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Rice Baseball thumped by Houston

March 5, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice baseball dropped the first game of the Silver Glove Series against Houston, sleepwalking through the Cougars’ offensive assault.

Fans had barely had time to wolf down their dollar hot dogs before the game was effectively ended on Wednesday night. Rice baseball came out flat in the first game of the Silver Glove Series against Houston, allowing four runs in the first, three in the second and five more in the third, falling into a 12-0 deficit before they came to bat in the third inning.

Read More: Rice Baseball winless at Astros College Classic

Nolan Roycraft got the start and couldn’t make it out of the first. Reed Gallant was next up and wore eight runs before being lifted for Jackson Blank, who pitched 2.2 scoreless innings. By then, the damage was done.

Between Blank and Von Baker, Rice held Houston off the board in the next three innings. Colin Robson got Rice on the board with an RBI groundout in the sixth but that was all the Owls could manage in another run-rule defeat. Houston scored six in the seventh to put the game away for good, winning by a final score of 18-1 in seven innings.

Generally, it’s hard to put too much stock in a midweek game, especially considering the randomness associated with college baseball and the various permutations of lineups and pitching staffs, but getting run-ruled in your own ballpark by your biggest rival is going to sting for some time. This was not the way Rice baseball envisioned beginning its 2025 season.

What it means | Midweek mess

Rice baseball did win its first midweek game of the season, defeating Sam Houston 6-1, primarily on the arm of Tucker Alch who twirled a gem to pick up the Owls’ first win of the season. When Alch isn’t at his absolute best, who is Rice supposed to turn to get outs during the midweek?

More: 2025 Rice Baseball Season Preview

Lamar scored 11. Houston had topped that number before the end of the third inning. Rice has a total of three additional games still to come against that pair of teams. Fortunately, no midweek matchups with in-state power conference teams like Texas or Baylor are on the docket, but this pitching staff just doesn’t seem to have the depth to face any caliber of D1 opponent this weekend.

That puts pressure onto the starting rotation to get more length during the weekend to preserve the rest of the arms on staff and amplifies the impact needed from the bats, which have been promising at times, but erratic from game to game.

ON DECK | vs Yale (Fri-Sun), TAMU-CC (Mon)

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