University of Houston Athletics
Baseball Starts Fall Practice on Tuesday
10/8/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Oct. 8, 2002
HOUSTON - While most people think about college football and the beginning of basketball season in early October, that time of the year also means the start of fall baseball practice at the University of Houston.
The Cougars, fresh off one of the finest seasons in school history, began their fall workouts Tuesday at Cougar Field. The fall season continues through Nov. 1 with the team holding practice six times a week. UH will also hold intrasquad scrimmages regularly throughout the fall session.
"With the nucleus of players we have coming back, that's a good start," said head coach Rayner Noble, who enters his ninth season at the helm of the Cougar Baseball program. "I'm really looking forward to it."
Seventeen letterwinners and seven starters return from the 2002 Cougar squad, which tied a school record with 48 wins and advanced to the NCAA Super Regional for the second time in the last three seasons. Leading the way is junior righthander Brad Sullivan, who became the first player in both Conference USA and school history to be honored as a consensus All-American.
The Nederland, Texas, native captured the league's pitching Triple Crown with a 13-1 record, 1.82 ERA and a UH single-season record 157 strikeouts.
Offensively, the Cougars are led by senior first baseman Brett Cooley, who etched his name into the UH record book a year ago. Cooley blasted a team-best 18 home runs, the second-highest total in UH single-season history, and finished second on the team with 57 RBIs.
Junior outfielder Michael Bourn returns to his position in center field and has been a regular in the Cougar lineup, starting all but one game during his UH career. A year ago, Bourn led the team and C-USA with 32 stolen bases in 43 attempts and batted .327.
Other Cougar letterwinners and their 2002 statistics include Stuart Musslewhite (.299, 1 HR, 21 RBIs), Anthony Scalise (.284, 1, 31), Hyung Cho (.270, 6, 28), first baseman Thanos Papavasiliou (.358, 1, 20), utility Cole Bruce (.318, 1, 11), outfielder Sam Mitchell (.306, 1, 13), outfielder Gabe Lucas (.264, 1, 15), second baseman Cameron Blair (.219, 0, 7) and catcher John Pirozzolo (2 games).
On the mound, Sullivan leads a Cougar pitching staff which finished among the nation's team leaders with a 3.20 ERA. Other Cougar hurlers and their 2002 statistics include Gene Flores (4.40 ERA, 3-2 record, 55 K), Ryan Wagner (2.66, 2-1, 65), Danny Zell (2.86, 8-2, 37), Brian Henderson (5.75, 2-0, 19), Bryan Harris (6/75, 0-1, 3) and Taylor Gartz (1-1, 9.00, 11).
"We need to use fall practice to figure out who we need to shuffle round the infield to plug some holes with the loss of Jesse Crain and Chris Snyder," Noble said. "We also have some incoming freshmen and a few pitchers I am interested in seeing."
Thirteen letterwinners join the team in 2003, and Noble said the biggest goal in fall ball is to acclimate these players to the UH program.
"The most important thing is for the players to understand what we (coaches) feel is important," Noble said. "The players coming back know, but the newcomers need to understand what we are doing here as opposed to where they are coming from."
The Cougars open the 2003 season when they compete at the Pepperdine Tournament on Feb. 7-9 in Malibu, Calif. UH faces UC Santa Barbara at 12:30 p.m. (Central) on Feb. 7 in the season opener and meets host Pepperdine at 4 p.m. (Central) Feb. 8. The Cougars conclude their stay when they face Washington at 12:30 p.m. (Central) on Feb. 9.
