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AAC Baseball: Lots on the line in final weekend

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Every team is alive in the AAC Baseball conference tournament hunt and the regular season title remains up for grabs in the final weekend of the season.

SCHOOL CONF OVERALL NEXT

Notable storylines results

1. Pirates and Roadrunners and the battle for first place

Things couldn’t be much closer at the top of the conference.  UTSA has a one game leader over UTSA, but the Roadrunners took the conference series over the Pirates, giving them the tiebreaker. If ECU sweeps Rice, they take the conference crown. If they fail to win three more, that opens the door for UTSA and other possible permutations. ECU has lost four straight AAC games entering the final weekend.

2. Memphis a longshot

Memphis does have two series wins, but one of them (over Tulane) is irrelevant because of how far ahead the Green Wave are over the Tigers in the standings. The head to head over Rice might be pivotal, though, depending on how these next three games go. They have be far the most tenuous path to the postseason and would need help, most likely from Rice and USF, to advance to Clearwater.

3. Who has tiebreakers over who?

As this league has already seen in men’s and women’s basketball in recent months, tiebreakers get extremely complicated when we’ve got three or four (or even more) teams tied with identical records. From there, the tiebreaker rules stipulated best records in the tied pair and get more complicated from there.

Rather than try and spell out every scenario — that’s a lot to type — here’s a brief rundown of the series each team has won this year. Read this as the team before the parenthesis has the head-to-head tiebreaker over the subsequent teams.

ECU: UAB, FAU, Charlotte, Wichita State, Memphis, USF
UTSA: ECU, Tulane, Charlotte, Memphis, UAB, USF
Tulane: USF, FAU, Wichita State, ECU
Wichita State: UAB, Rice, FAU, UTSA, Charlotte
FAU: Charlotte, Memphis, USF
UAB: Tulane, Charlotte, FAU, Memphis
Charlotte: USF, Memphis, Rice
Rice: UAB, USF, UTSA, FAU
USF: Memphis, Wichita State
Memphis: Rice, Tulane

4. Series to watch

Rice at ECU and UTSA at FAU are both fascinating matchups. One side of the pairing is playing for their postseason lives. The other can win the league outright if things go well. Then add the extra dynamic of Rice owning the head-to-head tiebreaker over FAU, taking two of three from the other Owls this past weekend.

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NEWS: Rice Athletics to add Women’s Golf in 2026

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Rice Athletics is growing again. The university announced today the addition of Women’s Golf to their sponsored sports in 2026.

When Rice Athletics Director Tommy McClelland arrived at South Main he spoke of ambitious growth and a commitment to making the Owls excellent in everything they endeavor to do. Alongside those plans was a commitment to ensure Rice had the opportunities to succeed in both men’s and women’s athletics. In January, McClelland announced the addition of a diving program. Just a few months later, the Owls are on the move again, this time committing to add Women’s Golf.

Much in the same way there were built-in efficiencies when Rice went to incorporate diving into its preexisting swimming program, adding a women’s team to complement the men’s program is another natural stepping stone as the department continues to grow.

Lynn Laverty Elsenhans, a former Rice women’s basketball player, and her husband, John, have endowed Rice Athletics to jumpstart the program.

President Reginald DesRoches offered these comments:

“We are thrilled to launch women’s golf at Rice. This is a part of our overall commitment to excellence in every area, including Rice Athletics, and especially women’s sports. We thank Lynn for this gift to launch the program and encourage other dedicated alumni to join us in supporting women’s golf.”

You can read the full release here.

Beyond the excitement that comes with growth, the addition of a second sport in the span of a few months sends a clear statement regarding the direction and ambition of Rice Athletics. In a collegiate landscape that is rife with challenges and new obstacles, the Owls are growing — not shrinking — as they head into an uncertain future. That’s the sort of program most every athlete would tell you they’d like to join.

When combined with the move to the American Athletic Conference, the Owls certainly are putting their commitment to athletics on full display.

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Rice Football Recruiting: DT Gentle Hunt commits to Owls

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The latest win on the Rice football recruiting front, Florida A&M defensive lineman Gentle Hunt has committed to the Owls for his final season of eligibility.

The bulk of the incoming Rice football recruiting class was on board before spring practices, but a few scholarships were left to fill. Getting a veteran defensive tackle was near the top of the priority list when it came to assigning those last few spots. The Owls did just that with their newest addition. Per a report from 247’s Mark Zenitz, Florida A&M transfer defensive tackle Gentle Hunt has committed to the Owls.

A 5-foot-11, 290-pound Florida native, Hunt was in high demand as soon as he made the decision to enter the portal. Reports circled of his name in connection to several Power 5 programs, including the Owls’ crosstown rivals in the Big 12. After taking a few weeks to mull things over, though, the multi-time All-SWAC honoree opted for Rice.

Hunt brings a padded stat sheet with him to South Main. He amassed 89 tackles, 24 tackles for a loss and 11.5 sacks in three seasons with FAMU, including 11 tackles for a loss and 5.5 sacks last season. He can slide right into the interior spot on the defensive line vacated by De’Braylon Carroll, who transferred this past offseason and compete with Blake Boenisch and Izeya Floyd for starting reps. Regardless of who wins the job, Hunt’s presence provides critical depth up front.

