University of Houston Athletics
Softball Travels to Austin
3/19/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 19, 2014
HOUSTON - Houston Softball travels to Austin, Texas on Wednesday to face Texas for a 7 p.m. midweek showdown at broadcast live on the Longhorn Network. This will be the second time Houston (12-10) and Texas (18-14) meet this year and the 24th time in program history. The last meeting between the two teams on March 6 at the Judi Garman classic was the first time the two teams played at a neutral site that saw Texas earn a 5-1 win over Houston.
LAST TIME OUT
Houston went 2-3 at the Judi Garman Classic (March 6-8) highlighted by notching the highest-ranked win in program history by beating No. 4/5 Michigan 5-2. The Cougars earned a 4-2 win over Fresno State and dropped an extra-inning battle to No. 7/8 Arizona while falling to Long Beach State and Texas.
ON HOUSTON (12-10)
Houston took an 11-day break from action following the Judi Garman Classic and will look to knock the rust off this week against Texas before beginning the inaugural season of the American Athletic Conference. UH will host Temple this weekend to start league play.
With five runners scoring in double digits, Houston ranks second in the conference in runs scored and first in home runs per game. Outon's home run and RBI pace lead the American. Sophomore Katie St. Pierre ranks second on the squad with a .357 batting average and.458 on-base percentage and is one of five Cougars with double digit runs (16). Haley Outon leads the team in scoring as the catcher has crossed the plate 22 times on the season, six times coming via a home run, while sporting a team-best .463 on-base and .623 slugging percentage.
UH has turned to a trio of hurlers in Diedre Outon (5-5), Summer Groholski (4-2) and Julana Shrum (3-3) to pitch the ball. Outon's 2.27 ERA ranks as the best on the team.
The Cougars began the season on a 9-2 run as the host of a pair of tournaments and have since gone 3-8 while spending 10 of those games at road tournaments. The recent slide includes a 1-4 mark against Top 10 opponents during the rough stretch of the season.
Houston ranks No. 2 in the NCAA in double plays per game (0.68).
ON TEXAS (18-14)
UT enters the game after earning a series win over Iowa this past weekend to improve their record to 18-14 on the year and 9-5 at home.
Texas ranks No. 5 in the nation in team batting average (.346) as eight starters are above .300. The Longhorn lineup is led by Brejae Washington's .454 clip. Washington also ranks No. 23 in the nation stealing 0.68 bases per game. Lindsey Stephens has hit 10 homeruns to stand sixth in the NCAA standings and led Texas with a .846 slugging percentage, 40 RBI while ranking second in average at .423. The duo carry a 33-game (Stephens) and 23-game (Washington) reached base streaks into the game.
Tiarra Davis (7-7) and Gabby Smith (9-3) have handled the bulk of the work inside the circle. Davis leads with 91 strikeouts and a 2.36 ERA.
SERIES HISTORY
After knocking Texas out of their own NCAA Regional in 2011, the Longhorns have posted four straight wins over UH to bump the series history 19-4 in the Austin favor. Houston and the Longhorns have already met this year as Texas posted a 5-1 win over UH on March 6 at the Judi Garman Classic.
Texas 4-19
2001 L 1-3
2001 L 2-3
2001 L 2-3
2001 L 2-5
2003 L 0-3
2004 L 7-8 (9)
2004 L 0-1
2005 L 0-4
2005 L 0-6
2005 L 4-5
2006 L 0-3
2006 L 2-3
2008 W 6-0
2008 W 5-1 (9)
2009 L 1-2
2009 W 5-0
2010 L 4-11
2011 L 1-4
2011 W 1-0
2012 L 4-15 (5)
2012 L 1-10 (5)
2013 L 0-15 (5)
2014 L 1-5
USA SOFTBALL TOP 50 "WATCH LIST"
Houston's Haley Outon is one of 50 student-athletes that has been named to the "Watch List" for the 2014 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award awarded by the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America and USA Softball. This is the second-straight season the senior catcher has been named to the Preseason Watch List. Outon is one of four American Athletic Conference student-athletes named to the list along with Katie Keller (Louisville), Sara Nevins (South Florida) and Stephanie Pasquale (Temple). The Top 25 Finalists for the 2014 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award will be announced April 9.
DODGE, DUCK, DIP, DIVE, DODGE...OR DON'T
Kendra Cullum was a three-sport athlete at Conroe High School but dodgeball was not one of those. Cullum has taken a beating on her way to first base as she's totaled 72 hit by pitches in her career including 63 while wearing the Red and White. She set a school record with 21 bean balls in 2012 and then broke her own mark in 2013 with 38 bean balls. The 38 bean balls rank as the third-most in a NCAA single-season. Cullum moved into second place in the NCAA history for career hit by pitches (1. 92 Mariah Gearhart, Oklahoma State) when she took body shots against Stephen F. Austin on Feb. 16, 2013. The three times she was hit by a pitch is the 15th time she's been plunked multiple times in a game and the record-setting beanball was the second of the inning she received. Against Northwestern (May 19) in the 2012 NCAA Regionals, Cullum was hit by a pitch four times to set another program record in the category.
RECORD GRADES
Houston was recognized as one of the 2013 NFCA Top Ten All-Academic Teams. UH ranked eighth in the nation with a 3.53 cumulative team GPA which was an all-time record for the Cougars. Houston softball tied for the UH sport program lead with a fall semester GPAs of 3.48 while sporting the second-highest cumulative GPA behind the tennis team. Haley Outon earned the Team's Academic MVP and was named to the Conference USA All-Academic Team. Ten Cougars earned NFCA All-American Scholar Athletes in 2012-13 (Holly Anderson, Jaime Edwards, Reina Gaber, Sydney Gerbracht, Ashleigh Jones, Diedre Outon, Haley Outon, Katie St. Pierre, Tess Soefje and Bailey Watts)
OUTON BOMBS
Haley Outon has established herself as the program's premier long-ball hitter as she moved into first place in the record books with her 48th career home run against Nicholls State on Feb. 22. Outon's fifth home run of the year added to her impressive weekend where she went 6-for-13 (.462) with three home runs, nine RBI and seven walks. Outon now holds the career and single season (22, 2011) Houston records. She also shares two NCAA records thanks to her power prowess. She became the fifth player in NCAA history with home runs in six-straight games (May 1-11, 2012) and the eighth to hit two grand slams in a single game (April 13, 2013 at UTEP).
FACING TEXAN COMPETITION
The Cougars carry a 3-2 record against fellow Texan teams this season with wins over Sam Houston State (11-5, 13-5) and SFA (7-3) and losses coming to North Texas (1-6) and Texas (1-5). The Cougars have 11 games remaining against teams from the Lone Star State facing Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Houston Baptist, Lamar and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
LOOKING BACK TO 2013
Houston went 41-20 advancing to their third-straight NCAA Regional for the first time in program history. Houston competed in Conference USA for the 13th and final season while finishing second during the regular season (19-5) and tournament. Houston went 1-2 in the Austin Regional earning a win against Army while falling to South Carolina twice while posting a 12-14 against tournament teams during the year.
UP NEXT
Houston begins league play this weekend hosting Temple with games on Saturday 1 and 3 p.m. and Daddy-Daughter Day set for Sunday's game at noon. Fans can purchase one adult and one youth ticket for $10 and have the opportunity play catch and take pictures on the field following the Sunday game.
