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Rice Baseball thumped by Houston

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Rice baseball dropped the first game of the Silver Glove Series against Houston, sleepwalking through the Cougars’ offensive assault.

Fans had barely had time to wolf down their dollar hot dogs before the game was effectively ended on Wednesday night. Rice baseball came out flat in the first game of the Silver Glove Series against Houston, allowing four runs in the first, three in the second and five more in the third, falling into a 12-0 deficit before they came to bat in the third inning.

Read More: Rice Baseball winless at Astros College Classic

Nolan Roycraft got the start and couldn’t make it out of the first. Reed Gallant was next up and wore eight runs before being lifted for Jackson Blank, who pitched 2.2 scoreless innings. By then, the damage was done.

Between Blank and Von Baker, Rice held Houston off the board in the next three innings. Colin Robson got Rice on the board with an RBI groundout in the sixth but that was all the Owls could manage in another run-rule defeat. Houston scored six in the seventh to put the game away for good, winning by a final score of 18-1 in seven innings.

Generally, it’s hard to put too much stock in a midweek game, especially considering the randomness associated with college baseball and the various permutations of lineups and pitching staffs, but getting run-ruled in your own ballpark by your biggest rival is going to sting for some time. This was not the way Rice baseball envisioned beginning its 2025 season.

What it means | Midweek mess

Rice baseball did win its first midweek game of the season, defeating Sam Houston 6-1, primarily on the arm of Tucker Alch who twirled a gem to pick up the Owls’ first win of the season. When Alch isn’t at his absolute best, who is Rice supposed to turn to get outs during the midweek?

More: 2025 Rice Baseball Season Preview

Lamar scored 11. Houston had topped that number before the end of the third inning. Rice has a total of three additional games still to come against that pair of teams. Fortunately, no midweek matchups with in-state power conference teams like Texas or Baylor are on the docket, but this pitching staff just doesn’t seem to have the depth to face any caliber of D1 opponent this weekend.

That puts pressure onto the starting rotation to get more length during the weekend to preserve the rest of the arms on staff and amplifies the impact needed from the bats, which have been promising at times, but erratic from game to game.

ON DECK | vs Yale (Fri-Sun), TAMU-CC (Mon)

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Rice Baseball defeated by Lamar

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Rice baseball overcame an early deficit but couldn’t keep up with the Lamar bats, falling to the Cardinals on Tuesday night at Reckling Park.

The situation looked dire on Tuesday night when Rice baseball found itself in a 4-0 hole against the visiting Lamar Cardinals as starter Tucker Alch labored through the early innings. The bats would come to his rescue, getting all four runs back in the bottom of the second and putting Rice in front with a two-spot in the fourth.

By the time Alch left the contest, he was in line for the win. Expectations had to be measured, though, as Alch handed the ball off to Garrett Stratton in the top of the fifth with two on and none out, clinging to a one-run advantage.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball winless at Astros College Classic

Not only did that advantage go up in smoke, but the Owls’ lead would never materialize again. After jumping in front by two, Lamar would score the last seven runs of the game, battering a beleaguered Rice bullpen and sending the Owls to a fifth consecutive loss

What it means | Youth Movement

The lineup has continued to skew younger and younger as the Owls’ season has progressed and that youth movement doesn’t seem to be going away. In just his second game in the leadoff spot, Hiram Bocachica went 3-for-6 with 2 RBI. Fellow freshman Michael Zito and Cole Green each scored two runs with Zito adding a three-hit game, too.

Although he’s not a freshman, Tobias Motley became the only Rice player this season to leave the yard multiple times, getting the Owls on the board with a solo shot in the second inning. Fellow sophomore Landon West walked twice. Blaine Brown got into the action later on, picking up a pair of hits, one of them a double.

More: 2025 Rice Baseball Season Preview

In a season full of more bad news than Rice baseball fans would have hoped, the younger players have been the bright spot. Watching them develop and progress has the potential to be one of the defining throughlines of the season.

ON DECK | vs Houston (Wed), vs Yale (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Women’s Basketball drops home finale to North Texas

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Rice Women’s Basketball rallied from a large deficit in the first half but couldn’t replicate the feat in the second half, falling to North Texas at home.

Rice women’s basketball may not have had a worse first quarter against a conference opponent this season than they experienced on Tuesday night against North Texas. The Owls were outscored 14-0 before they got on the board, barely clawing back to a 10-point deficit before the end of the frame.

The second quarter was an entirely different story. Rice came out the aggressor, scoring 15 of the first 18 points to take a two-point lead over the Mean Green and make this game interesting once more. North Texas would counterpunch, ending the half on a 9-0 run to take a seven-point lead into the break.

More: Rice Football: 2025 Recruiting Class Analysis — Defense

North Texas would hold serve in the second half, keeping Rice women’s basketball at arm’s length and answering every volley with one of their own. Rice made consecutive field goals just once in the third quarter before unraveling in earnest in the fourth.

After a layup from Sussy Ngulefac opened the scoring, North Texas outscored Rice 10-2 in the next four minutes, turning a comfortable lead into a one-sided advantage with haste. Rice women’s basketball falls to 14-16 on the season and 7-11 in conference play.

