Rice Baseball has closed the book on an up-and-down 2024 season as the program and head coach Jose Cruz Jr hope for brighter days ahead.
Three years into the Jose Cruz Jr. era, Rice baseball won its first postseason game of any kind since 2019, taking top-seeded ECU down to the wire twice in their final week of the season and coming up just short. Rice won the most games it’s ever won under Cruz, (23) the most conference games it’s ever won under Cruz (11), and took a weekend series from a Top 25 team (Louisiana) on the road for the first time under Cruz.
All of that is true, however, the other side of the coin is equally real and much less glamorous.
A team that Cruz described frequently as the best team he’s had yet at Rice finished 13 games under .500. They made the AAC Tournament on a tiebreaker, nearly sunk by a three-game sweep at the hands of a Memphis team that finished dead-last in the league. They were at the bottom of the conference in most offensive statistics, striking out almost 10 times for every home run they hit.
For much of the season, they were a bad baseball team underperforming their records in each of the prior two seasons before catching fire late. To call this season uneven would be generous. For a while, it was a runaway train, finally salvaged before it ran completely off the tracks. That reconnection and refocusing is what Cruz says he’ll remember most about this squad.
“At one point I think we were like one and nine in conference or something like that, so for us to have played well enough to get in [to the AAC Tournament] was really remarkable.”
According to Cruz, that late-season surge helped solidify a culture and an identity that he felt hadn’t quite materialized yet in full.
More: Rice Baseball wraps up 2024 season with AAC Tournament loss to ECU
“This season we ended up creating an identity for ourselves. [We] created what we are about, especially on the offensive side, deciding what the standard is, and what we expect of our guys in order for you to be in the lineup. I think all the guys that were bought in ended up being the guys that ended up playing a lot and ended up elevating us really to be able to make the tournament and go this far.”
And therein lies the conundrum with the Cruz-led Owls and the biggest question mark about this program moving forward. Why did it take three years to find that identity? And if the Owls have found it, what’s it going to take for this program to get out of the conference basement?
“I’m excited for the talent level to elevate moving forward. I think we’re going to have better athletes each year,” Cruz said, painting the implicit picture that this team will be better once it gets better players, players that are on the way in the form of, “my best recruiting class coming in next year.”
As we’ve seen with other Rice sports in recent years, a slow start doesn’t mean there isn’t hope for the future. Mike Bloomgren and football turned a woeful 2-win team into a back-to-back postseason-caliber program. It took time and talent, the two things Cruz continues to assure all onlookers remain on track.
Losing is a hard pill to swallow, especially at a program with as robust a history as Rice baseball possesses. If more talent is truly all this team needs, 2025 should be — and in many ways must be — the year everything comes together and this program gets back on track. Everyone is tired of tough seasons, Cruz the foremost, and while patience exists to allow him to build, it won’t be there forever. At some point, the wins need to come.
“The alumni’s support is great. The athletic department support is great. It is a new chapter in Rice baseball,” Cruz vowed, speaking that bright future into existence. “It’s exciting times for us.”
This game marks the end of the 2024 Rice baseball regular season. Thanks to everyone who has followed along with us this year and read our content. There’s plenty more on the way. Make sure you’re subscribed on Patreon for deep dives on the pitching staff, lineup and more in the weeks to come. If you’d like to send us a one-time token of appreciation, you can donate here. Thanks for joining us on the journey. Next season can’t get here soon enough.
