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Rice Baseball: Pair of grand slams highlight win over SFA

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The offense exploded and the pitching was crisp for Rice baseball as the Owls cruised to a comfortable midweek win over SFA.

Rice baseball wasted no time in their first of two midweek games this week, taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning off a Jack Riedel RBI single. The Owls’ opponent, SFA, would answer with a pair off runs from a pair of extra-base hits in the second inning, but that was their only real offensive contributions of the evening against Rice starter Brandon Deskins

Deskins would go 4.0 innings, allowing just two hits and two runs while striking out seven. His command wasn’t perfect — three walks, one hit by pitch, and one wild pitch — but he didn’t have to be with how the Owls were swinging the bats behind him.

Last Time Out : Takeaways from Rice Baseball 3-0 series loss to Texas Tech

Guy Garibay gave Deskins plenty of breathing room with a Grand Slam in the bottom of the second inning. Garibay had another RBI on a single to right field in the fourth, followed by an Aaron Smigelski homer to give Rice a 9-2 advantage.

From there, Deskins would give way to Mark Perkins, who would do his part in keeping SFA at bay. Meanwhile, the offense added eight more runs in the fifth to break the game wide open, including the Owls’ second Grand Slam of the night, this time courtesy of Nathan Becker. By the time the dust settled, Rice had a runaway, 19-3 victory.

What it means | Getting right

Even though Rice baseball lost all three games against Texas Tech this past weekend, head coach Jose Cruz Jr. could sense a change in his ball club. “The last couple days have been different,” he said, referring to the two final games against the Red Raiders, both of which were well within reach following a one-sided Fright night affair.

“Everything is starting to fall into place at the right time,” Cruz Jr. continued. “Especially since conference is about start.”

Rice wouldn’t even have to wait for conference play, thumping SFA in their most decisive victory of the season. The offense was great. The pitching was great. Even the defense, which had just turned in its first error-free game of the season on Sunday, was sturdy. Everything was in sync.

One win won’t guarantee the Owls anything. There was no magic button pressed or formula concocted. But they do look different. They feel different. Perhaps something has clicked and they’ve found that missing component that will enable them to play better baseball. That makes the next few days all the more interesting with Sam Houston and UAB up next.

ON DECK | Sam Houston, UAB

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Rice Football Recruiting: 2023 QB Chase Jenkins commits to Owls

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The first player in the 2023 Rice Football recruiting class is a quarterback. Alief Taylor signal-caller Chase Jenkins has committed to the Owls.

On the week of National Signing Day last month, the offer list for the 2023 Rice Football recruiting class saw a major uptick in volume. Rice extended a fresh wave of new offers throughout that week, including a host of local players, including Chase Jenkins, quarterback at Alief Taylor High School. After mulling the offer for a few weeks, Jenkins has committed to the Owls and become the first member of the 2023 class.

“Being the first member is something special and I’m thankful,” Jenkins told The Roost. “I’ll definitely be active in recruiting in however I can. I love football, I’m all about team and brotherhood so I’m all in.”

Jenkins chose the Owls over other offers from Lamar and Jackson State. Following a run of transfer players at the position in previous classes, Jackson will continue the recent trend of high school passers Rice has brought into the fold in recent classes. Rice signed Reedy (TX) quarterback AJ Padgett in the 2022 class following the addition of Florida quarterback Shawqi Itraish in 2021.

For Jenkins, being a part of a family, a home away from home, played a crucial role in his decision. “Going to school and playing football can be done at different places,” he said. “Doing it where it feels like a home away from home was important to me.”

Premium: Rice Football Recruiting Offer and Commitment Tracker

There’s a ton to like when it comes to his on-field prowess as well. Jenkins prides himself on the “behind the scenes work”, digging into film and preparation however he can. It shows on the film. He’s accurate, polished and can make plays off schedule. His ability to get the ball where it needs to be at the right time is exciting. Jenkins can throw players open, an uncommon trait for high school passers.

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No 2022 postseason for Rice Women’s Basketball

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Rice women’s basketball did not make the field for the WNIT or the WBI, signaling the end of the Owls’ 2022 season.

