Rice Baseball blew past Prairie View A&M on Wednesday night, burying the Panthers with a cavalcade of early runs.
Colin Robson was retired twice in the first inning, but just about everyone else reached base in some form or fashion as Rice baseball batted around in the opening frame, putting up a seven-spot that put Prairie View A&M in a seemingly insurmountable hole from the start. As Rice rolled through several bullpen arms, the offense just kept coming.
Rice scored four more in the second, putting the game above the margin for a run-rule decision before they’d recorded their sixth out. A single run in the third served as insurance toward that goal.
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Paul Sith, Treyton Rank, Hiram Bocachica and Cole Green each recorded multiple hits and multiple RBI with Rank and Bocachica notching home runs. At a minimum, every player in the starting line up reached base. The lone Prairie View run scored on a wild pitch just before the game was called via run rule.
What it means | Not your average Wednesday
The last time Rice baseball played on a Wednesday it was head coach David Pierce’s post-game meeting drew more interest than the game, a 20-5 beatdown at the hands of UT-Rio Grande Valley. The Vaqueros are a vastly superior team than the Prairie View A&M squad Rice faced this time around, but opponent quality aside, the focus the Owls put on display against the Panthers was noticeably different.
No play made that more evident than when Cole Green’s walloped a ball to the gap in left center field. An errant throw home allowed Hiram Bocachica and Aric Anderson to score without a tag. But instead of coasting into third base as the ball skittered toward the backstop, Green turned on the jets and exploded toward the plate, catching the Prairie View battery off guard. The relay throw back to the plate was late and Green scored.
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Green’s willingness to pressure the Panthers and the Owls’ ability to deliver the dagger in the first inning of the game spoke volumes about this club’s shifting mentality. They’ve got a ways to go, but this version of Rice baseball will cause fits for their opponents in Clearwater in a few weeks, provided they can get there.
Up Next: vs Wichita State x3 (Fri-Sun)
