Rice baseball welcomed a familiar face back to South Main this week as they named former Owls’ assistant David Pierce their next head coach.

There wasn’t an empty seat in the Brian Patterson Center as the clock ticked toward noon on Wednesday, March 19. It was spring break on campus, the middle of the lunch hour for fans and alumni and the press conference had been scheduled with barely 24 hours’ notice, but none of that seemed to matter as a host of Owls’ faithful gathered to welcome their new head baseball coach.

Less than a week from the dismissal of Jose Cruz Jr as the Owls’ baseball coach, David Pierce was introduced as his successor, set to take over the team immediately, starting with practice scheduled just hours after his introductory remarks.

If the unconventional, whirlwind week bothered him, Pierce didn’t show it. “It’s Rice,” he remarked. “We didn’t have a lot of hesitation. It was a pretty easy decision for us.”

As Athletic Director Tommy McClelland had alluded just moments before in his comments, that Rice would look into Pierce as a potential candidate shouldn’t have surprised anyone. However, McClelland acknowledged he had two driving motivations when it came to his search. How could he make the most out of the rest of this current baseball season and how could he best position Rice baseball going forward?

“The answer to both of those questions happened to be the same person, David Pierce,” McClelland said.

Podcast: Unpacking the Pierce hire and midseason start

It was Pierce who first suggested the process move at this rapid pace, prompting McClelland to ponder his first question again. McClelland noted Pierce’s insistence and passion stood out to him and helped drive those conversations.

“He brought up the idea and that concept that it should happen sooner rather than later. Why not start now?” he said. “Why wait til the end of the season when I can jump in the boat with the players and the staff now and get to rowing with them.”

And just like that, Pierce was on the road from San Marcos to South Main set to inherit a head coaching position in media res. Pierce began the year as an assistant at Texas State, having made a promise to his wife that he wasn’t going to chase a job this year. That if the stars aligned and a situation fell into place, they’d know. Months later, he was on the road to Houston.

He shook familiar hands, donned a cap with the famous Old English R embroidered on top, excited to start work and, in his words, “win now.”

“What I really want from the players is to really start with a clean slate,” he said. “There’s goals in front of us that we can attain now if we truly believe that and we’re truly willing to put in the work for that. You never know.”

A week ago, many would have considered it impossible to hire an accomplished coach who had almost a decade of experience at the institution and even more postseason success since he left. But here we are. And here is David Pierce, ready to take on the challenge and get Rice baseball back to where it once was.

“College baseball is much better when Rice University is playing in the postseason,” he said.

The above-capacity crowd at the Patterson Center hung on every word. Pierce was hired to get Rice back to the postseason. The first stop, though? Boca Raton for conference play in three days time.

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