Runs were hard to come by for Rice Baseball in a three-game sweep at the hands of the USC Trojans, who limited the Owls to three runs on the weekend.
FRIDAY | USC 5, Rice 0
Hiram Bocachica earned a leadoff walk. Then the basepaths promptly went silent for the Owls, who didn’t record a hit until the beginning of the seventh inning. By that time, Rice was in a 2-0 hole, which might have been worse had Rice starter Brayden Sharp been able to wade through some hard contact and keep the Owls in the game despite quiet results from the plate.
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A double play erased that seventh-inning single, though. Then USC dropped the hammer in the bottom half of the inning, extending their lead to five by turning two hits, three walks and a hit by pitch into three runs. JC Davis picked up a two-out single in the ninth, but that was it for the Owls, who were shut out for the second time in three games after falling 3-0 to Louisiana on Tuesday.
SATURDAY | USC 4, Rice 1
Another low-scoring affair on Saturday began just as the game before it did with two scoreless innings followed by the slow trickle of USC scoring. Ryland Urbanczyk faced 10 batters in the first two frames, but did not allow a run. He’d get one charged to his ledger after he was pulled in the third, leaving Anthony Diaz to deal with a bases-loaded situation.
USC scored one on Diaz in that jam and one more in the fourth before breaking through in the fifth. Ethan Atchley came on to douse the fire, ceding a sac fly that gave the Trojans a 4-0 advantage. The Owls’ lone run came in the seventh when Mason Ashlock singled in JD Davis. Rice would go on to lose 4-1.
SUNDAY | USC 4, Rice 2
Freshman Ethan Sanders was welcomed to his first career collegiate start with a two-run homer to deep right center field on Sunday, putting the Owls in an early deficit in the series finale. USC added two more in the third, making it 4-1 in favor of the home team with the only Rice run to that point courtesy of a two-out RBI single from Hiram Bocachica in the second.
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Still, Sanders persisted. He rebounded from the rough start to retire the next 14 batters in a row, giving the Rice bats a chance to muster a counterpunch, which never truly materialized. The offense gave him one run back on an RBI groundout by Paul Smith. Ty Thames pitched two scoreless innings to close things out, but he wouldn’t get any run support either as Rice fell in the finale, 4-2.
THREE FOR THE ROAD