The Rice women’s basketball regular season came to an end earlier this week when the Owls dropped a hard-fought conference tournament battle to Charlotte, who would go on to cut down the nets in Frisco. At the time, it felt like that wouldn’t be the last we’ll see of the Owls on the court this spring, though. Head coach Lindsay Edmonds predicted as much in the aftermath of that loss.

“I told them I don’t want the season to be over with yet and that their mindset should still be locked in on basketball and continuing to play,” Edmonds said. “They deserve to continue to play. The way we’ve been playing, they deserve to continue to play.”

That next opportunity would not come.

While postseason play once seemed like wishful thinking, it became more and more reasonable for this team to expect one more chance. Rice had won seven of their last nine games with their only two losses since Valentine’s Day coming in overtime to Louisiana Tech and to eventual Conference USA Tournament Champion, Charlotte in the conference tournament.

Rice women’s basketball won the WNIT last season. In fact, WNIT officials had visited the Owls recently. If things didn’t work out on that front, the WBI was also thought to be an option. There was an expectation that tournament would have a place for the Owls if the WNIT did not. By late Sunday night, both fields had been announced. No Rice.

The omission is a disappointment, but the Owls hope to turn it into motivation. Or as Edmonds, reacted late Sunday night, they’ll use it as fuel to the fire.

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Rice baseball shows fight despite sweep by Texas Tech

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Rice Baseball dropped the series, but put together two quality games against Texas Tech, boosting morale as conference play nears.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice baseball drops series 3-0

There were parts of the weekend when Rice baseball looked every bit a worthy adversary for No. 15 Texas Tech. The Owls pitching dueled it out with the Red Raider arms and the bats came through in a few key moments to keep things interesting. Fielding woes were the most debilitating part of the series for Rice, but that alone wasn’t the difference between these two Lone Star programs.

“The last couple days have been different,” head coach Jose Cruz Jr. set in retrospect. Rice pushed Texas Tech to the wire in both games, suffering too many errors on Saturday and watching a ball ricochet awkwardly off third base on Sunday in a pivotal moment.

Last Time Out: Rice baseball drops first game of Silver Glove Series to UH

Rice baseball won’t have much time to regroup. They have two midweek games in the coming days before opening up conference play next weekend. But before we get there, more on what we learned from this series and what’s next for Rice baseball.

1. Baseball 101: Don’t drop it

Errors have been an unbelievably extensive issue for Rice baseball through their first few weeks of the season. Following a five-error outing on Friday night, the Owls had committed four or more errors in three of their last seven games.

With the three-game series against Texas Tech now in the books, they’ve still yet to play a full nine innings without committing an error this season. For context, Rice had 22 error-free games last season, keeping a zero on that part of the box score in 42 percent of their games.

Jack Riedel’s diving grab in shallow right-center field to open the third game was proof the Owls do have the capacity to play great defense in spurts. Right now they’d settle for just taking care of the routine plays. If they can do that, they’ll be in line to win more than their Sunday games.

2. Pitching performs

Coming into this weekend, Texas Tech had scored 12 first-inning runs this season. They scored one (unearned) run in their three first-inning at-bats against Rice. After struggling to get their starting rotation going early on this season, the Owls’ front-line arms were outstanding over the three-game slate.

And it wasn’t just the starters, the Rice bullpen put together some incredible outings as well. David Shaw went two scoreless on Saturday. Tom Vincent and Matthew Linskey were both extremely effective on Sunday. Even though they gave up some runs, Thomas Burbank and Garret Zaskoda both made big pitches on Friday night.

Texas Tech averaged 9.2 runs per game prior to their three-game series with Rice baseball. They averaged 6.7 runs against the Owls, but only 4.6 earned runs. Holding this offense that far below their average should have been enough to win some games. It’ll get there if all phases start firing at the same time.

3. Hitting … TBD

Rice baseball is roughly a month into its season and there are still plenty of unknowns regarding who is going to be hitting (or attempting to hit) the baseball for the Owls. Aaron Smigeliski, Guy Garibay, Austin Bulman and Connor Walsh have essentially inked their names into the lineup card, but most everyone else seems to remain on a game-to-game basis.

