University of Houston Athletics
Baseball Preps For Series Against No. 12 TCU
4/8/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 8, 2010
HOUSTON - The University of Houston baseball team will take a break from Conference USA action to host a three-game series against No. 12 TCU this weekend at Cougar Field.
Friday and Saturday's games will start at 6:30 p.m., with the finale slated to begin at 1 p.m. Sunday. Live stats and a live radio broadcast will be available by logging on to UHCougars.com. Live video will also be available through the All-Access site.
Houston (13-14) will look to continue its winning ways after knocking off Sam Houston State, 4-2, on Tuesday. The Cougars are 51-40-2 all-time against the Horned Frogs, however, the last meeting resulted in a 6-4 TCU win at the Houston College Classic in 2006. In home games against TCU, Houston's record stands at 28-14-1.
This will be the sixth time that Houston has played a ranked team this season. The Cougars are 1-4 in those games, with their win coming against then-No. 3 Texas at the Houston College Classic on March 6.
William Kankel will start for the Cougars on Friday while Matt Purke draws the start for TCU. Kankel is 1-2 on the season with a 4.91 ERA and 25 strikeouts. Purke stands at 3-0 with a 3.52 ERA.
Saturday night, Taylor Hammack will be making his first weekend start for the Cougars in 2010 and just his second start all season. Hammack owns a 1-2 record and a 3.56 ERA in 30.1 innings. The Horned Frogs will start Kyle Winkler in game two of the series, who is 4-0 with a 3.52 ERA.
The finale on Sunday will see Michael Goodnight making the start against Steven Maxwell of TCU. Goodnight pitched 5.2 scoreless innings against Sam Houston State Tuesday night, striking out eight batters and giving up five hits. He is 4-3 on the season with a 3.98 ERA, while Maxwell is 4-0 with a 3.51 ERA.
At the plate, Zak Presley leads the Cougars with a .359 batting average, including a double, triple and two home runs. Blake Kelso paces the team with four triples and needs just one more to break into the UH single season records. Chris Wallace and M.P. Cokinos are tied with a team-high four home runs.
TCU enters the series with a 20-7 overall record, having gone 2-2 in its last four games. The Horned Frogs were 2-1 against San Diego State over the weekend and lost a mid-week match-up to Oklahoma Tuesday. Jason Coats leads the team with a .422 batting average, including 13 doubles, a triple and five home runs.
UP NEXT
Houston will travel to San Antonio, Texas for a game against UTSA on April 13 at 6:30 p.m. Following the mid-week trip, the Cougars return to Cougar Field for a series against Memphis on April 16-18.
