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Rice Baseball: Previewing the Middle Tennessee series

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Rice baseball returns to Reckling Park for a pre-Easter series against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. Here’s everything you need to know for the games.

Listen online // Watch Thursday (CUSA TV) // Watch Friday (CUSA TV) // Watch Saturday (CUSA TV)

The see-saw ride of the Rice baseball season marches on as Rice returns home. Middle Tennessee is a few spots above Rice in the conference standings, but still within reach if the Owls can win a few this weekend.

Middle Tennessee has won each of their last two CUSA series, posting big run totals against Western Kentucky and UAB. Here’s how the Blue Raiders will line up against Rice:

Projected Pitching Matchups

Thursday – 6:30 pm: Matt Canterino (4-4, 3.32) vs Carson Lester (1-3, 4.75)
Friday – 6:30 pm: Evan Kravetz (2-2, 4.78)  vs Peyton Wigginton (4-1, 4.45)
Saturday – 12:00 pm: Jackson Parthasarathy (3-6, 4.57) vs David Zoz (2-2, 3.53)

MTSU Pitching

Much like Rice, Middle Tennessee has a handful of trustworthy arms and a few less-reliable options who have shown flashes. The starting rotation is solid, led by Peyton Wigginton’s 62 strikeouts, a mark comparable to Rice ace Matt Canterino’s 66 Ks. He’s joined by Carson Lester and most likely David Zoz, the latter of the two has spent some time in the bullpen this season.

As for the bullpen, Scheldon Paulk has a team most 18 appearances. Batters are hitting .268 against him this season and struggling to make hard contact. Tyler Holcombe has been given a lot of innings, but has allowed at least one run in each of his last 11 appearances. Josh Young has been slightly more effective, throwing at least one inning without allowing a run in three of his last four relief appearances.

MTSU Hitting

The Blue Raider lineup isn’t one that hits for average, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t pack a punch. MTSU’s .257 batting average is second-to-worst in CUSA so it’s not too surprising they’ll bring just two regulars with averages above .300. Aaron Antonini and Darien Prewett barely eclipse that threshold. Each enters the weekend hitting .301.

Behind those two, Blake Benefield might be the most dangerous hitter. He leads the team with 18 extra base hits, including eight home runs. His issue has been strikeouts, 45 this season, compared to six walks. He’s one of four Blue Raiders with 35 or more whiffs this year. This is a team that makes their hay at the top half of the lineup.

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Football: Quarterback depth gives Owls options in 2019

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A year removed from starting a rotation of unproven passers, Rice football has a quarterback room with plenty of depth entering 2019.

Wiley Green was the scout team quarterback during fall camp last season. By the time the Owls played their final game, he was the starting quarterback. The reasons for Green’s ascent are two-fold. First, he’s really good at football. Second, the depth chart ahead of him became a MASH unit by season’s end.

Shawn Stankavage and Evan Marshman both suffered multi-week injuries. Jackson Tyner and Parker Towns had work to do in other areas. That propelled Green, a player whom the coaches still had complete trust in despite his standing on the depth chart, into the starting role.

He’ll be the frontrunner for the job entering 2019, but he’ll have company. Harvard transfer Tom Stewart has a live arm and didn’t come in to sit. Marshman will be back and healthy, as will Towns. And last year alone is proof that incoming freshman Jovoni Johnson could play his way to the top spot if the right circumstances arise.

More: Takeaways from Blue – Gray Spring Game

Ideally, Johnson gets at least one year in the system under his belt before playing meaningful snaps at Rice. Even still, the combination of Green, Stewart and Marshman gives Rice three starting caliber players who’ve played meaningful college football games. Entering last fall the Owls really only had one proven passer, Tyner, and he wasn’t able to win the job. It’s not too much of an overstatement to say Rice has more than doubled their depth at quarterback in one offseason.

Green, Marshman and Towns got their feet wet this spring. Now it’s time for each of them to hit the books and learn this offense inside and out. If they can master the mental aspect of the game the results will be felt in tangible ways this fall.

Having lots of quarterbacks doesn’t win you games. Head coach Mike Bloomgren found that out the hard way in 2018. But having multiple quarterbacks who have played “big-time college football”, as Bloomgren is known to say, could be the difference in multiple close finishes. The pecking order isn’t set, but the depth at the quarterback position is better than ever.

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Rice Football: 5 predictions following end of spring practices

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With spring practices in the books, Rice football begins to look ahead at the 2019 season in earnest. Here are five predictions for the Owls this fall.

