Baseball

Burying the Cougars

The Cougars are last in Conference USA with a record of 1-7-1. They’ve been outscored 80-25 in those games. | Photo illustration by Joshua Siegel/The Daily Cougar

The Cougars did not get swept this weekend by East Carolina.

Instead they got crushed twice, and battled all the way to a tie in the series finale.

Yes, a tie.

There’s an “A League of Their Own” joke somewhere in there.

They tied because of a travel curfew. What the hell is a travel curfew? They had to get back to Houston? They had a plane to catch? That’s a joke for a game to end in a tie because of a travel curfew. It was a day game that began at 9 a.m. on a Saturday. They weren’t playing at Wrigley Field in 1933 and the game had to be called because of darkness because nobody could see the ball. Who plans this travel schedule?

In a season that has been a comedy of errors, quite literally, this was the latest laugher.

In head coach Todd Whitting’s first season, they were competitive. They showed promise at the end of the season taking Rice to extra innings in the Conference USA Championship game. No one expected UH to win C-USA this year, but it was sane to expect a competitive team at least. Things seemed to be playing out that way in March at the Houston College Classic with a lights-out performance from Jared Ray in a 7-4 win over Tennessee and a 4-1 win against then-No. 4 Arkansas. March now feels like eons ago.

UH’s biggest problem this season has been fielding. Errors have created big innings and put pitchers in sticky situations.

Fielding is something you can practice. It’s something you can get better at. You can’t teach a kid to throw 95, but you sure as hell can work on fielding.

UH has committed 47 errors this season, worst in C-USA, and 247th out of 291 Division-I teams.

UH pitchers have a 5.29 ERA and opponents look like all-stars against them, batting .292. Both marks are the worst in C-USA.

Despite the number of runners the Cougars put on base, the defense has only turned 14 double plays all season, which doesn’t help the guys on the mound much.

UH has no pop on offense. They have hit just six home runs this season and their on-base percentage (.340) is higher than their slugging percentage (.327) — that’s Deivi Cruz-esque!

There is not just one hole in this sinking ship; the holes are everywhere.

4 Comments

  • ties and travel curfew exist because these kids should have a chance to go home and visit family for Easter. Or on a Sunday series of a normal week, they need to get back home to attend class on Monday. They are still college students.

    Perhaps do a little bit of journalistic research to understand the rules.

  • Coach Whitting needs to figure out how to improve the performance from the student athletes, or he will be the first casualty of the Mack Rhoades Coaching hires.

  • I’m glad you think a struggling sports team is a laughing matter. Just what are you trying to accomplish here? If you want to talk about a struggling sports team then do it, but the cynical nature with which this article was written makes me want to punch you in the face.

    You are the epitome of everything My University is ridding from it’s campus.

    Get some pride, do some research, and please revise your 4th paragraph; so choppy it’s hard to even get through.

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