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Rice Baseball: Owls no-hit in season-ending loss to Southern Miss

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Rice baseball saw their season end in no-hit fashion, tallying one base runner in their knock out loss to Southern Miss in the Conference USA Baseball Tournament.

In their final game of the 2019 season, Rice was no-hit by Southern Miss, falling in Biloxi 6-0. Matt Bragga’s crew knew making it to the Conference USA Baseball Tournament Championship Game from the loser’s bracket was going to be difficult. Bouncing back from an early loss requires depth, toughness and more luck than many teams and coaches would like to admit. To their credit, the Owls fought.

Rice knocked out Louisiana Tech and then took down Marshall, setting up a Saturday morning rematch with Southern Miss. Rice would need two wins over Southern Miss to keep their season alive, but it soon became apparent Rice would first need to focus on getting two hits.

Southern Miss starting pitcher Gabe Shepard was phenomenal. He missed bats and kept Rice off balance with a dynamic fastball. He mowed down the first 15 Rice batters who came to the plate before Justin Collins drew a leadoff walk in the sixth. Shepard held the no-hitter through seven and a third innings before being relieved by Cody Carroll who closed out the eighth. Hunter Stanley shut things down in the ninth, securing the no-no bid.

Shepard struck out 12 and walked one, affording Rice batters little opportunity to generate any scoring opportunities. As Shepard rolled through the order time and time again, the Southern Miss offense gradually pulled away.

The Rice bullpen held tough for a while but was unable to withstand a cavalcade of Southern Miss extra-base hits. The Golden Eagles hit three home runs, all solo shots. They’d add three more scores scattered across the duration of the contest. A 6-0 lead after seven proved overwhelming as Southern Miss breezed through the final two innings to clinch a spot in the conference championship game as Rice saw their season come to a close.

Final Record | 26-33

That’s all folks. There will be plenty to unpack from the Rice baseball 2019 season in the coming days. Rice was projected to finish top four in the conference in the preseason and that’s exactly where they ended.

This was a hot-and-cold baseball team which had some incredible highs and felt the lowest of lows. The Owls will bring back a lot of bullets in 2020 and the future remains bright. 2019 didn’t end how this team would have liked, but coach Matt Bragga’s work is only beginning.

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Rice Baseball: Owls edge Marshall to advance in CUSA Tournament

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Rice baseball knew it would be a hard task to fight through the losers bracket, but the Owls are still punching, knocking off Marshall to keep their season alive.

Facing elimination from the Conference USA Baseball Tournament for the second day in a row, Rice topped Marshall to keep their season alive. The win over Marshall on Friday followed a 4-3 win over Louisiana Tech on Thursday, the first save for the Rice bullpen in a week’s time after repeated bullpen failures.

Little separated these teams the first time around with Marshall winning on walk-off hits in three consecutive games. The Owls would take a 1-3 finish against the Thunder Herd if that one win kept their season alive. They got their wish, beating Marshall 6-3.

As opposed to their previous CUSA Tournament games, there was no early start for Rice against Marshall. The Owls were blanked in the top of the first inning and fell behind on a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the first.

With Kel Bordwine on the mound (instead of Jackson Parthasarathy who threw 1.2 innings against Lousiana Tech), Rice rallied. Doubles from Aaron Beaulaurier and Bradley Gneiting allowed Rice to tie the game 1-1 in the third. Pitches later, a misfire on a throw down to second let Gneiting scamper home for the go-ahead run.

Bordwine put together a strong outing, allowing three runs in 4.1 innings. Kendal Jefferies picked up where he left off finishing things off with 4.2 strong innings with no runs charged to his account.

Marshall would threaten on multiple occasions,  but Cade Edwards delivered much needed breathing room with a 2-RBI single in the eighth to extend the score to 6-3. The bullpen held on, once again, and Rice stayed alive.

Up Next | Southern Miss, Saturday – 9:00 AM

Tomorrow will test the resiliency of the Rice pitching staff. It’s going to take a Herculean effort from someone to come out of the loser’s bracket and reach the Conference USA Baseball Tournament Championship Game. Rice will have to beat Southern Miss twice to survive and advance. A second “if necessary” game would follow at 4:00 PM.

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Rice Baseball: Bullpen holds as Owls top LaTech at CUSA Tournament

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Rice baseball shook off their bullpen struggles, topping Louisiana Tech 4-3 in a Conference USA Tournament elimination game.

As the old saying goes, lightning doesn’t strike twice. For Rice, the lightning came in the form of a walk-off loss to Marshall a week ago on Thursday. Then it happened again. And again. And yet another time, with the final strike coming off the bat of Southern Miss slugger Matt Wallner on Wednesday.

Rice had led all four of those games by two or more runs entering the eighth inning. Each time the bullpen coughed up the advantage and the bats failed to rise to the occasion.

More: CUSA Tournament Bracket, news and notes

The story started in a similar way against Louisiana Tech in Thursday’s Conference USA Baseball Tournament elimination game. Rice got things going with a two-run double off the bat of Cade Edwards in the first, giving starting pitcher Evan Kravetz some breathing room early on.

Next, both sides swapped single runs, Louisana Tech in the third and Rice in the fifth, to bring the score to 3-1 in favor of the Owls. Then coach Matt Bragga made a bold decision. Rather than turn to the same pitchers who had failed to deliver over the past week, he put the ball in the hand of Jackson Parthasarathy.

Rice’s typical Sunday starter wasn’t as sharp as usual out of the bullpen. Following Kravetz’s five-inning, one-run performance, Parthasarathy struggled through a 1.2 inning showing. He allowed two runs before Dalton Wood came to relieve him.

