I just took in two straight days of UH Cougar baseball -- today sitting about 25 yards from third base and soaking up a glorious day -- and I'm pleased to say, the team is playing the best baseball I've ever seen 'em play.  I'm calling it Rayner-ball after head coach Rayner noble, who preaches the virtues of solid defense, selective hitting, and aggressive baserunning to put the pressure on the other team's defense (since college baseball teams aren't always great defensively -- just not enough practice time, for one thing).  The last two days, they not only made every routine play in the field, but they were vaccuum cleaners out there, knocking down balls and making plays that were of major league caliber.  The baserunning just destroyed the Memphis defense.  The hitting was smart -- taking pitches and working the count.  And the culmination of good things was that Shane Nance started for the first time since an injury several weeks ago, and had amazing stuff.  He gave up on fluke run, and had to wind up with double-digit strikeouts.  His win gave him the record for career wins at UH:   28.  Not bad considering a couple of all-Americans by the names of Doug Drabek and Rayner Noble set some pretty lofty pitching standards at the place!

In all, it was a splendid day to watch baseball, and the precision and efficiency of Rayner's machine was amazing today.  Good job, men.  Let's hope the roll to Omaha began with this week's stellar efforts at Cougar Field!

Copyright (c) 2000, Kevin L. Whited