The early season tailspin continued for Rice baseball on Monday night, falling 9-2 at home to Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
In what has become a recurring nightmare, Rice baseball stepped into the batters in the bottom of the first inning trailing. Visiting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, which until two seasons ago was 0-20 against the Owls all time, put up a three-spot in the first frame and forced opening pitcher Blaine Brown from the ballgame.
The Islanders tacked on one more in the second, two in the third and another in the fourth to go in front 7-0. Rice would score twice in the fourth, the first on an RBI single to left from Brown and the next on a sacrifice fly from Treyton Rank. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi got both runs back in the sixth and maintained that seven-run advantage into the ninth.
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Rice got two runs back in the ninth on an RBI single from Cole Green, one of several freshman having a remarkably encouraging season despite the circumstances. It would be too little, too late as Rice fell again, stretching their losing streak to 10 consecutive games.
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It’s been a perfect storm for a disastrous start for Rice baseball. A rough week against some of the nation’s best teams at the Astros Foundation College Classic marked the beginning of a stretch of nine games across 11 days.
Add in short outings from starting pitching and a bullpen leaking runs by the inning and you get the makings of a skid. Multiply that by so many games in such a short period of time and you get a 10-game losing streak and a 2-14 record.
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Rice baseball has done plenty to shoot itself if the foot this season. Coaches and players alike have taken their fair share of the blame. But on nights like tonight, the totality of the misery is hard to overlook.
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