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Rice Baseball snaps skid with satisfying win over Houston

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Rice baseball snapped out of its funk, overcoming a costly individual relief outing with plenty of runs to earn a meaningful win over Houston

.The whiplash began in the first inning when Jack Riedel slugged a three-run bomb to right center, spotting starting pitcher Garrett Stratton to an early lead. Stratton did his part, twirling two shutout innings before being lifted for Mauricio Rodriguez who did not fair quite as well.

Rodriguez got the first man to fly out, but seven of the next eight Houston hitters reached base, including three two-out RBI hits. When the dust settled, the Cougars led 6-3 and the Owls’ early volly had been answered two-fold.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball suffers ninth consecutive loss, falls to IWU

Rice quickly answered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning courtesy of a Guy Garibay home run. The game stayed close for several innings until the Owls had their moment. In the bottom of the seventh with the game tied, Ben Royo deposited a ball over the left field wall — a three-run blast.

Riedel added three more runs in the eighth via his second long ball of the game. Matthew Linskey, taking over for Garret Zaskoda who worked three shutout frames, struck out the side in the ninth to secure the win.

What it means | Not dead yet

Had Rice baseball lost this game they would have reached their first double-digit game losing streak since 1987. That’s not a marker a program on that seeks to elevate its status would want to emblazon itself with. Winning on Wednesday night was paramount. And for the first time in more than two weeks, Rice got it done.

At some point, the odds said the bullpen roulette was going to favor the blue and gray. At some point, the defense was going to put together an error-less outing. At some point, the relief was going to be good enough. That all happened on Wednesday. Now they’ve got to find a way to replicate it.

The top of the order was superb. Linskey looked like his old self. Someone stepped up and gave the team good innings out of the pen (Zaskoda) and head coach Jose Cruz trusted him enough to let him keep going, an equally important piece of the puzzle.

There are things to build on here. And Rice needs to get a few more wins to secure that conference tournament spot. No better time than the present to turn things around.

ON DECK | at WKU (Fri-Sun)

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Ouch: Rice Baseball drops ninth consecutive game

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Rice Baseball has hit a low point. Hopefully, there’s no way to go but up from here after dropping a ninth consecutive game.

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

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Fast starts not enough as Rice Baseball is swept by UTSA

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Rice Baseball scored first in all three games against UTSA but left San Antonio reeling, suffering another sweep in painful fashion.

FRIDAY | UTSA 9 – Rice 7

Rice got the jump on UTSA ace Luke Malone in the early goings of the opener, scoring four runs in the first two frames and following that up with a three-spot in the fifth. The UTSA bats were ready to push back, however, cutting into a 4-0 Rice lead with two-run innings in the second and third, respectively, to tie the game back at 4-4.

The aforementioned three-run fifth — all runs courtesy of a Ben Royo home run — would give the Owls a lead, but again, the Roadrunners rallied back. UTSA would score four in the seventh and one more in the eighth, roughing up Justin Long and Cristian Cienfuegos, the latter of which took the loss, his first of the season.

SATURDAY | UTSA 10 – Rice 8

As they did on Friday night, Rice got to work early on Saturday afternoon. A pair of solo home runs in the top of the first inning staked the Owls to a 2-0 lead, which quickly grew to 5-0 in the second before a weather delay paused the game in the middle of Ben Royo’s second at-bat. Royo would fly out when play resumed, signaling a shift in momentum away from the Owls.

MORE: Roost Pod – Rice Football Spring Ball Recap and Basketball Recruiting

With Rice leading 6-1, UTSA went on the offensive. The Roadrunners ambushed JD McCracken for four runs in the fourth, then jumped all over Tyler Hamilton for three runs in the sixth to take the lead for good. Once again, Rice was unable to hold an early lead and fell, ceding the series to UTSA.

SUNDAY | UTSA 11 – Rice 6

A weekend of crooked numbers rounded into full form on Sunday. Ben Royo got things going with a solo home run in the second, answered quickly by a single run to tie the game by UTSA in the bottom of the inning. Then the fireworks really got going.

UTSA hung a four-spot in the third. Rice answered with five runs in the fourth with Guy Garibay providing an emphatic, go-ahead three-run blast. The lead was short-lived, though. UTSA answered with a six-run sixth, rocking Matthew Linskey with a grand slam to take a commanding 11-6 advantage. That would be the final score.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

Another weekend down, but the same familiar result. Rice baseball is headed back to Houston with a bad taste in its mouth. Here are three takeaways from a tough weekend on the road.