Hunt is the second impact player the defense has added in this post-spring portal cycle. Former Utah corner Faybian Marks committed last week. Both players should compete for significant playing time when fall camp arrives, bolstering a defensive roster that was already shaping up to be one of the better units in the AAC.

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Hunt is a disruptor that will set up shop in the middle of the Owls’ defensive line. He’s a gifted athlete who looks more than ready to make the step up into the FBS ranks. And while he’s being brought in for his prowess at the line of scrimmage, he’s the kind of playmaker who won’t be limited to just one portion of the field. Look no further than this touchdown return he scored against Bethune-Cookman.

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Lamar avenges midweek loss, splits season series with Rice Baseball

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A week removed from beating Lamar on the road, Rice Baseball fell to the Cardinal at Reckling Park, evening the season series with the nearby foe.

Injuries and bullpen preservation for the upcoming weekend series against FAU left Rice baseball head coach Jose Cruz Jr. with some tough decisions in the Owls’ second midweek game in two days. He opted to hand the ball to Tucker Alch, who had recently cemented himself as the Sunday man for the club. He went two innings against Lamar, falling behind 2-0 when he left the mound and forcing the team into comeback mode once again.

Rice got one run back in the bottom of the second, cashing in on a home run from Jack Riedel, his team-leading 14th blast of the season. That one-run deficit would persist for two more innings before Lamar roughed up Karl Ralamb and Reed Gallant to the tune of five runs in the fifth inning before Tyler Hamilton came in to extinguish the threat.

Last Time Out: Texas A&M bats too much for Rice Baseball in midweek tilt

The damage had been done, though. Trailing 7-1 Rice was able to chip away in the later innings but never truly come close to threatening to take the lead. The loss evens the season series with Lamar. The Owls took the first game a week ago in Beaumont.

What it means | Waiting for the weekend

The decision to throw Alch on Wednesday tentatively points towards the potential of a new Sunday starter. Perhaps Davion Hickson is given a chance to stretch out in a starting role? Or could Alch still be available as the pitching staff treats this as more of a midweek bullpen appearance? Either option could be viable at this point.

Regardless of which way that decision goes, it’s worth noting who did not throw at all this week. Hickson wasn’t used against Texas A&M or Lamar. Tom Vincent didn’t throw either. The same is true for Jackson Blank and Garrett Stratton. This has all the markings of an intentional decision by the coaching staff to save their bullets for the games that matter the most.

Getting the series win against FAU this weekend remains the top priority. It’s pretty clear by the decisions the Owls made on the mound they weren’t pulling out all the stops to win these midweek contests and that strategy was probably the best option available to them at this present moment. Now they’ve got to prove themselves right and pitch well this weekend.

ON DECK | vs FAU (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball falls victim to big bats of Texas A&M

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Rice Baseball hung around for a while but couldn’t go the distance against the homerun-heavy Texas A&M offense, which blasted four longballs to down the Owls.

Texas A&M needed just one batter, leadoff man Gavin Grahovac, to take a lead over Rice baseball in their midweek tilt. Two batters later, the Aggies were leading 2-0, courtesy of a second solo home run in the opening inning. Rice hurler Mauricio Rodriguez commanded the ball fairly well from that point onward, striking out six in 3.2 innings, but several wild pitches and some miscues around him saw him leave the game trailing 6-1.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball salvages one at Charlotte

The Owls’ only score to that point was a solo blast from Manny Garza, who put one over the right field wall in the third inning. The lone run wouldn’t be nearly enough against the Aggie onslaught. Texas A&M added two more home runs in the fourth, part of a four-run frame charged to Jackson Mayo that ensured the home team would be in the driver’s seat.

The Aggies scored two more in the fifth before Rice stole a run back in the sixth. The dam finally broke in the sixth when the back end of the Owls’ bullpen walked in five straight runs. After a quiet seventh, the game was officially decided via a run-rule.

What it means | Not the same game

Texas A&M baseball entered Tuesday as the No. 3 team in the nation. They had been the top-ranked squad until dropping two games this weekend, the first time they’d been beaten twice in a row this year. They responded by run-ruling LSU in the series finale before moving on to the Owls, their final non-conference opponent of the regular season.

Thanks to their victory over Rice, Texas A&M will finish the season a perfect 25-0 in nonconference play. They’ve only lost eight games all season long. The Aggie faithful will be disappointed with this season if they’re not playing in Omaha in a month’s time.

To put it plainly, these are two teams on different strata of the sport with very different expectations and very different goals. Pulling off a midweek win over a team of this caliber would have been nice but nothing about the Owls’ current aspirations changes with Tuesday’s defeat. The Owls have to turn the page and move on quickly. Lamar comes to Reckling tomorrow and would love nothing more than to avenge last week’s result in Beaumont.

ON DECK | vs Lamar (Wed), vs FAU (Fri-Sun)

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