1. QB1 will be Wiley Green

Mike Bloomgren has options, but none of them look better than Wiley Green right now. The sophomore signal caller had a bit of a slow spring, but so did his offensive line and most of his pass catchers. As the offense progresses his natural talent will come through and he’ll be named the starting quarterback, quite possibly much sooner than Bloomgren made an official statement on the matter last season.

2. The tight ends double their production in 2019

Jordan Myers and Jaeger Bull combined for a pedestrian 20 receptions for 267 yards and two touchdowns last season. That was the totality of the production contributed from the tight end position, something which should change drastically this coming fall. A host of tight ends saw significant run this spring including fresh faces like Jonathan Sanchez, Brendan Suckley and Robert French. Those three, plus Myers and Bull simply must blow the top off last year’s numbers.

3. Blaze Alldredge leads the team in tackles

This one seems like a no-brainer. After watching the entire linebacking corps fly around the field this spring the favorites to lead the team in tackles have to be Antonio Montero and Blaze Alldredge. I flipped a coin.

4. At least one of the starting specialists aren’t on campus yet

The absence of Jack Fox and Haden Tobola was notable this spring. The kicking game got off to a slow start and remained inconsistent during spring ball. A few guys had a crack at the placekicking job, but not did enough to put themselves ahead of the pack. That bodes well for incoming kicker Zach Hoban, who blasted a 60-yard field goal from the star in Dallas Cowboy Stadium following an event this winter.

The starting punting job will be a battle between Chris Barnes and incoming TCU transfer Adam Nunez. Barnes has been solid this spring, and it’s no guarantee he gives up the job. Nunez wasn’t brought in to ride the pine, though. That’s a battle that will take place in fall camp.

5. Rice isn’t done with the Transfer Portal

Depth was a major hurdle for the Owls this spring. Practices were cut short because there weren’t enough guys able to go and those who were still moving around had been worked to the brink of exhaustion. The depth will get better when the bulk of the 2019 recruiting class arrives this summer, but there is still room for a capable veteran or two to balance out what is already an extremely young nucleus.

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Rice Football: Offense remains a work in progress after Spring Game

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The Rice football offense trudged through a slow spring, leaving plenty of questions after a dismal showing at the Blue and Gray Spring Game.

The defense was two steps ahead of the offense on the first day of spring practices in early March. By the time Rice finished the spring game in mid-April it looked like they’d gained another 10 steps, if not more. That set up the coaching staff with a predicament. Is the defense truly elite? Is the offense that bad? Or is the truth somewhere in between?

Head coach Mike Bloomgren was all smiles when he talked about the defensive side of the ball following the Spring Game, which the defense won 48-14. As he transitioned to discussing the offense, he offered a clarifying statement:

[Defense] is a destructive process by nature. You can have a Blaze Alldredge make a play when all 10 of his teammates fall down. On offense, you need all eleven [guys] to do their job to have a chance to make a play a success, and thus offense is a constructive process.

It’s hard to build something when the individual contributors aren’t on the same page. That’s what we saw during the spring game. Quarterbacks were missing their receivers. Receivers were failing to haul in catchable passes. The offensive line looked disoriented.

Senior running back Aston Walter described the situation as one in where, rather than acting instinctively,  “too many people are thinking about what they should do.” That sluggishness off the ball was why the offense as a whole only drove the length of the field for a touchdown twice, one of which was a 60+ yard bomb from quarterback Wiley Green to receiver Aaron Cephus.

Bloomgren said there are “no magic pills” to transition from the offensive struggles into a fully functioning unit, but he remains optimistic things will get sorted out by the fall. This doesn’t seem to be purely a talent issue. With the possible exception of an unproven stable of young running backs, the talent level across the offense is better this year than it was last spring. The issue is getting all that talent to work together.

Consistency, making plays and understanding the scheme will be the marching orders for this unit from now until the fall. That goes hand and hand with how Walter assessed the summation of the spring. “We’re just not confident,” he said, “not where coach [Bloomgren] wants us to be… We gotta keep working.”

More than once the coaching staff has stressed the team is significantly ahead of where they were at this time last year in terms of understanding the scheme and knowing the playbook. That hasn’t produced positive results yet, but there’s still plenty of time before Rice plays their first game against Army in August.

If the spring struggles truly stem from mental setbacks, a summer studying combined with a strong fall camp should be enough to work through the offensive woes. No, they’re not where they want to be, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get there.

