Welcome to the revamped something or other Houston Cougar blog or website I've attempted several times. It was many moons ago the Cougar Roar. Then I incorporated it into this blog. Recently I attempted to submit an article on recruiting to Cardiac Coogs. Wes the publisher accepted the article but never posted it.
So over time I longed for a Cougar website that would capture as much Cougar news as possible off and on the field. Cougars are great influential people in business, arts, politics, athletics and in all aspects of life. So why not have a place where all things Coog can be celebrated?
Thus my intent isn't to rival all the great things Cardiac Coogs, Coogfans, Cougars Den, Scott and Holman Pawdcast, Jose Duarte or Coogfun are doing. Instead I want to tie it all together and continue what Tom Herman's Htown Takeover started and bring it together as the Coogston Takeover.
Houston Baseball
Houston vs. Cal St. Fullerton
The #20 Coogs hosted #7 Cal St. Fullerton for a three game series over the weekend. The Coogs took the first game on Friday on the strength of starting pitcher Seth Romero. Romero struck out 10 Titans enroute to 7-4 win at Schroeder Park. Game details can be found at UH official website
Houston 7 Cal St. Fullerton 4.
In the second game, the Coogs dropped a 4-1 decision to drop the Cougars to 7-3 on the year.
The third game was canceled due to inclement weather and will not be rescheduled.
Midweek Game vs. Prairie View A&M
Wednesday night features the Cougars hosting the 1-12 Prairie View A&M Panthers.
Houston's probable starter is LHP Trey Cumbie who sports a line of 1.12 ERA, 0-0, 2 BB and 7 Ks over 8.0 inning pitched. For 2016, Cumbie made 15 appearances with five starts posting a 5-2 record and a 1.29 ERA. Over 56 innings pitched, he struck out 42 while only allowing 9 walks and 8 earned runs. In 2016 opponents hit at a rate of .214 average while this year opponents are batting .281 against him.
Weekend Series vs. #10 Baylor Bears
The Cougars will travel to play another ranked team this weekend when the visit the #10 Baylor Bears. I will have more series info later in the week.
Around the American Conference
Currently only Houston and East Carolina are ranked and the Coogs are not ranked in every poll. d1baseball.com ranks ECU 18 and UH 23, National College Baseball Writers of American rank ECU 19 and UH 24, Baseball American ranks ECU 8 and UH is unranked while USA Today Poll ranks ECU 17 and UH unranked.
There is also an
RPI ranking on the official NCAA website. I'm not sure how much weight it has in selecting the field of 64 but it's worth a look. Current as of 3-7, the American teams in the top 64 are #31 South Florida, #38 Houston, # 57 East Carolina and #64 Memphis. Central Florida remains right outside the magical line at 67 despite an 11-2 record. After the top five, there is a major drop off in the RPI for the conference. The next closest team is UConn at 140. Cincinnati falls in at 154 for while Tulane anchors the curve at 258.
East Carolina made the biggest jump from the previous RPI standings from 81 to 57. Memphis dropped from 49 to 64 while Houston jumped a few spots from 46 as wells as South Florida slightly moving up from 31.
Being an eight team league, the AAC needs a strong showing in out of conference games to increase the RPI standings once league play gets under way. Houston has a chance with taking on Baylor. UCF hosts Florida St. in a two game tussle, dropping the first game 5-3.
