Rice Baseball salvaged the series finale against UAB after dropping the first two games behind a largely quiet offense that went off for 12 runs on Sunday.
FRIDAY | UAB 3, Rice 0
Back in the Friday night role after several weeks in the bullpen, Davion Hickson delivered what was unquestionably his best performance of the season. Hickson went 7.2 innings, striking out a career-high 10 while limiting the Blazers to three hits.
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UAB snuck the first run across in the opening inning with a single, a stolen base and a groundout. Hickson put things in cruise control after that, getting through the first two outs of the eighth before allowing two runners to reach and exiting the game. The last two runs charged to his ledger were allowed by Jack Ben-Shoshan in relief. The Rice bats did little to help the cause, tallying three hits, no runs and 13 strikeouts.
SATURDAY | UAB 8, Rice 6
Rice baseball did not get its typically sharp start from JD McCracken in Game 2, a reality that proved fateful as the bats struggled to produce. UAB scored three in the first, two in the second and on in the third before McCracken was lifted in favor of Von Baker and eventually Mark Perkins. By the time the fourth inning came to a close, Rice was trailing 8-0.
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The Owls most encouraging offensive inning of the weekend would soon follow. The Owls loaded the bases off Braxton Shelton with one out, then proceeded to rattle off five consecutive hits, scoring six runs before a double-play ended the inning. Back within two runs, Rice would manage just two base runners for the remainder of the game, dropping the series.
SUNDAY | Rice 12, UAB 10
The Rice bats woke up for the series finale, scoring three times in the first off UAB starter Isaac Warrick, who would then be the victim of two Rice home runs in the second, putting the Blazers in a 6-0 hole after two frames. UAB gave Rice a scare with a five-run third, with Ben-Shoshan getting a strikeout to strand the would-be tying run in scoring position.
A three-run home run from Blaine Brown, his second long ball of the afternoon, gave Rice some breathing room before the Owls added another insurance run in the sixth and the seventh before UAB began a comeback of their own. UAB scored five straight to get back within one.
Rice pushed one run across in the ninth, turning the ball over to Jackson Blank in the bottom of the inning. Blank got two outs, but loaded the bases. Marco Fuentes entered and coaxed a fly out to right field to extinguish the threat and end the game.
THREE FOR THE ROAD
