A five-run eighth provided Rice baseball with just enough cushion to secure a midweek road win over Houston Christian on Wednesday.
Ty Baker was treated to a nice lead before he stepped foot on the mound at Husky Field on Wednesday evening for his first career start. Before his toe hit the rubber, he watched patiently as the first three Owls singled to start the game. Then, Kutter-Gage Webb and Colin Robson each delivered a two-out RBI hit to put Rice in front by four.
Houston Christian got one run back in the bottom of the inning, taking advantage of a two-out walk that led to a stolen base and an RBI single up the middle. That single would be the only hit the Huskies would accrue through the first six innings as Baker and his relief, Marco Fuentes, kept the home team off balance.
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That silence would cease in the bottom of the seventh. After a leadoff double and a strikeout, Rice summoned Ethan Atchley to the bump. He was greeted with a sacrifice fly and a game-tying two-run homer.
The deadlock wouldn’t last long. Cole Green put Rice back in front with a leadoff jack in the Owls’ next at bat, the first of 10 the Owls sent to the plate in the next half inning. Suddenly, a 4-4 tie turned into a 9-4 Rice lead. An insurance run for Rice in the ninth and a three-run finish for Houston Christian would narrow the margin, but the Owls still managed to hang on for the win.
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Aside from a rough seventh inning and a dicey ninth, the Rice pitching staff was largely good in their midweek showing against Houston Christian, yet the Owls found themselves in a tied ballgame after seven innings and nearly in trouble again in the ninth. It’s impossible to look past the monumental five-run eighth that broke the game open for good.
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That relentlessness, particularly after a weekend against South Florida in which hits were hard to come by, is a reminder of what this offense is capable of doing. Including Wednesday against Houston Christian, Rice baseball has had at least eight hits in seven of their nine games. They’ve scored double-digit runs four times compared to five times in the entirety of last season.
Pitching and defense will always be the mantra of Rice baseball, particularly while head coach David Pierce is in the dugout. However, it sure is nice to see the bats do their part, too.