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Rice Baseball: 2021 MLB Owls update – May 1

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The 2021 MLB season is underway and Rice baseball alums are busy on the mound and at the plate. Here’s the latest from the MLB Owls from this week.

Anthony Rendon – Los Angeles Angels

Rendon was activated from the 10-day injured list on April 27 and quickly returned to form. He hit safely in three of his first four games back, including a Saturday explosion with four RBI and a couple of extra base hits. He absolutely crushed the long ball into the left field stands.

Through May 1, Rendon is hitting .269 with four extra-base hits, six walks and 10 strikeouts. His OPS is .762.

Tyler Duffey – Minnesota Twins

Duffey was credited with his first blown save on the season this week, allowing a line drive solo home run to the Indians’ Jose Ramirez on Monday. The Twins would lose the game in extra innings. His second out of the week was much better, a scoreless three-up, three-down inning with a strikeout against the Royals.

Through May 1, Duffey has a 3.38 ERA with a 1.500 WHIP. He’s averaging 9.0 strikeouts per nine innings.

Brock Holt – Texas Rangers

Holt has a quiet week at the plate before his former team came to town. Holt went 2-for-3 on Friday against the Red Sox, including this RBI single off former teammate Nathan Eovaldi.

Through May 1, Holt has 10 hits in 40 at bats, a .250 average. He’s walked eight times, struck out 11 times and collected four RBI.

Lucas Luetege – New York Yankees

Luetge participated in a bit of history in the Bronx this week, striking out all three batters he faced to help the Yankees tie a franchise record with 18 strikeouts in a single game. He appears to be settling in quite well in his return to the major leagues, tossing some unhittable pitches and making batters look silly.

Through May 1, Luetge has a 4.02 ERA with a 1.085 WHIP. He’s averaging 9.8 strikeouts per nine innings.

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Rice Baseball 2021: Previewing the Southern Miss series

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Rice baseball welcomes their return to the friendly confines of Reckling Park, but their weekend matchup with Southern Miss looms large.

It’s hard to believe, but May baseball is already upon us. The calendar is turning quickly and more than just the hot corner is heating up. The Rice baseball regular season schedule is winding down, but before it concludes in its entirety, the Owls have another ranked C-USA opponent to battle. Southern Miss enters the weekend 26-13 and ranked No. 23 in the D1 Baseball Top 25.

Times: Friday 2:00 p.m. / ~5:00 p.m. | Saturday 1:00 p.m. | Sunday 1:00 p.m.
Venue: Reckling Park
Radio: Stretch Internet Portal
Watch: CUSAtv

How each team fared this week

Rice baseball (17-23-1) split a weekend series with UTSA in San Antonio, their second series matchup with the Roadrunners this season. The Owls held a 2-0 upper hand but were unable to slam the door in the final two games to earn their first series win of the season.

Southern Miss (26-13) took three of four games from Western Kentucky, winning their third conference series of the season. The Golden Eagles have earned at least a split in each weekend of conference play since they opened things up with a series loss to Louisiana Tech at home.

Probable Pitchers

Friday | Roel Garcia (1-3, 5.36 ERA)
Saturday 1 | Mitchell Holcomb (4-4, 7.35)
Saturday 2 | Blake Brogdon (2-5, 6.14)
Sunday | Brandon Deskins (2-4, 4.24)

Southern Miss Pitching

The Southern Miss pitching staff has been the gold standard in Conference USA this season. The Golden Eagles lead the league in ERA, thanks in large part to the contributions of a potent quarter of starting pitchers. Hunter Stanley (5-1, 2.51 ERA), Ben Ethridge (4-1, 2.88), Walker Powell (6-2, 3.20) and Drew Boyd (2-2, 4.41) have been superb.

Southern Miss Hitting

When the pitching is that good, the offense doesn’t have to be top of the line to win ballgames. There have been outbursts here and there, but this lineup largely relies on the big bats of Gabe Montenegro and Charlie Fischer. Montenegro leads the team with 50 hits and a .338 batting average whereas Fischer leads C-USA in on-base percentage and sports a heft 1.1116 OPS.

