss of the season after giving up seven runs (five earned) off eight hits and three walks with three strikeouts in six innings during the UAB series opener on April 18.
Friday's game will be Musick's second career start against the Golden Eagles. In his only previous outing, he collected the loss after giving up four runs off 12 hits and a walk with four strikeouts in 6.2 innings during a 4-0 loss at Cougar Field on May 18, 2007, the middle game of that series.
Senior infielder Bryan Pounds leads the Cougar offense with a .413 batting average and 48 RBIs. The Houston native is one of only two players in Conference USA to rank among the league's Top-10 individual leaders in all three Triple Crown categories.
Senior infielder Jake Stewart is tops with nine home runs and ranks among the league's offensive leaders in multiple categories, including runs scores, doubles, slugging percentage and stolen bases.
Junior infielder Jimmy Cesario, who recently missed 10 games with a wrist injury suffered in late March, spearheaded the offensive attack, batting 4-for-5 with a home run and double. The Metairie, La., native now has hit safely in his last nine games, including all seven contests since his return.
Sophomore centerfielder Zak Presley enters this weekend's series on a career-best 13-game hitting streak, the second-longest streak by any Cougar slugger this season.
For the 12th consecutive season, the Cougars meet Southern Miss on the baseball diamond. The Cougars own a 22-16 (.579) lead in the all-time series, which began in 1990 but has been played at least three times every year since 1997, the year both teams began competing at Conference USA members.
The Cougars also will be looking to snap a four-game losing streak to the Golden Eagles, the longest such streak in the series history. UH has not enjoyed a win over Southern Miss since a 13-5 in Hattiesburg on April 15, 2006, during the middle game of that series.
That 2006 series was the last time that the Cougars enjoyed a series win over USM and the only time during the last five years. A year ago, the Cougars were swept for the first time by Southern Miss at Cougar Field with series losses coming in 2003 (Houston), 2004 (Hattiesburg) and 2005 (Houston).
Despite playing in a hostile environment, the Cougars have enjoyed tremendous success at Pete Taylor Park at Hill Denson Field, posting an 11-4 (.733) all-time record on the road.
In the most recent meeting in Mississippi, the Cougars outscored the Golden Eagles 37-12 in the first two games of the series before falling 14-7 in the series finale during the 2006 season.
UH enjoyed series road sweeps in 2000 and 2002 with the series win in 2006.
Southern Miss (28-13, 6-6 C-USA) comes into the series as winners of its last three games after sweeping Mississippi State in back-to-back, non-conference games earlier this week. Junior righthander Josh Billeaud is expected to start Friday's opener. This season, Billeaud has posted a 2-3 record with 26 strikeouts and a 4.84 ERA in 44.2 innings.
Junior infielder James Ewing paces the Southern Miss offense with a .339 batting average, while redshirt senior outfielder Drew Carson is tops with eight home runs. Junior Infielder Brian Dozier tops the Golden Eagles with 32 RBIs.