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Rice Baseball: Friday blowout not enough as Owls drop series to Charlotte

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Rice baseball followed up a Friday night offensive explosion with a pair of Saturday losses, ruining brief hopes of another road series win.

What could have been a reassuring weekend ended in frustration as Rice dropped another Saturday doubleheader after a Matt Canterino Friday night win. The loss drops the Owls’ record to 15-23 with the heart of conference play still ahead of them. Here’s how each game went and a few closing thoughts on another disappointing series.

FRIDAY | Rice 19 – Charlotte 4

Things couldn’t have gotten off to much of a better start for Rice in the series opener. After both teams were held scoreless in the first inning, Rice exploded for 10 runs in the second on two grand slams, the first from Justin Collins and the next by Andrew Dunlap.

Staked to a more than comfortable lead, Matt Canterino maneuvered through six innings before turning things over to Dalton Wood and Drake Greenwood. It wasn’t the sharpest Canterino has been this season (two strikeouts, one walk, and four earned runs), but it was more than enough for his third straight win.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON | Charlotte 6 – Rice 5

The first end of the double header was headlined by the pitching staffs. Evan Kravetz got the start for the Owls and threw seven innings, allowing one earned run and striking out eight. Charlotte fought back, taking a 3-1 lead in the fifth.

Rice would recapture the lead in the eighth on a Cade Edwards triple, eventually setting the Owls up with a 5-4 advantage entering the ninth inning. Things start out innocently enough with a ground out to third base. Charlotte would then load the bases, and then, with two outs, the 49ers came through with a game-winning walk-off single up the middle.

SATURDAY NIGHT| Charlotte 4 – Rice 0

Jackson Parthasarathy did enough on the mound in the series finale to give his team a chance to win. The Owls’ last piece in the starting rotation threw 5.1 innings, striking out 11 batters and allowing three earned runs, one each in the first, fourth and sixth innings. That first run would prove to be the game-winner, though, as Rice was shut out on three hits a little more than 24 hours removed from a 19-run shellacking of this same squad on Friday night.

Rice had their chance to spark a rally in the ninth, getting their first two base runners on with no outs. Two strikeouts and a groundout would extinguish the threat and end the series in favor of the home team.

TAKEAWAYS | Charlotte wins series 2-1

1. Are the double-headers too much?

The Rice offense has come prepared for their last two series openers. The Owls scored eight against FIU on Friday night and followed it up with 19 in the opener against Charlotte. Matt Canterino pitched both of those games, and although he wasn’t perfect, he was more than effective enough to give Rice plenty of cushion on the scoreboard.

Then the doubleheaders happened. Rice scored nine in two Saturday against FIU, one more than their Friday night tally. The Owls were held to five one day after their 19-run outburst against Charlotte. As the series have drawn on, the focus at the plate has waned. It didn’t even seem like the same team that showed up to the ballpark on Friday and Saturday.

2. Not good enough to be unlucky

Rice was one out away from winning this series. Then a single in the first game of the Saturday doubleheader evaporated what could have been a 2-0 series lead. Even with a loss in the finale, a 2-1 finish would have lifted Rice to .500 in conference play. Instead, they sit at 6-8.

Three errors by Rice gave Charlotte the chance for a game-winning hit on Saturday afternoon. Then Charlotte first baseman Dominick Cammarata punched ball up the middle. A little bit further to either side and it’s an out, but Cammarata’s ball found the hole and Charlotte won.

Right now, Rice needs a little bit of luck. They haven’t been consistent enough to overcome bad bounces. Mistakes are magnified when the margin for error is thin. This time, it cost Rice the series.

3. This team needs Evan Kravetz and Jackson Parthasarathy more than ever

Rice has lost both the final two games of each of the last two series, but it hasn’t been due to a lack of capable pitching. Kravetz had one poor outing, allowing six runs through 4.2 innings, but the Owls would still go on to score seven in a losing effort. The rest have all been strong starts which went unrewarded.

Canterino and Addison Moss were billed as the Owls’ 1-2 all offseason. Injuries have largely kept Moss out of the rotation, but Kravetz and Parthasarathy have more than answered the call. When they’re on the mound Rice typically has a chance to win. Otherwise, Rice could have been trailing 9-0 on Sunday instead of 4-0. If those two had been worse, Rice would be starting at a sub-.500 CUSA record with little to no reason for hope.

Rice can pitch, and pitch with the best of them. It’s going to make more than that alone to climb back to the upper half of the conference standings, but it’s one thing Rice does have going for them.

ON DECK | vs Middle Tennessee (Thus-Sat)

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