Fortunately for the Owls, those players that have been cycling through the lineup have started to find their stroke. “It was contributions from a lot of people in different parts of lineup,” Cruz Jr. said. “Which is what it’s going to take for us to be successful.”

It took the bats a while to get going, but they did come through with some big hits with runners in scoring position this weekend. They’ll need some more of that if they’re going to turn close losses into wins against a quality opponent like Texas Tech, but the bones are there if Rice can get just a little bit more from the back end of the lineup, too.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | Texas Tech 10 – Rice 1

Whether it was chilly weather or superb pitching, both teams came out of the gate slowly on the opening night of the series. As the game progressed into the fifth inning with Rice trailing 2-1, the Owls looked every bit the part of a quality opponent for the Red Raiders. Then the bottom fell out on the fielding side and the bats simply weren’t potent enough to overcome the shift.

The Rice defense committed five errors, the first of which set up the big four-run fifth inning that redefined the game. Rice pitchers struck out 10 but walked eight. Further amplifying the defensive woes. Texas Tech out-hit Rice 9-8 and would tack on additional runs following their 6-1 fifth-inning lead as the Owls went quietly down the stretch.

SATURDAY | Texas Tech 3 – Rice 2

Rice spotted Texas Tech an unearned run in the first inning on Saturday. Then they handed them another in the fourth inning. In fact, the Red Raiders didn’t score an earned run until an RBI double in the ninth inning. The Rice pitching was simply better.

In what was one of his best outings of his career at Reckling Park, Roel Garcia struck out nine batters in four innings with one walk and one extra-base hit allowed. David Shaw called with two scoreless innings of no-hit ball with Alex DeLeon working three strong frames, despite allowing the go-ahead hit. The Rice offense picked up some clutch hits two even the score at 2-2 in the eighth, but there wasn’t enough juice to hold on.

SUNDAY | Texas Tech 7 – Rice 1

Both teams picked up right where they left off when they arrived at the ballpark for the series finale. Rice struck first, taking their first lead of the weekend on a first-inning sacrifice fly from Aaron Smigelski. Texas Tech would tie it in the third before Rice came through with two RBI singles in the fourth to take a 4-1 advantage.

It would be Texas Tech’s turn after that. The Red Raiders broke through against Reed Gallant and Christian Cienfuegos in the middle innings, taking a 6-4 lead through six innings. Texas Tech would retire 15 straight Rice batters and tack on one more run, winning 7-4.

ON DECK | Rice baseball vs SFA (Tues), Sam Houston (Wed), UAB (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Basketball accepts invitation to 2022 CBI Tournament

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Rice basketball has accepted an invitation to participate in the 2022 College Basketball Invitation Tournament, to take place from March 19 to 23.

The season isn’t over quite yet for Rice basketball. After falling to North Texas in the third round of the Conference USA Tournament, the Owls have accepted a bid to the College Basketball Invitation Tournament (CBI). The Tournament will take place from March 19 to 23 with all games at the Daytona Beach Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, FL.

This is the Owls’ second appearance in the CBI. Rice previously made an appearance in 2017 where they defeated San Francisco in the opening round before falling to Utah Valley in the quarterfinals. At that time, the champion of the CBI was determined by a best-of-three series between semifinalists. This year’s tournament reverts to the more traditional single-elimination format throughout all rounds.

Opening round games will be played on Mar. 19 and Mar. 20 with the remaining rounds taking place over the next three days. Should a team play on the second day of opening round games and advance to the finals, they would play four games in four days.

Rice basketball head coach Scott Pera released this statement regarding the news:

“Being invited to the CBI is another positive step for our program. We have improved our win total again this year. Our team has battled all year long and achieved some big wins including Conference USA Tournament wins in back-to-back years for the first time since 2004-05. We have built a sustainable, winning program and to be invited to play in a postseason tournament is another great step as we continue our goal towards playing in March Madness.”

The entire field will be announced exclusively on Twitter on Sunday, March 13 following the announcements of the NCAA Tournament and NIT fields. Like Rice, other programs have already announced their intention to participate. At this time, those additional participants include Troy, VMI, Boston and Asheville.

Update: The 2022 field has been announced. Rice is the No. 14 Seed and will take on Ohio in the first round on Saturday.

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