Rice Baseball was run-ruled by UTRGV on Wednesday night as the back end of the bullpen could not vanquish the Vaqueros.
Tobias Motley got Rice baseball on the board in the first inning, driving in leadoff man Hiram Bocachica with one of three singles from the home team in the first frame. That spark would prove to be all the bats had to muster for quite some time as UTRGV mounted an answer.
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The visiting Vaqueros evened the score in the second, driving Rice starter Von Baker from the game. Then UTRGV broke things open in earnest with a five-run fourth inning, smattering a slew of hits across three different Rice pitchers to take the lead. They’d pad their advantage in the next few innings, stretching their edge to as many as nine runs before the Owls were able to punch back.
Rice scored a trio of two-out runs in the sixth, clawing back, albeit briefly, from a 10-1 hole. UTRGV would pour on 10 more runs in their ensuing trip to the plate, forcing the end of the game by run rule in seven innings. The final score was 20-5, with the final Rice run driven in by Barrett Eldridge in the seventh.
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A 9-1 win over Sam Houston on Tuesday was encouraging, but there was no Jack Ben-Shoshan — who tallied a career best nine strikeouts out of the bullpen against the Bearkats — ready to ride in and save the day this time around. Instead, the undermanned bullpen was exposed, battered by a feisty UTRGV squad that has proven much more capable this season than Sam Houston.
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In some respects, the worst of this performance should be masked in conference play, where back end of the bullpen pieces aren’t asked to pitch material innings as they were on Wednesday night. However, a quiet offensive night is harder to look past without squinting.
As is often the case, the truth is likely somewhere in the middle. Rice baseball is better than they were against UTRGV and not as polished as it looked in nine innings against Sam Houston. The key will be getting closer to that more exciting Tuesday showing than Wednesday’s dud before the regular season concludes.
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