After watching countless relievers fail to shut the door, Wood delivered. The freshman reliever worked two and a third perfect innings, allowing no hits, striking out one and clinching the Owls first win in a week’s time.

Apparently lightning does strike twice, but its encores are limited to four dismissive blasts. For the first time in a week, Rice took the lead and held on. Now they’ll look to do it again on Friday.

Up Next | Winner of Marshall vs Southern Miss, 3:00 PM, Friday

Rice will meet their demons face to face on Friday where they’ll face the winner of the Marshall and Southern Miss game scheduled to take place later Thursday afternoon. Rice is 0-3 against Marshall this season and 2-2 against Southern Miss.

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Rice Baseball: Owls stunned by walk-off loss to Southern Miss in CUSA Tournament

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Matt Canterino’s gem was wasted. The Rice baseball bullpen caved again as the Owls fell to Southern Miss at the Conference USA Baseball Tournament.

The formula for Rice advancing in the Conference USA Baseball Tournament was simple: Pitch well and take advantage of opportunities at the plate. Matt Canterino answered the call. The bullpen did not as the Owls fell to 2-Seed Southern Miss 6-4 in 10 innings.

More: CUSA Tournament Bracket, news and notes

The staff ace, Canterino was every bit as special as the Owls needed him to be. He was sharp as ever through 7.1 innings, striking out nine, walking two and allowing one run on three hits. With the Southern Miss offense confounded, even a slight lead felt commanding.

To that point, the offense had been sturdy. Braden Comeaux reached based on each his first four plate appearances, coming in to score three times. Trei Cruz blasted a two-run dinger in the third. Rice led 4-0 at the seventh inning stretch.

Owls fall by walk-off for the fourth straight game

When Canterino left the game Rice fans held their breath. The bullpen was coming off their worst week of the season. It took guts for Bragga to pull Canterino when he got into the seventh inning jam. While it might have been ideal to ride Canterino as far as he could carry them, he’s already thrown 100 pitches. His availability the rest of the week would have been factored into Bragga’s decision to turn to the pen.

With Garrett Gayle on the mound, Rice coughed up the four run lead including three runs scored in the ninth inning. Rice needed one more out to advance. On multiple tries, they failed to get it. A walk-off home run by Southern Miss slugger Matt Wallner ended any hope of a late rally.

Rice isn’t going to advance without a few big outings from their bullpen. They came close Wendesday, but fell painfully short once again.

UP NEXT | Louisiana Tech – Thursday 9:00 am

Rice will play Louisiana Tech in the loser’s bracket. The Bulldogs dropped their first-round game to Marshall in 12 innings., the longest game (by time) in CUSA Tournament history. Rice swept Louisiana Tech at home earlier this season.

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Rice Baseball 2019: Previewing CUSA Tournament game vs Southern Miss

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Rice baseball takes on Southern Miss in the opening round of the Conference USA Baseball Tournament. Here’s how both teams match up.

A battle of CUSA heavyweight programs will reconvene in Biloxi. Rice and Southern Miss have won five of the last six Conference USA Baseball Tournament championships. Southern Miss won in 2018 with Rice winning the year prior.

The Owls have undergone plenty of changes since, most notably with the hiring of head coach Matt Bragga. If either program wants to return to the top they’ll need to get past the other this week.

How to watch and game info

Previous meetings

Rice and Southern Miss will meet for the fourth time in the 2019 season on Wednesday during the first round of the 2019 Conference USA Baseball Tournament. 7-Seed Rice will look to do what they’ve already accomplished twice this season, an upset of the Golden Eagles.

How Rice wins

Rice blew three late-inning leads in their final regular season series against Marshall. The sound of the Marshall bats pounding out three straight walk-off hits might still be ringing in the ears of the Rice bullpen, a low point for that group. If the Owls have it their way, they’ll be able to minimize the risk that bullpen might add in a survive-and-advance setting.

Staff ace Matt Canterino has been superb this season, but so also have fellow starters Evan Kravetz and Jackson Parthasarathy. The Owls’ trio of starting pitchers is the only set of starters who have each been named CUSA Pitcher of the Week this season. Canterino will presumably start against Southern Miss. If he’s throwing well, it’s going to be hard for coach Bragga to take him out a before the sixth or seventh inning at the earliest.

A complete game from Canterino or a strong start with a few well-executed innings by a select bullpen arm or two have proven to be enough to keep the Southern Miss bats at bay. That combination, plus a big hit or two from the likes of Trei Cruz, Bradley Gneiting or Andrew Dunlap are the recipe Rice needs to employ to move on.

How Southern Miss wins

Southern Miss is playing far from their best brand of baseball, going 3-6 in their last nine conference games. Even in defeat, though, the markings of an NCAA Tournament-worthy team have been apparent. Walker Powell is a top of the line starting pitcher who tossed nine innings in his most recent outing against UAB, striking out eight while allowing one earned run. He’ll go toe-to-toe with the Owls’ Canterino.

The lineup is where Southern Miss will hope to exploit their advantage. The Golden Eagles entering the CUSA Tournament with the third best batting average in CUSA and the second-most long balls on the season (54). Outside of an off weekend in Houston, the Southern Miss offense has tallied 21 runs or more in every conference series they’ve played this season — including the series losses.

Both teams can pitch and both teams can hit. But Southern Miss has proven more capable of stringing those hits together and producing runs consistently. They just haven’t done it against Rice. Which side blinks first?

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