Final Box | North Texas 68, Rice 56

Key takeaway | Can Lightning Strike Twice?

If things hold, Rice women’s basketball should be the No. 8 seed in the American Conference Tournament this weekend, a far cry from where this squad expected to be. However, this program proved a season ago that an up-and-down regular season could be pushed aside in March in favor of an electric run to a tournament championship.

Rice didn’t want to bank on another miracle to reach a second consecutive NCAA Tournament, but that’s what the Owls will need to reach those lofty goals. For better or worse, it’s a series of one-game seasons from this point onward with an eye on the horizon looking for another bolt of inspiration.

Up Next: AAC Tournament

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Rice Basketball runs out of steam at UTSA

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Rice Basketball traded punches with UTSA in the first half but couldn’t keep pace with the Roadrunners’ offense which ran away with the game in the second half.

What began as a defensive slugfest on Sunday night between Rice basketball and UTSA at the Convocation Center in San Antonio, TX was a far cry from the offensive firefight between these same teams that happened at Tudor Fieldhouse in mid-January. Both teams were held below 40 percent in the first half this time around, trading meager leads throughout the opening portion of the contest.

UTSA was the first to amass a two-score lead when Marcus Millender hit the fourth three-pointer of the evening with a little less than three minutes remaining before the halftime buzzer. The Roadrunners snagged the first meaningful a few minutes later, scoring 12 of the final 14 points from the field in the first half to take an eight point advantage into halftime.

More: Rice Football: 2025 Recruiting Class Analysis — Offense

Rice would keep things relatively close for the opening portions of the second half until UTSA started to connect from long range. The Roadrunners’ Primo Spears knocked down a trio of consecutive three pointers to get their advantage to double-digits for the first time. Rice, which had only made 1-of-14 threes to that point, found itself in a sizable hole.

The lead only ballooned from there. Shortly thereafter UTSA took charge in earnest with an emphatic 16-3 run, rendering signs of life from three-point range largely moot. Rice basketball has now lost six of its last seven games.

Final Box | UTSA 84, Rice 56

Key takeaway | Scouting the Standings

March is officially here and the conference tournament is right around the corner. With the shrinking calendar and the mounting losses, Rice basketball is running out of time to avoid a potential first round game pitting the bottom two teams in the conference standings.

Rice (4-13) and Charlotte (3-13) hold those positions at this point. The Owls had been just above the line, but this loss to UTSA, which moves the Roadrunners just above them in the standings. Rice has one game remaining against Wichita State, capping the Owls’ conference win total at a maximum of five.

If Rice win that game and Tulsa loses to Temple and Wichita State, Rice would escape the opening round game, but the Owls have reached the point of the season where they need help after failing to help themselves often enough during the year.

Up Next: vs Wichita State (Thr, Mar. 6)

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Rice Women’s Basketball overwhelmed in second half by Temple

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Rice Women’s Basketball led at halftime but couldn’t keep up the pace, falling by double-digits on the road at Temple on Friday.

Temple hit the first few shots, but it was Rice women’s basketball that set the tempo on Friday night in Philadelphia. After falling behind 5-0 in the first quarter, the Rice rallied to take the lead four minutes later and quickly surged ahead on the aggressive offensive play of Aniah Alexis, who paced both teams with a game-high 12 first quarter points.

Rice maintained a multiple-possession lead through the second quarter but never grew their advantage to double digits. Temple just wouldn’t go away, eventually pulling even again midway through the third quarter on a 9-2 run that brought the score to a deadlock at 42 points apiece. That’s when the momentum began to swing in favor of the hometown Owls in earnest.

More: Rice Football: 2025 Recruiting Class Analysis — Defense

After leading for the better portion of two quarters, Rice found itself trailing at the onset of the fourth quarter, falling even further behind when Temple opened the period with six straight points to go in front by 10, the largest lead be either side at that point in the contest. The onslaught wouldn’t stop there.

Interrupted by one layup from Trinity Gooden, Temple went on a fresh 9-0 run, ballooning the lead to 17 points and putting the game on ice before stretching their advantage to as many as 22 points. After controlling much of the early moments of this game, Rice would be outscored 50-25 in the second half, falling to 7-10 in AAC play and 14-15 overall.

Final Box | Temple 83, Rice 63

Key takeaway | Battle on the boards

One statistic doesn’t often tell the full story, but the Owls’ second half slump coincided quite clearly with a shift in their success rebounding, or lack thereof. For all their struggles this season, Rice had out-rebounded their opponents in 14 of their 16 conference games to date. That level of consistency appeared to be on track after the first half with Rice winning the rebounding battle 25 to 19 at halftime.

The second half was an entirely different story, though. Temple outrebounded Rice 17-11 in the second half and instead of losing this fight rather handily as the first half had suggested, actually matched Rice on the boards, 36 to 36. That changed the entire complexion of the game, disrupting the Owls’ offensive flow and thwarting any chance of a second half comeback.

Rice women’s’ basketball is 3-6 this season when losing the rebounding battle.

Up Next: vs North Texas (Tues, 3/4)

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