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Rice Baseball 2021: Owls manage series split vs UTSA in rematch

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Rice baseball started strong, riding two early wins to a series split against UTSA in a rematch of a previous meeting this season.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice baseball splits series 2-2

1. Split shows signs of progress

Rice baseball has yet to win a weekend series against a conference opponent. Coming into this weekend, they hadn’t managed a split either. So by taking the first two games against the Roadrunners, tangible signs of progress were produced. When Rice puts together a complete game from all phases — not even necessarily a dominant showing by any group — this team can win.

At the same time, the failure to come close in either of the final two games left some well-deserved frustrations. Both things can be true. Not winning the series was a missed opportunity, especially when Rice had the luxury of throwing Roel Garcia in the finale. That should have been advantage, Owls.

2. The bullpen issues linger

Four times in four games, Rice gave up four or more runs in a single inning. The only game they avoided a crooked number, Game 2, they won. As for the rest of the series, they lost two of three when surrendering a big inning. Those bullpen blowups have hampered this team tremendously. Individual arms have flashed one weekend and failed the next.

That makes it hard for head coach Matt Bragga to know what buttons to press. Now he’s forced to ask himself not only “can this guy get the job done?” but also “is he going to be locked in today or not?”. Bragga would probably own up to being a bit too slow to use the hook, but it’s a two-way street with both sides showing weaknesses.

3. Fielding isn’t doing the Owls any favors

The bullpen hasn’t been perfect, but their struggles don’t fall solely on the guys on the mound. Errors were costly to Rice this weekend, and they’ve cropped up more than a few times for Rice over the last few weeks. In conference play, Rice sports a .966 fielding percentage, ninth in Conference USA.

The Owls committed no errors in either of their wins against UTSA this weekend. They committed two errors in each of their losses, including errors in those crucial blowup innings. When looked at another way, Rice allowed seven unearned runs in the final two games. That’s not going to cut it.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | Rice 8 – UTSA 6

Following a lengthy lightning delay, the Owls got things started off on the right foot with three runs in the first two innings, two of which came with two outs. That spotted Micah Davis, who threw the first two innings in place of Garcia, given the unexpected and extended delay. Davis gave was to a bullpen day, which, apart from a woeful outing by Drake Greenwood, kept Rice right in the mix.

Tied up at six apiece entering the bottom half of the fifth inning, Bragga turned to Brandon Deskins. He struck out eight in the final five frames, allowing just four hits and no runs. That gave the offense enough opportunities to break through, which they did in the sixth courtesy of a pair of RBI groundouts from Braden Comeaux and Bradley Gneiting to put Rice ahead for good.

SATURDAY 1 | Rice 5 – UTSA 4

Starter Mitchell Holcomb allowed some contact and a quarter of one-run innings, but his workmanlike efforts prevented UTSA from every compiling a big inning in the opener of Saturday’s doubleheader. While Holcomb held things close, the Rice offense did their best to chip away.

Trailing 4-3 entering the sixth, freshman Nathan Becker homered to tie things up. Then, in the seventh and final inning, a sac fly from Guy Garibay, who step onto the mound for his fourth save in the bottom half of the inning, gave Rice the win.

SATURDAY 2 | UTSA 12 – Rice – 6

Cade Edwards scored on a wild pitch in the first inning to give Rice an early lead. The Owls hung a five-spot in the third with big RBI extra-base hits from Garibay and Will Karp. But none of it would prove to be enough to overcome what has become a much-too-frequent disaster inning from the Rice pitching staff.

Matthew Linskey, who’d faired well as an opener in previous outings, failed to record an out to start the game. He walked two batters and hit a pair, the second of which drove in the tying run. He was lifted for Garret Zaskoda, but the next man up wasn’t able to quell the trouble. Zaskoda would be removed in favor of Josh Larzabal before the inning was through. Nine runs later, the inning ended and this one was essentially over.

SUNDAY | UTSA 12 – Rice 4

Things set up well for Rice entering the final game of the weekend. With Garcia on the mound after Friday’s weather, the Owls were able to hold UTSA scoreless through the fourth inning. Up 1-0 courtesy of an Austin Bulman RBI single in the fourth, Rice was unable to finish.

An error and two singles loaded the bases for UTSA in the fifth. Blake Brogdon entered and wasn’t at his best. He allowed a RBI double and a three-run home run, turning a tight game into a one-sided affair. Rice would close the gap to 7-4 in the eighth, before Brogdon ran into more trouble and UTSA piled on a few additional insurance runs.

