Baseball Opens Play at C-USA Tournament on Wednesday
5/22/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 22, 2007
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The University of Houston baseball team opens play at the 2007 Conference USA Tournament at 8 a.m. (CDT), Wednesday when it faces No. 5 seed Memphis at Clark-LeClair Stadium in Greenville, N.C.
The Cougars, who will play as the No. 4 seed at the Tournament, must make a lengthy run through the 2007 postseason event to extend their hopes of playing in an NCAA Regional for the second straight season. UH enters the tournament after being swept by Southern Miss at the friendly confines of Cougar Field on May 17-19.
UH has enjoyed tremendous success at the C-USA Tournament in its history with five championship game appearances - including one in 2002 in Kinston, N.C. - and two titles.
Earlier this month, the Cougars had to make some adjustments in their travel plans for this event. The 2007 C-USA Tournament was originally scheduled to be hosted by Tulane in New Orleans, but renovations at the Green Wave's Turchin Stadium were halted by Hurricane Katrina, and the facility was unable to be finished for the 2007 event.
As a result, East Carolina - which was to host the 2008 tournament - switched years with Tulane, sending the tournament to North Carolina for the second time.
Cougar Baseball games can be heard live on UHCougars.com. To access the free broadcast, fans should click on the "Schedules and Results" link on the baseball main page. From there, fans can click on the "Audio Broadcasts" link, which will bring up the 2007 radio schedule.
Fans also can follow live stats via the Internet by clicking the "Gametracker" link on the UH front page or on the Cougar Baseball schedule page. Tuesday's game will not be broadcast on the Internet at UHCougars.com.
The Cougars will make their 11th straight appearance at the Conference USA Tournament this week. UH has posted a 24-15 (.615) all-time record at the C-USA Tournament, winning championships in 1997 and 2000. The Cougars also made three other C-USA Tournament championship game appearances in 2006 (Rice), 2002 (East Carolina) and 1999 (Tulane).
This will be UH's 12th consecutive conference tournament berth. The Cougars competed at the 1996 Southwest Conference Tournament in Lubbock during the last season of that league.
In their last visit to North Carolina for the C-USA Tournament, the Cougars posted big wins over Saint Louis, Southern Miss and Tulane to advance to the championship game. There, host East Carolina claimed a 4-0 win during the Pirates' first year in the league.
The Cougars will have to advance to the 2007 C-USA Tournament championship game to continue another unique streak in their history. UH has faced East Carolina at least once every season at the C-USA Tournament since 2002 when the Pirates joined the league. With ECU as the No. 2 seed in this season tournament, the Cougars must take part in their sixth C-USA Tournament championship game to keep that streak alive.
In 2006, the Cougars won three straight games over Marshall, East Carolina and Tulane to advance to the C-USA Tournament championship game. Meeting Rice for the fourth time that season, the Cougars dropped an 11-5 decision at Reckling Park, the Owls' home field.
Junior righthander Aaron Brown makes his 15th start of the season when he toes the rubber against Memphis during the opening round of the Conference USA Tournament. This season, the League City native has posted a 6-5 record with 53 strikeouts and a 4.59 ERA in 78.0 innings.
He is tied for the team lead in wins and ranks second among all Cougar hurlers in ERA, strikeouts, innings pitched and opposing batting average (.266). Brown was named the C-USA Pitcher of the Week on April 23 after striking out seven with only five hits allowed in seven shutout innings at No. 23 Tulane during the series opener on April 20.
At 6-6, Brown is the tallest member of the 2007 Cougar squad and ranks as the tallest player since reliever Bryan Moore measured in at 6-8 for the 1999 team.
In his last start, Brown collected the loss after giving up five runs (four earned) off eight hits and two walks with a pair of strikeouts in 6.1 innings against Southern Miss during the series opener May 17 at Cougar Field.
Wednesday's game will be Brown's third career appearance and second start at the Conference USA Tournament. In two outings, he has posted a 9.00 ERA with a walk and two strikeouts in four innings of work.
He earned the start against UAB in the 2005 C-USA Tournament, allowing five runs (four earned) off four hits and a walk with five strikeouts in 2.1 innings. However, he did not pick up a decision in a 7-5 win over the Blazers in Hattiesburg, Miss.
A year later, he came out of the bullpen to throw 1.2 innings, allowing only a hit with a strikeout against Rice during the championship game of the 2006 Tournament at Reckling Park in Houston.
Wednesday's game will be Brown's fifth appearance but second start against the Tigers during his career. In that time, he has not collected a decision but recorded nine strikeouts and a 6.23 ERA in 8.2 innings.
In his last outing against the Tigers, he allowed three runs off seven hits and three walks with a pair of strikeouts during the series opener on May 11. However, he did not collect a decision in the Cougars' 11-7 win.
Wednesday's game also will be Brown's first outing against the Tigers at the C-USA Tournament.
As he has since Opening Day, Jimmy Cesario leads in the Cougars in batting average, posting a .358 mark during the regular season. Catcher Luis Flores leads the team with nine home runs, while senior third baseman Dustin Kingsbury - who has started each of the last 174 consecutive games - has posted a team-best 47 RBIs.
This marks the 11th consecutive season that the Cougars have faced Memphis on the baseball diamond. During that time, UH has posted a 28-6 (.824) record in the all-time series, which began in 1997 when the Cougars joined Conference USA and has been played at least three times every year since.
The Cougars are 10-1 (.909) in C-USA series against the Tigers with sweeps coming in 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006. Memphis' lone series win came in 2003 at Nat Buring Stadium after the Tigers won the first and last games.
The Cougars slugged their way out of Memphis after winning a series that featured a combined 59 runs off 76 hits by both teams over a three-day span. UH claimed an 11-7 win in the series opener at Nat Buring Stadium on May 11. However, the Tigers rallied in the middle game, scoring 10 runs in the seventh inning to take a wild 16-10 win over the Cougars.
But in the series finale, the Cougars received a strong pitching performance from righthander Bryan Tully, who made his first career pitching start, in a 10-5 victory.
The Cougars are 1-0 all-time against the Tigers in the C-USA postseason after enjoying a 3-2 win on May 13, 1998, in New Orleans. That also was the only time that the two teams have met on a neutral field.
Memphis (33-23, 12-12 C-USA) comes into the Tournament as the No. 5 seed after being swept at Rice last weekend. Head coach Daron Schoenrock had not announced his probable starter as of press time.
Michael Murray leads the Tigers and all C-USA hitters with a .391 batting average, while Bill Moss and Joey Lieberman are tied for team-high honors with 12 home runs apiece. Lieberman paces all Memphis sluggers with 52 RBIs.
