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Kel Bordwine got the start in Rice’s midweek bout with fellow lone star power Texas A&M. On a night when no pitcher went three innings for either side, Borwdine’s early exit proved to be troublesome. He left after 1.1 innings, allowing four runs on four hits with two walks. He wasn’t as locked in as he’d been in recent starts, putting Rice behind the eight ball on the road.
Rice would rally with a run in the third, but a three spot from Texas A&M in the fifth gave the Aggies a hefty 7-1 lead. An Andrew Dunlap two-run home run in the seventh was all the offense Rice had left, falling 8-3.
The Rice bullpen got off to a rough start, but perhaps no pitcher’s beginnings were more confusing than Gayle’s. The stuff was always good, but the command had seemingly vanished. Gayle walked seven batters over his first 7.2 innings. Since his appearance against Oklahoma, he’s now thrown 8.1 innings, walking just two and striking out eight.
He was almost perfect out of the pen against Texas A&M. On a night when the bullpen got a fair amount of work from different relievers, he was the only man to hold the Aggies hitless while striking out at least one batter.
Losing to a ranked team in a midweek game on the road isn’t going to spoil the season for Rice. Still, the woulda-coulda-shoulda factor of Tuesday’s defeat could have repercussions down the line. Rice owns wins over ranked programs TCU and Baylor. Adding Texas A&M to that list would have given Rice a trifecta of big wins over power programs to bolster their case for postseason play.
When it comes to building a resume, non-conference are important. Texas A&M was one of this squad’s last marquee games outside of Conference USA play. Dropping this game in the fashion they did has to be a bit disappointing.
It’s been a hot and cold season for Rice. Rice won two of three, then they dropped five of six. Then they picked up their big wins over Baylor and TCU and won for games in seven days. Now they’ve lost four out of their last five. In the obvious downswing of their streaky spring, can this team right the ship?
When it looked like this team might be headed down a forgettable path they bounced back with a pair of marquee wins. They don’t have a ranked team on their schedule for some time, so it’s time to get back to the basics and take care of business in conference play.
Things weren’t clicking for Rice during a rainy weekend in Boca Raton. The starting pitching wasn’t at it’s best and the hitting remained up and down. The Owls improved in the field, but with the other two phases faltering, it wasn’t enough. Here’s a rundown of the action and three thoughts from the tough weekend.
One week removed from earning his first win of the season, Rice ace Matt Canterino had one rough inning which cost him dearly. FAU struck early, putting up four runs on five hits in the opening frame. Canterino would recover quickly, allowing no runs and just two additional hits through the remainder of his six innings of work.
Trailing 4-0, Rice had their chances. They sent the minimum to the plate twice in nine innings. The Owls had runners in scoring position five times but failed to collect any run-scoring hits in those opportunities. A fifth inning double by Andrew Dunlap which followed a Justin Collins single as well as a sixth inning sac fly were the only offense Rice could muster, falling in a close opener on the road.
The woes at the plate which plagued Rice on Friday night didn’t seem to carry into their matinee tilt with FAU on Saturday. In fact, Rice struck first. Andrew Dunlap launched a ball over the right field fence, driving in three runs to give the visiting team their first lead of the series. Rodrigo Duluc followed with a sac fly to add to the lead in the same inning.
Up 4-0. Rice was able to hold onto their lead through the first four innings. Then the dam broke. Evan Kravetz couldn’t finish the fifth, walking two and allowing two hits and two runs before he was relieved by Addison Moss with one out. Moss, who up to this point had been viewed as one of the most reliable bullpen options, wasn’t able to close the door.
By the time Kravetz’s runners had been driven in and Moss left the ball game in the sixth, Rice was staring and a 10-5 deficit from which they would never recover.
When it rains it pours. Jackson Parthasarathy entered the weekend with a 2.05 ERA and looked as dialed in as ever when the game got under way. Then, with two outs in the first inning, a sharp comebacker bounced off his leg. A double would follow, then a home run. All of a sudden, Rice was down 3-0.
Parthasarathy never settled in. He was lifted after allowing five runs on seven hits in two long innings. Kendall Jeffries came in out of the pen and kept the game within reach as the Rice offense chipped away.
As has been the case, the Owls had their chances, none better than a bases loaded situation in the fifth inning. Andrew Dunlap, who already had a big home run in the series, struck out. Justin Collins hit a hard hit liner, but it went straight to the third baseman to end the inning. Dunlap would push two across with a single in the seventh, but that was the end of Rice’s scoring on the day.
FAU took advantage of rough outings from Jackson Tyner and Blair Lewis to break the game open late, winning 12-4.
That’s a message Matt Bragga has preached all season long. Even the best aren’t immune to off nights from time to time. Mistakes will happen, but once they become a regularity changes have to be made. Rice had a few “one bad games” against FAU.
Canterino wasn’t the sharpest he’s been in his win over Oklahoma, but he found a way to win. It was just one bad inning against FAU, but the lineup behind him was unable to recover. Moss had by far his worst outing of the season.
For the most part, these are guys who have been consistent. The pitching staff has been far from infallible, but Canterino and Moss have been and are supposed to continue being the anchors. They get a pass, but the pressure is going up on each of their next appearances.
Andrew Dunlap has locked himself into the core of the Rice line up. The rest of the lineup has been reconfigured around him, but his spot in the middle of the order remains secure. He came through several times this weekend, going 2-for-3 with and RBI on Friday and kicking things off with his three-run home on Saturday. He added a 2-of-4 showing on Sunday with 2RBI.
While Andrew was expected to be a key contributor to the team in 2019. the younger Dunlap, Justin (unrelated), has become a pleasant surprise. The highly touted freshman has forced his way onto the lineup card in recent weeks. His versatility and ability to make contact could keep him there for some time. Justin picked up three hits against FAU, walking five times.
