Rice Baseball hung around for a while but couldn’t go the distance against the homerun-heavy Texas A&M offense, which blasted four longballs to down the Owls.
Texas A&M needed just one batter, leadoff man Gavin Grahovac, to take a lead over Rice baseball in their midweek tilt. Two batters later, the Aggies were leading 2-0, courtesy of a second solo home run in the opening inning. Rice hurler Mauricio Rodriguez commanded the ball fairly well from that point onward, striking out six in 3.2 innings, but several wild pitches and some miscues around him saw him leave the game trailing 6-1.
Last Time Out: Rice Baseball salvages one at Charlotte
The Owls’ only score to that point was a solo blast from Manny Garza, who put one over the right field wall in the third inning. The lone run wouldn’t be nearly enough against the Aggie onslaught. Texas A&M added two more home runs in the fourth, part of a four-run frame charged to Jackson Mayo that ensured the home team would be in the driver’s seat.
The Aggies scored two more in the fifth before Rice stole a run back in the sixth. The dam finally broke in the sixth when the back end of the Owls’ bullpen walked in five straight runs. After a quiet seventh, the game was officially decided via a run-rule.
What it means | Not the same game
Texas A&M baseball entered Tuesday as the No. 3 team in the nation. They had been the top-ranked squad until dropping two games this weekend, the first time they’d been beaten twice in a row this year. They responded by run-ruling LSU in the series finale before moving on to the Owls, their final non-conference opponent of the regular season.
Thanks to their victory over Rice, Texas A&M will finish the season a perfect 25-0 in nonconference play. They’ve only lost eight games all season long. The Aggie faithful will be disappointed with this season if they’re not playing in Omaha in a month’s time.
To put it plainly, these are two teams on different strata of the sport with very different expectations and very different goals. Pulling off a midweek win over a team of this caliber would have been nice but nothing about the Owls’ current aspirations changes with Tuesday’s defeat. The Owls have to turn the page and move on quickly. Lamar comes to Reckling tomorrow and would love nothing more than to avenge last week’s result in Beaumont.
ON DECK | vs Lamar (Wed), vs FAU (Fri-Sun)