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1. Building blocks

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ON DECK | vs UIW (Tues), vs Houston (Wed), at WKU (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball: 2023 MiLB Owls post-April updates

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While several Rice Baseball alums are producing at the highest level, others are working their way up the ladder. Here’s the latest on the MiLB Owls.

Triple-A

Jon Duplantier (Phillies) was moved to the 60-day injured list on April 6. He has yet to appear in a game in the Phillies organization after signing with them as a free agent this offseason.

Tristan Gray (Rays) has begun the 2023 season with the highest OPS (.780) he’s had since a brief short-season campaign in 2017. Gray recorded six home runs and 19 RBI in 23 games in the month of April.

More on Rice Baseball: Latest from the MLB Owls

Ford Proctor (Giants) made his major league debut at the end of the 2022 season and has started the 2023 campaign somewhat slowly. He’s hitting .205 in the early going, but has walked 22 times to push his on-base percentage to .368 despite the lower average. He’s appeared in 26 games to date all over the infield. He’s made starts at first base, second base, third base and shortstop, as well as designated hitter.

Double-A

Matt Canterino (Twins) began the 2023 season on the 60-day injured list as he recovered from offseason surgery. He’ll be sidelined for some time.

Trei Cruz (Tigers) is off to the best start of his minor league career by a wide margin. After hitting no better than .231 in either of his first two minor league seasons spread across several different teams, Cruz has settled down nicely in AA, slugging a career-best .478 with four home runs and 12 RBI in 18 games. He was recently named Eastern League Player of the Week.

Evan Kravetz (Reds) hasn’t had much of a minor league season to this point. He’s appeared in one game, throwing two innings and allowing three runs, a 13.50 ERA. That will almost certainly work itself out as he gets more work when the season progresses.

Dane Myers (Marlins) opened the season in AA after splitting time between AA and AAA last season. He’s hitting .282 with more hits (20) than games played (19) with seven of those hits going for extra bases.

Single-A

Roel Garcia (Rays, High-A) has appeared in four games this season with mixed results. He owns a 4.50 ERA and has struck out 11 in 12 innings, allowing 13 hits and 10 runs, although only six of which were earned. He’s walked seven.

Cooper Chandler (Orioles) has pitched in seven games, working 11.2 innings. He’s struck out 19 but allowed opposing batters to hit .313 against him. To this point, he has a 4.63 ERA.

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Rice Baseball falls to UH in 21-pitcher midweek nail-biter

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Rice baseball and Houston each emptied their respective bullpens on Wednesday night, but the Cougars’ staff lasted one inning longer.

Things couldn’t have gotten off to much more of an inauspicious start for Rice baseball on Wednesday night against Houston. A leadoff single was followed by another single, neither struck particularly hard. Back-to-back walks put Rice in a 1-0 hole before Guy Garibay’s diving snag turned the tide and kept Rice in the game.

Rice would then fight back from 2-0 and 4-2 deficits to tie the game. A smattering of relievers combined to hold the Houston offense at bay, with two of the Cougars’ first five runs scored on wild pitches with two outs remaining in the inning.

Mark Perkins came on in relief shortly afterward and kept the Cougars’ run total at five, giving the Rice offense a chance. The Owls squandered a bases-loaded opportunity in the eighth but cashed it in during the ninth, forcing extra innings.

Ultimately it was Tom Vincent who got his bell rung in the 12th, ceding three runs before ceding the mound to Garet Zaskoda, the 20th pitcher of the game — Houston would throw No. 21 in the bottom of the inning — as the game ticked past the four-hour mark. Houston went on to win, clinching the Silver Glove series victory.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball suffers heartbreaking sweep vs DBU

“It stinks to be on the losing end of a game like this. We were very competitive, it just seems like there’s there’s one thing that happens, or two things, four things today that happened that makes life difficult for us and we end up having to talk about not winning again. It’s getting annoying,” head coach Jose Cruz Jr. said.

“I mean, I know we’re close. [We’ll] just keep showing up, keep grinding, keep game planning like we are and just have faith that things are going to turn around.”

Cruz singled out the wild pitches, errors and missed RBI opportunities as key moments that turned the course of the game.

The Owls won’t have much time to lick their wounds. They hit the road tomorrow for a three-game tilt with UTSA before returning home where they’ll face Houston again in one of two midweek games.

ON DECK | at UTSA (Fri-Sun)

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