M.P. Cokinos’ two runs helped lead the Cougars to a 20-3 blowout of UCF on Sunday. UH will once again look to its freshman slugger for offense when it plays UTSA at 6:30 p.m. today. | Justin Flores/The Daily Cougar
The Cougars will attempt to build off their two games-to-one series win over Conference USA foe Central Florida with a strong showing against Texas-San Antonio at 6:30 p.m. today at Cougar Field.
The series win moves UH’s record to 12-10 on the season. The Cougars are 10-5 in their last 15 games, going back to their win against Missouri in the Houston College Classic.
In Friday’s game, the Cougars had a 3-2 lead after seven, but UCF scored three in the eighth off Chase Dempsay and won 7-4.
UH, and particularly their offense, bounced back to win 7-3 in Saturday’s game and 20-3 Sunday, scoring 20 runs for the first time since 2007 against Princeton.
Travis Trial, who went 3-for-5 with four RBIs, a triple and a double, hit a home run in the second game that helped propel the Cougars to victory.
“I think with our team, we just need one little spark, and we play great,” Trial said. “Once something happens, we all come together as a team. If (my homerun) is what (did it), I was glad to do it, because I haven’t really contributed much this year, so it was pretty good to do that.”
The Cougars hope to bring that team play to their game against UTSA. The Roadrunners went 32-24 last season, but are struggling to match that success this year. The Roadrunners, entering their 10th season under head coach Sherman Corbett, are 9-13 and 1-8 in the competitive Southland Conference.
The Roadrunners have struggled since beginning the season with a five-game winning streak, including winning three out of four against Indiana State.
Since then the Roadrunners, have had only four wins. During that stretch, the Roadrunners got swept by Southland foe Southeastern Louisiana.
The Roadrunners have struggled on the mound and at the plate. UTSA’s team ERA is 5.67 with an opponents team batting average of .315. On offense, UTSA is only hitting .247. In spite of that, the Roadrunners have a standout in Ryan Rummel, who is hitting .417 after 13 starts.
The teams split their two games last year, with UH winning at San Antonio 14-7, but losing at home 14-8. UH leads the all-time series 14-6. In the past four matchups, UH is 2-2. Prior to that, the Cougars had an eight-game winning streak in the series.
Head coach Rayner Noble said the rest afforded to his key pitchers in the blowout win over UCF will help against UTSA.
“I’d like to think that we’ll be ready to play them,” Noble said. “We’ll have a lot of arms available to get us through that. We’ve been playing two games during the middle of the week, and our staff was tired. But we didn’t have to use Dempsay or (Matt) Creel, and both of those guys needed a little rest.”
