Traveling has not been kind to the Cougars this season, who have won just two of nine games played away from Cougar Field. The three-game set with TCU will mark the last non-conference series of the season. | Newton Liu/The Daily Cougar
Eight months ago, head coach Todd Whitting left TCU to take over the reigns of the UH baseball program. Now he returns to Fort Worth to take on the Horned Frogs for the first time since his departure.
The Cougars (11-11) will play TCU (13-7) in a three-game series this weekend at Lupton Stadium in Fort Worth. The games start at 6:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
Same mistakes come back to haunt UH
The trip does not come at a great time for Whitting and the Cougars, as the team is not playing the brand of baseball it takes to win.
“I don’t think we’ve played well the last two games,” Whitting said.
“We’re going to have to play better than we have. My expectation level of (the team) is very high. I know what they are capable of.”
Timely hitting is an area of concern for Whitting, noting that the team is not getting opportune hits, and that they had gone through a similar funk a few weeks ago.
He said that he thought the Cougars had put those issues behind them, but they have resurfaced.
“When we were rolling there last week we had a ton of two-out RBIs,” Whitting said. “We’ve got to get back into that mindset and at least have great at bats.
“I’m a little concerned going into this weekend because we’re playing a very good team. If we don’t show up ready to play, it won’t be a successful weekend for us at all.”
Homecoming of sorts
Although Whitting is worried with the team’s play recently, he said is eager to face his former team.
“I’m excited to go back,” Whitting said. “I’ve been waiting for this week since I got the job in July. I’m extremely excited about going back up there. I hope the kids are too.
“We’re going up there with nothing to lose. It’s not a conference game. Nobody expects us to do well up there, so we’ll just go up there and see what happens.”
UH will have a tough task against TCU. The Horned Frogs are ranked No.14 by Baseball America and are winners of three straight games.
Adding to the difficulty, the Cougars are a meager 2-7 when playing away from Cougar Field.
Mo Wiley (1-1), Jordan Lewis (2-0) and Codey Morehouse (2-2) will pitch for the Cougars Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively.
UH leads the all-time series 51-43 against TCU, but were swept in last season’s three games against the Horned Frogs.
The series will be the final non-conference series for the Cougars, as they open up conference play next week.
Today’s game will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Williams-Reilly Field in Lupton Stadium in Fort Worth.
Saturday’s contest is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start, and the finale Sunday is slated to begin at 1 p.m.
All three games of the series will be televised on Comcast Sports Southwest (Ch. 129).
