Things got away for Rice baseball quickly on opening weekend against Texas leaving the Owls with plenty to correct as they move forward.
THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice baseball swept 3-0
In the words of Rice baseball head coach Jose Cruz Jr., “It didn’t go as we had hoped.” Those words seem optimistic at best following what was a rough awakening from the honeymoon offseason by the nation’s No. 1 team in their own ballpark. Texas outscored Rice by a combined score of 36-3, outclassing the Owls all around and sending them home with plenty to work on.
“We’re just starting,” Cruz Jr. admitted, adding that he’s hopeful players continue to progress and “we have some guys step up.” More on what went wrong and what good can be gleaned from a tough opening weekend for Rice baseball.
.@RiceBaseball head coach @cruz22 reacts to his first game with the Owls. #GoOwls pic.twitter.com/UXF1BN2vWh
— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) February 19, 2022
1. Someone might be walking home
On two separate occasions, Rice baseball issued five or more walks in the same inning. It would be disingenuous to boil an entire series down to a singular stat, but walks tell the preponderance of this story. 17 different pitchers took the mound for the Owls against the Longhorns this weekend. Just as many left without recording an out (two) as left without issuing a walk (also two).
Of the two who went multiple innings without issuing a walk (Cristian Cienfuegos and Parker Smith), only Smith hit a batter. So in total, 16 of 17 Rice pitchers allowed a free base runner and only two (Brandon Deskins and Cooper Chandler) went at least three full innings on the mound.
More: Jose Cruz Jr. hopes to bring modern edge to Rice baseball
Cruz Jr. was blunt in his assessment. “Ultimately I chuck it up to lack of execution. I think we gave them too many chances.”
Five Rice pitchers through at least 60 percent of their pitches for strikes. Five through more balls than strikes, overall. The program can praise the technological advancements of its pitching lab all they want, but if they don’t throw strikes, it’s not going to matter.
2. Some answers in the lineup
Finding someone to fill the offensive void left by the departing trio of Cade Edwards, Bradley Gneiting and Braden Comeaux was high on the priority list for the start of the season. While the Owls didn’t see any resounding offensive displays, there were enough encouraging at bats that indicate the offense should be better than its current one-run-per-game clip.
Guy Garibay appears to be as good as advertised and seems locked into a top-four spot in the batting order after collecting two doubles on the weekend and several hard-hit outs. Austin Bulman launched the Owls’ first home run of the season — the third consecutive year he’s delivered the first long ball for Rice — and is going to be a fixture as well.
Drew Woodcox struggled out of the gate, but his offseason performances will likely warrant him more than one weekend to work out of the slump. Justin Long and Pierce Gallo each left the weekend hitting .375 after three hits in eight at bats. True freshman Aaron Smigelski and Jack Ben-Shoshan delivered pinch hits, and while it might not get them in the starting lineup just yet, Cruz Jr. said he’d taken notice of their good approaches at the plate.
3. Texas is very, very good, but Rice beat themselves, too
Rice committed three errors at third base in the first 11 defensive innings of this series. They had four errors on the weekend. Texas had one. Add in 28 walks, six wild pitches, three passed balls and zero runs in the first 17 innings and you get the recipe for a sloppy weekend on the road — and that’s before any opponent enters the equation.
“[We want] guys to put together good at bats, play some good defense, just play baseball,” Cruz Jr. said. “for our pitchers to execute [and] just be able to attack the zone a little bit more than we have.”
Whether it was jitters, rust or some combination of both, Rice can put a tremendously improved product on the field by minimizing their own mistakes. Fortunately, Rice won’t be playing Texas every weekend. And fortunately, Rice has a lot of time left in this young season to work through warts that were put on display in Austin this past weekend.
THE PLAY BY PLAY
FRIDAY | Texas 7 – Rice 0
Texas came after Rice starter Cooper Chandler early on Friday night. He allowed plenty of hard contact, but only one run in each of the first two innings. Trailing 2-0, he worked a scoreless third before two infield singles and an error in the fourth inning drove him from the game. By the time the inning was through, Rice trailed 5-0.
Christian Cienfuegos was a bright spot out of the bullpen, but it was too little, too late by the time he settled in. The Rice offense was quiet, largely unable to solve Texas starter Pete Hansen. The Owls only had seven at bats with runners in scoring position and produced no hits in those key moments. Those missed opportunities and the errors proved too much to overcome.
SATURDAY | Texas 15 – Rice 1
Even following a three-run third inning courtesy of a balk and an error and one more run across in the fourth, the game was very much in the balance on Saturday entering the fifth inning. Roel Garcia punched out the first two batters and was one strike from returning to the dugout with the Owls’ first 1-2-3 inning of the weekend. Then he walked the next batter on a full count and the spiral began.
Rice allowed six runs in the fifth, three more in the sixth and two in the seventh, watching a 4-0 deficit turn into a 15-0 hole as the offense continued to put up zeroes. At that point, the rout was on and Rice could only play out the string.
SUNDAY | Texas 14 – Rice 2
Austin Bulman lifted the first pitch he saw over the fence to give Rice baseball its first lead of the weekend. It would be short-lived. The 1-0 advantage turned into a 2-0 deficit before the Owls were able to get out of the first inning. That score held through three innings as starting pitcher Thomas Burbank was able to hold Texas at bay early on.
The Longhorns would breakthrough with crooked numbers in the fourth and fifth innings. The Owls’ offense was able to consistently generate baserunners but unable to drive them in until a wild pitch allowed catcher Manny Garza to score the final run of the game in the eighth inning. At that point it was 14-2 Texas, cementing the end of another one-sided affair.
ON DECK | Rice baseball at Houston Baptist (Wed)
