The Cougars should probably alter their approach at the plate because the usual plan of attack rarely works these days.
UH’s offense finally broke through its wall in Sunday’s 8-5 win over Memphis, but the next few games will be a better indicator of whether the team has truly snapped out of its offensive slump. The Cougars will test their bats again with a matchup against Stephen F. Austin at 6:30 p.m. today at Cougar Field. ‘
Sunday’s win notwithstanding, the Cougars have lately provided lackluster performances at the plate.
In their last five games before Sunday, the Cougars (17-21) scored a combined nine runs, going 3-2 in that span. Along the way, they wasted two quality starts from right-hander Michael Goodnight, who was the hard-luck loser in identical 3-1 setbacks against Memphis on Saturday and Southern Miss on April 11.
In their last six games, the Cougars batted only .237 (46-for-194). That stretch was especially rough for top slugger Chris Wallace, who went 3-for-21 with seven strikeouts and only one RBI.
‘At home plate lately, we’ve really struggled,’ head coach Rayner Noble said.
The one area UH didn’t struggle in last weekend was pitching. Starters Jared Ray, Goodnight and Wes Musick each turned in quality starts of six innings of more, and the bullpen provided adequate relief, despite working with little room for error.
The Cougars hope this trend of solid starting pitching continues with right-hander Mo Wiley, who will take the mound against SFA. Wiley (2-2, 5.79 ERA) has been a reliable midweek option and helped propel the Cougars to their biggest win of the season, a 9-2 upset of Texas A&M on April 7.
However, Wiley wasn’t reliable in his last outing. He was roughed up for five runs on five hits in only four innings during a 11-2 loss to Sam Houston State last Tuesday.
Noble hopes that he won’t have to dig deep into his bullpen this evening.
‘We need for Mo to pick up about six or seven innings against Stephen F. Austin,’ Noble said. ‘We’ve stretched out our bullpen a little bit these last few games. Not that we don’t have guys who need to throw, but we need Mo to get out and throw a little more than 100 pitches.”
SFA, which dropped a 7-5 decision to the Cougars on Feb. 24 in Nacogdoches, isn’t playing too well these days. The Lumberjacks (15-23) have lost five of their last seven games, including an 8-7 setback to McNeese State on Sunday that saw SFA blow a four-run lead during the final two innings.
The Lumberjacks, led by infielder Sean Myers, bat .297 as a team. Myers leads the team in nearly every major statistical category, including batting average (.400), home runs (four, tied with catcher Joe Staley), RBIs (39), slugging percentage (.607) and on-base percentage (.461).
The Cougars will host Lamar at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, marking the last time they’ll play two opponents in the midweek this season. Noble plans to start left-hander Ty Stuckey (0-1, 6.32) against the Cardinals.
A sweep of this midweek slate would put the Cougars just two games below .500 heading into this weekend’s Conference USA series against Marshall. but they don’t expect the feat to come easily.
‘Stephen F. Austin is a team that, if you give them a crack, will open the door and walk right through,’ Noble said. ‘We need a well-pitched and well-played defensive game, and we need to continue working on getting ourselves back to where we need to be from an offensive standpoint.’