Sports, by their very nature, tend to produce polarizing observations. Few teams or players are penciled in as “average”, most are labeled either exceptional or atrocious. In reality, most teams, Rice included, will tend to settle in somewhere around the middle.
This team has some obvious strengths like the starting pitching. They have some holes, primarily in the bullpen. The roster is a bit lean, and injuries to some of the Owls’ middle of the lineup hitters haven’t helped the cause.
2019 is Matt Bragga’s first season at the helm in Houston and he recognizes this is a marathon, not a sprint. 0-3 is not how this team wanted to start conference play, but there are plenty of games still to be played.
Listen online // Watch Friday (CUSA TV) // Watch Saturday (CUSA TV) // Watch Sunday (CUSA TV)
Just like the Rice Owls, the FAU Owls have had a bit of an erratic start. FAU won their first three, lost the next six and has since won eight of their last nine. Prior to opening up conference play on Friday, FAU topped Quinnipiac in a pair of midweek games.
Let’s take a look at how the 2019 squad stacks up.
Friday – 5:30 pm: Matt Canterino (1-2, 1.50) vs Blake Sanderson (3-0, 3.33)
Saturday – 3:00 pm: Evan Kravetz (1-1, 4.35) vs Ryan Sandberg (0-1, 2.20)
Sunday – 11:00 am: Jackson Parthasarathy (2-2, 2.05) vs Mike Ruff (2-0, 6.75)
The FAU pitching staff is one of the most hittable units in Conference USA and they haven’t exactly faced the high caliber opponents Rice has in their nonconference games. Opposing batters are hitting .278 against FAU through 18 games against a staff which holds an uninspiring 4.22 ERA.
Their starting pitching has been serviceable. Ace Blake Sanderson has a 1.04 WHIP with 25 strikeouts in 27 innings pitched. Home runs have been his vex, though. He’s already given up four long balls on the season, the most on the team.
After him, Ryan Sandberg and Mike Ruff have both been solid. Sanberg hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in any of his limited appearances this season. Ruff has allowed five runs over his last two starts, going seven innings in both games with 14 strikeouts and one walk allowed.
Then there’s the bullpen. Quite like Rice they have a few pieces they trust in high leverage situations and plenty of “hold your breath and cross your fingers”-type relievers. Jon Jon Kostantis (0.84 ERA over 10.2 innings) and Zach Sneider (15K in 14.2 innings with four saves) have emerged as the biggest pieces in their pen. Michael Schuler (2.08 ERA) and Vince Coletti (2.33 ERA, 1.10 WHIP) should also see some time over the weekend.
The offensive side of the ball is where FAU hopes to make their living this season. Francisco Urbaez is crushing the ball right now, smacking home runs in each of the team’s midweek games this week to raise his slugging percentage to a hefty .768 (for reference, Trei Cruz is slugging .584).
Urbaez isn’t the only deep threat in the FAU lineup. Eric Rivera and Gunnar Lambert have each blasted four dingers apiece, part of 22 collective home runs which are by far the most by and CUSA squad. Rivera’s 29 hits ranks second in the conference to Rice’s Bradley Gneiting who has 33.
Six players in the FAU lineup have double-digit RBI and only one of those six has struck out more than 13 times. This is a team that hits for average, packs some pop, and makes clutch hits. The Rice pitching staff is going to be tested.
For the second time this season Texas State got the better of Rice, shutting out the Owls again, this time at Reckling Park. The Owls were blanked 1-0 by the Bobcats in the Shriner’s College Classic and fell 5-0 on Wednesday night. The two teams will play once more this season in San Marcos on Tuesday, March 26.
With the first conference series of the season looming against FAU over the weekend, here are the most pressing notes from the loss to Texas State.
Justin Collins was hit in the glove hand by the backswing from a Texas State hitter during the first inning. The extent of the injury isn’t known to this point, but Collins was removed from the game immediately. Senior backup Daniel Russell played the remainder of the contest in his place.
When healthy, the Rice lineup was already thin. The quartet of Trei Cruz, Bradley Gneiting, Braden Comeaux and Justin Collins has driven the bulk of the offense to this point of the season. Others have contributed with good games and good series here and there, but the four .300+ hitters have been the key cogs in run production this season.
That’s what makes the injury sustained by Collins on Wednesday night even more problematic. If he’s forced to miss any extended amount of time the production at the plate will take a hit.
Scoring first shouldn’t matter all that much in any given baseball game. Each team has nine innings to outscore their opponent, but for Rice, taking an early lead has proven to be of utmost importance. Rice is 8-2 this season when they score the first run. They’re 0-9 when their opponent scores first.
Momentum is a nebulous concept in sports. Some will say it doesn’t exist, but others swear on the tendency of good fortune to build on itself. For better or worse, the Rice offense has yoyoed back and forth, scoring in droves in one game and going O-fer in the next.
The team took a step forward when they rallied from a 5-1 deficit to top Lamar on Tuesday, but it’s going to take more consistency across the board if the Owls are going to flip the script on this startling statistic.
Rice beat Prairie View 25-5 on Wednesday, Feb. 27. That marked the first game of an exhaustive three week stretch for Rice in which the Owls were scheduled to play 15 games in 21 days. In addition to three weekend sets, Rice played two midweek games last week and this week. They’ll start conference play on Friday against FAU before ending the three-week run with a Tuesday night contest at Texas A&M.
“We haven’t had enough time to make sure we’re going back to fundamentals,” Bragga shared. He wasn’t making excuses, testifying fervently to the efforts of his team and his coaches to improve on the fly. Still, it’s evident this team needs time to practice. If nothing else, they need some rest.