Baseball Opens Fall Practice
10/3/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Oct. 3, 2005
HOUSTON - The University of Houston baseball team took its first steps toward the 2006 season with the start of fall practice recently at Cougar Field.
The Cougars will hold daily practice at Cougar Field through Oct. 15. The team was originally slated to begin the fall campaign on Sept. 21, but the threat of Hurricane Rita forced its postponement. Despite the later-than-planned start, head coach Rayner Noble said he was pleased with what he had seen from his team.
"Things are all right so far," said Noble, who begins his 12th season at the helm of the Cougar dugout. "We have a lot of players out there, so we have depth at every position. It's now just a matter of guys stepping up and earning their positions."
Practices usually begin around 2:30 p.m., each day. The team will hold intrasquad scrimmages, usually on back-to-back days, throughout the fall season with the next contests scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. The scrimmages are slated to start around 4 p.m., following the teams' batting practice.
UH practices are open to the public, and fans are invited to attend.
Twenty lettermen and seven starters return for the Cougars, who finished 29-30 overall, 16-13 in Conference USA play.
The team opens the 2006 season at 2 p.m., Feb. 7 as it plays host to Texas-San Antonio at Cougar Field. From there, the team will compete at the Minute Maid Park College Classic Feb. 10-12 for the sixth consecutive season.
Leading the way for the Cougars offensively is junior infielder Dustin Kingsbury who batted .341 with six home runs and a team-high 58 RBIs. He was one only of only three players to start all 59 games a year ago and earned a place on the Conference USA All-Tournament Team.
Senior southpaw Matt Farrington posted an 8-5 record with a 3.24 ERA to lead the team in both wins and ERA on the way to being named to the All-Conference USA First Team.
Junior righthander Brad Lincoln was an asset for the Cougars on the mound and at the plate. The Clute, Texas, native batted .337 with seven home runs and 52 RBIs while adding four wins and 106 strikeouts in 102.0 innings of work. He became only the seventh player in school history to record triple-digit strikeouts in one season.
