University of Houston Athletics
Houston Set to Finish March in Mississippi
3/24/2011 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 24, 2011
| HOUSTON at SOUTHERN MISS | |
|---|---|
| Time | 1 p.m./3 p.m. (Sat.) | 11 a.m. (Sun.) |
| Location | Hattiesburg, Miss. |
| Stadium | USM Softball Complex |
| Series Record | Houston leads 26-13 |
| Live Stats | |
| Game Notes | Houston Notes  Conference USA Notebook |
HOUSTON - The University of Houston softball team will travel to Hattiesburg, Miss., to wrap up its eight-game road stand against Southern Miss at the USM Softball Complex, March 26-27.
Houston (18-12, 2-4) was scheduled to face Texas State in a midweek doubleheader on Wednesday until the meeting was postponed to April 22. Southern Miss (10-17, 0-3) split a doubleheader against Jackson State on Wednesday at home.
As the Golden Eagles prepare to play host this weekend, the Cougars will be completing a road-heavy month of March. Of the 17 games Houston was scheduled for this month, just three of them took place at Cougar Softball Stadium. The road has taken its toll on the weary Cougars as they've posted a 5-9 record in March to dampen the second-best start in program history (16-5) that resulted in three-straight weeks in the nation's top 25.
"Look at what we've done this month, we were in California, then at Texas, played at home for two days then it was travel, travel, travel," head coach Kyla Holas said. "Some of those games that we let get away is a product of that, unfortunately. We talked about this being the stormy part of the year, and we've got to ride that storm out.
"There's a lot of uncontrollables in that. When you have a young team that's very passionate, sometimes they ride that emotional wave a little too much. We've talked to them about continuing to look forward instead of back and play one pitch at a time so they don't get overwhelmed."
ABOUT THE MATCHUP
With only two weeks of conference play in the books, Houston has already taken on the first and second-place teams in C-USA. The Cougars opened the season against UAB, who starts the weekend tied for first with Tulsa after posting a perfect 6-0 record in the league. The following week, UH traveled to Tennessee to take the series against Memphis, who enters the weekend tied with East Carolina for second in the standings.
Houston leads the all-time series against Southern Miss with a 26-13 record. The last time the teams met, the Cougars walked away with the 5-0 victory on March 14, 2010 to complete the series sweep.
HOUSTON (18-12, 2-4 Conference USA)
OVERALL: After a tough opening weekend against the C-USA preseason second-place UAB, the series win helped the Cougars rebound two spots to start the weekend in fifth place in the conference standings.
Houston's current road swing was shortened from 10 to eight-straight road games when the Texas State doubleheader was moved from March 23 to April 22. The postponed games gave Houston its first six-day game-less streak of the season.
IN THE CIRCLE: Senior Amanda Crabtree (11-6) took down a program record that hung in for four years in the series opener against Memphis. Crabtree struck out 17 batters in game one, the most single-game strikeouts in Houston softball history. Former Cougar Angel Shamblin set the former record at 16 on March 24, 2007, also against Memphis.
Crabtree's 186 strikeouts on the season ranks second only to East Carolina's Toni Paisley. Paisley leads the league with 187, but has nearly 30 more innings of work. The Cougar senior also leads the conference in opposing batting average (.116), while her 1.25 ERA ranks 27th in the NCAA.
Crabtree's cohort is fellow senior Donna Bourgeois (5-6), who's 2.14 overall ERA also ranks in the league's top 10. Last week, Bourgeois went 1-1, notching a victory against Memphis and taking the loss in the back-and-forth 8-6 defeat at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The senior right-hander threw a season-best 10 strikeouts against the Islanders and struck out seven while walking none against the Tigers in her last time out.
In conference games, the senior tandem leads the league with 66 strikeouts, 20 more than the second-place East Carolina (46). In fact, Crabtree alone has more strikeouts in C-USA (48) than any other team, aside from her own.
AT THE PLATE: The Cougars continue to bring a balanced attack, combining power and run manufacturing at the plate as they lead the league in homeruns (26), walks (104) and sacrifice bunts (40).
"We set our goals very high," Holas said. "We wanted this team to hit .300, we wanted to hit more homeruns and have that record season. They know that they are capable of that and sometimes they put so much pressure on themselves. We lost a little bit of those swings from being tired along with it being harder to find that extra time to work when you're on the road. We're excited about some of the extra time we'll be able to put in while we're at home."
Sophomore shortstop Brooke Lathan slugged her seventh homerun of the season during the Memphis series, to tie her for second-best in the league. Junior teammates Jennifer Klinkert and Melissa Gregson are on board the power wagon, as five bombs each has them tied for seventh in the conference.
Senior right fielder Katy Beth Sherman leads the team, hitting .304 on the season while sophomore designated player Reina Gaber ranks in C-USA's top 10 with her .333 average in conference games.
SOUTHERN MISS (10-17, 0-3 Conference USA)
OVERALL: Less than two weeks ago, the Golden Eagles snapped an eight-game losing streak when they shut out then-No. 25 LSU, 7-0. Since then, USM has gone 1-4 in its last five games, including an 0-3 start to the conference season against UAB last weekend.
IN THE CIRCLE: Southern Miss holds a 3.86 ERA as a staff, while allowing opposing teams to hit at a .270 mark. Combined, the Golden Eagle pitchers have struck out 122 batters while walking 99.
Sophomore right-hander Beth Dietrich (5-8) leads the team with a 3.11 ERA and 50 strikeouts. She earned the wins against LSU and Jackson State by throwing complete-game shutouts and has surrendered just one homerun this season.
AT THE PLATE: Freshman first baseman Taylor Brown paces the team with a .316 average on the season with fellow rookie Brittany Lily right behind her at .313. Senior shortstop Jill Mathis has pelted six homeruns on the year for 16 RBI, both of which lead the team.
The Golden Eagles are hitting .235 as a team and are right behind the Cougars (101) in total RBI on the season (97). Although USM's lineup features the fewest walks in the league (51), the Golden Eagles are plenty selective as they hold the fewest strikeouts, as well (129).