ON DECK | Southern Miss (Fri-Sun, four games).

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Rice Baseball: 2021 MLB Owls update – April 24

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The 2021 MLB season is underway and Rice baseball alums are busy on the mound and at the plate. Here’s the latest from the MLB Owls from this week.

Anthony Rendon – Los Angeles Angels

Rendon has been out since April 10 with a strained groin. Reports indicate he could be back in the lineup at some point early next week, but no date has been set in stone just yet.

Through April 24, Rendon is hitting .290 with one extra-base hit, five walks and seven strikeouts. His OPS is .765.

Tyler Duffey – Minnesota Twins

Duffey’s saw a bit of extra rest after a tough outing last week, but came back strong. He threw two innings this week, striking out two, walking two and allowing no runs. He picked up his second hold of the season in the process.

Through April 24, Duffey has a 3.00 ERA with a 1.833 WHIP. He’s averaging 9.0 strikeouts per nine innings.

Brock Holt – Texas Rangers

Holt strung together a couple of sturdy games in his first week back from the injured list. He’s upped his average by more than 50 points while holding down the third base spot as well as one pinch-hit appearance, his first of the season.

Through April 24, Holt has seven hits in 26 at bats, a .269 average. He’s walked seven times, struck out six times and collected three RBI.

Lucas Luetege – New York Yankees

It was a big week for Luetege, who picked up his first major league win since Sep. 4, 2013, when he was with the Seattle Marines. This time around Luetege was called upon against the Indians, striking out one and walking one in 1.1 innings.

Along the way, Luetege has limited hard contact. Following his Friday win, Luetege led all of baseball in the lowest average exit velocity against.

Through April 24, Luetge has a 4.97 ERA with a 1.263 WHIP. He’s averaging 9.2 strikeouts per nine innings.

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Rice Baseball 2021: Previewing the second UTSA series

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Rice baseball gets a rematch this weekend in their second series against UTSA. What has changed for both programs over the past month?

One of the oddities of the 2021 Rice Baseball schedule is the multiple rematches scattered throughout conference play. The Owls and Roadrunners opened up their C-USA schedules against each other in Houston in late March. Now they’ll head to San Antonio to play another suite of four games.

Game Notes

Times: Friday 6:00 p.m. | Saturday 2:00 p.m. / 5:00 p.m. | Sunday 1:00 p.m.
Venue: Roadrunner Field
Radio: Stretch Internet Portal
Watch: CUSAtv

How each team fared this week

Rice baseball (15-21-1) salvaged a single win against Old Dominion on the road, bouncing back from two one-sided losses to present more a more formidable match in the final two games. Now the Owls have to prove the team they’re ready to play more like the team that showed up Saturday night and not the one that was tossed about on Friday and Saturday morning.

UTSA (15-15) had a tough weekend as well, taking the series finale on the road against Charlotte to post a 1-3 weekend. Prior to that, UTSA took three of four from Middle Tennessee at home. UTSA is 6-6 at home this season.

Probable Pitchers

Friday | Roel Garcia (1-2, 5.45)
Saturday 1 | Blake Brogdon (2-5, 5.29)
Saturday 2 | Mitchell Holcomb (4-4, 7.20)
Sunday | Brandon Deskins (1-4, 4.84)

UTSA Pitching

It’s been a series of patchwork performances from the UTSA pitching staff in recent weeks. We’re probably not going to see many of the Roadrunners’ arms go too deep into games —  eight different UTSA pitchers have made multiple starts.  — instead expect to see the opening man give way to a series of arms out of the bullpen.

UTSA Hitting

The bats are the most prominent asset of this UTSA team. As a team, the Roadrunners are hitting .290, fourth-best in Conference USA and a decent margin above Rice (.264) which ranks fifth. Depth has been a key differentiator. Griffin Paxton leads the way with a hefty .354 average, but he’s supported by players like Nick Thornquist and Joshua Lamb, both of which are hitting .333 or better with 12+ extra base hits.

The Roadrunners hit for a good amount of power and don’t strike out too often. Their 225 strikeouts are the fewest in C-USA.

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