The baseball team opens their conference season with a three-game road series against East Carolina this weekend. | Robyn Archer/The Cougar
The weekend is here, which means it’s time to turn the calendars over to April. That means regular seasons are winding down for athletic programs and teams have a heightened sense of urgency entering this home stretch. The tennis, softball, baseball, track & field and both golf teams are all in action for a jam-packed weekend for UH Athletics.
Tennis
In the midst of a disappointing season, the women’s tennis team is looking for a bright spot wherever they can find one. Despite high expectations before the season, the team has stumbled to an overall record of 4-15.
This weekend they will have two chances to end their current seven-game skid before a full week off from game action. Friday they take on College of William and Mary at 2 p.m., and Saturday they’ll face East Carolina University at 10 a.m, both on the road.
Baseball
The baseball team, ranked No. 15, has been performing well thanks primarily to the pitching staff, who rank among the nation’s Top 10 in several categories, including leading the nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio and walks allowed per nine innings.
It will need all that and more when it begins conference competition this weekend with a three-game series against No. 19 East Carolina University. The teams have nearly identical records, as the Cougars enter the series at 16-8 and the Pirates come in at 17-8.
The series begins Friday at 5:30 p.m., continues Saturday at 3 p.m. and wraps Sunday at 10 a.m. All games will be in Greenville, North Carolina.
Track & Field
Following a successful week at the Victor Lopez Classic at Rice University, the men’s and women’s track and field teams went back on the road, and the squad split up. Some athletes headed to the Texas Relays in Austin while the remainder has been competing at the Bobcat Invitational in San Marcos.
Action in the Texas Relays started Wednesday and will continue through the weekend.
Friday’s portion of the Texas Relays starts at 9:35 a.m., and track events include 4×100-meter relay, 100, 110 and 400-meter hurdles, the 100-meter dash and the 4×400-meter relay. Field events begin with the men’s discus at 9 a.m. and continue throughout the day with the men’s javelin concluding day two at 6 p.m.
Saturday will see an action-packed slate of running. The finals of the remaining events will be held throughout the day, beginning at noon running through the 4×400-meter relay finals that start at 4:05 p.m. The finals of the field events are scheduled to begin at noon with the pole vault.
The Bobcat Invitational, which began Thursday, consists of three days of track and field action, with the first five events of the decathlon, the first four events of the heptathlon and the women’s and men’s discus all being held on Thursday.
Friday will see the conclusion of the multi events as well as the high jump, hammer throw, long jump and men’s pole vault beginning at 1 p.m. Running events kick off at 5 p.m.
The javelin begins Saturday’s competition at 9 a.m., followed by the pole vault, triple jump and shot put. The 4×100-meter relay kicks off the final day of running events at 2 p.m. and runs through the 4×400-meter relay at 4:45 p.m.
Softball
The softball team is also preparing to go on the road, fresh off a split in its series with Lamar University. Now its season record stands at 16-16.
So far it has enjoyed a schedule without much travel, playing 20 of its 32 games at Cougar Softball Stadium. It will be tested as its next eight games will all be on the road, where it stands 1-4 thus far.
That test will not be easy to start as the Cougars will travel to Tampa, Florida for a three-game series with University of South Florida. The Bulls are 29-9 on the season and are riding an impressive 21-game win streak.
The series begins Friday at 5 p.m., continues Saturday at 4 p.m and concludes Sunday at 12 p.m.
Golf
The last time the men’s golf team took to the course, it finished 7th in the Valspar Collegiate Invitational. This weekend it will travel to Augusta, Georgia to compete in the 3M Augusta Invitational. The tournament begins Saturday and will wrap up Sunday.
The women’s golf team competed at the Houston Baptist University Husky Invitational earlier this week, and it will also be back in action this weekend, but instead it will travel to Sunset, South Carolina to compete in the Clemson Invitational. The players first tee off Friday and the tournament concludes Sunday.
