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“So Many Things to Address”: Rice Baseball and David Pierce Embark on Crucial Offseason

May 22, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

Months removed from his midseason start, Rice baseball head coach David Pierce will finally get his first chance to step back and assess his new program.

For better or worse, Rice baseball head coach David Pierce has just endured the most chaotic months of his coaching career. When the spring began, he was an assistant at Texas State. A few short months later he was at the helm of a program someone else had built and which was careening toward a lost season.

That Pierce was able to right the ship and get this team to the postseason was remarkable in itself. That the Owls were sent home winless from the AAC Tournament further demonstrates how much more work still needs to be done.

Pierce began his closing remarks in Clearwater on Wednesday following the Owls’ elimination at the hands of Florida Atlantic with a sense or earned pride. “At the end of the day, I feel like this program’s gotten better he said,” adding later that he was “really proud of our team.”

In the same breath, the list of to-do’s was already on the top of his mind.

More: 59 Minutes — David Pierce Challenges Rice baseball to grow

“There’s just so many things that we just gotta address,” he said, looking ahead to what promises to be a crucial offseason, his first with the program as its head coach.

“We’ve got to address the structure of how we run some things within the program. We’ve got to address just our team itself, keep building our culture, understanding the standard. And then we got to look at a lot of options with the portal, potentially, because it’s available. And then we gotta get on the recruiting trail , start camps, recruit, the thing that happens at this time of the year.”

The list goes on and on. There’s so much to do.

But as Pierce embarks on that list, it’s worth reflecting on the work already done.

Rice had a .190 winning percentage before Pierce arrived this season. Pierce finished with a .361 winning percentage and went .500 across his last 20 games, which included four losses to top-seeded UTSA in the span of six days.

Pierce rediscovered the vintage form of Davion Hickson that had gone dormant through the first three months of the year. He salvaged cast-off bullpen piece Jack Ben-Shoshan and turned him into the most reliable reliever on the team. On the shoulders (and bats) of five freshmen, Pierce discovered a viable offensive identity. He got this team to believe again.

More: Jack Ben-Shoshan’s circuitous path to the top of the Rice Baseball bullpen

That belief is what Pierce and the Rice administration was banking on when they made the perhaps unprecedented decision to implement a midseason hiring, a shotgun wedding on the diamond which all parties hoped would produce a lasting romance between this once great program and a coach who remembers those glories days and who yearns to bring them back.

But at that podium in Clearwater, Pierce wasn’t thinking about those aspirations, not yet.

“This is my least favorite time of the year,” he admitted. “The first three weeks of transition from the end of the season, moving into the off season, it’s really kind of a tough transition. It is because you just put so much into it, you’re drained. You’re always working off adrenaline, and then you gotta switch gears.”

The man who just poured his heart and soul into a team assembled by someone else is finally going to sit down and put his own stamp on things. He mentioned changes to baserunning, defense, their approach at the plate, the short game and the program’s pitching philosophy. All things better suited to groom in the fall, not in the middle of a season.

Yes, for Rice baseball and David Pierce, the offseason has arrived. The first wave of chaos has subsided, and the next storm is brewing on deck. He and everyone invested in this program are banking on smoother waters next spring and a new, better tomorrow for a program that’s been long searching for that brighter tomorrow and believes it finally has the right captain to get it there.

** Photo credit: Maria Lysaker **

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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Filed Under: Baseball, Featured Tagged With: David Pierce, Rice baseball

The Winding Road: Jack Ben-Shoshan’s circuitous path to the top of the Rice Baseball bullpen

May 11, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice Baseball, Jack Ben-Shoshan
March 29, 2025, Houston, Texas, US: Jack Ben-Shoshan delivers a pitch during game two between the East Carolina University Pirates and the Rice Owls at Reckling Park. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker | Rice Athletics

A position player turned ace reliever only begins to tell the story of the winding road that made Jack Ben-Shoshan a crucial member of the Rice baseball bullpen.

A member of Jose Cruz Jr’s 2021 Rice baseball recruiting class, Jack Ben-Shoshan was viewed as an all-purpose addition to the Owls’ program when he signed. Listed by the Perfect Game recruiting service as a shortstop, second baseman, third baseman and right handed pitcher, there was little doubt the program could find a way to use him. The only question was where.

Ben-Shoshan came to Rice primarily as a position player, riding the momentum of a standout high school career at St. John’s in Houston. There, he posted a .357 career batting average and a .995 OPS, leading his team to the district championship game as a senior. But the transition to college ball didn’t come easy.

He made a strong first impression, doubling in his first collegiate at-bat, a pinch-hit appearance against Texas in Austin. Still, the rest of his freshman season proved more challenging. He finished the year hitting just .115 over 30 appearances, all as a position player.

Health was part of the reason Ben-Shoshan’s contributions to the program had been limited to the batter’s box and the field at that point. His relatively unrefined pitching history was the other. While many players have pitching coaches and do extra work in high school, Ben-Shoshan did not. Everything he knew on the mound came from personal experience.

“I always pitched, but I would call myself more of an infielder who threw,” Ben-Shoshan summarized. “I didn’t really know how to pitch.”

In his eyes, he was a ball of clay, willing to be molded. And when the decision came to pursue pitching full-time, he dove into the study headfirst, trusting pitching coach Parker Bangs’ instruction as if it were gospel. Without previous instruction to weigh against the new information, Ben-Shoshan became a sponge, eager to absorb everything he could.

“I always pitched, but I would call myself more of an infielder who threw… I didn’t really know how to pitch.”- Jack Ben-Shoshan

Ben-Shoshan took to his new responsibilities well enough, showing encouraging signs throughout the fall, but the newly-made pitcher wouldn’t see game action until the following March, beginning the season as one of several pieces in the bullpen working to carve out a role for himself.

From there, the successful outings began to cascade and Ben-Shoshan began to take on a more instrumental role in the program’s pitching plans. The closer role was spoken for — Matthew Linskey was in no danger of losing his job to anyone when it came to that spot — but Ben-Shoshan was just fine settling into a setup position and turned himself into one of the most trusted leverage relivers on the roster.

The first-year pitcher led the team with a 3.20 ERA, outdoing both Linskey and staff ace Parker Smith, who would go on to be MLB Draft selections following the conclusion of the season. Not draft eligible yet, Ben-Shoshan hoped to join them in a year’s time but life had other plans.

A Pitching Wilderness

All the momentum and goodwill Ben-Shoshan had accumulated during his sophomore season came to a screeching halt when his junior season began.

In the season opener, Ben-Shoshan ceded the game-winning run in his first appearance against Notre Dame. He entered another game against the Irish two days later only to give up a first-pitch home run and back-to-back four-pitch walks before being pulled.

Ben-Shoshan failed to complete a full inning of work in four of his next five appearances, spiraling further and further from his aspirations and seeing his season-long ERA climb to 13.50 before the coaching staff had seemingly seen enough.

More: “He’s A Bulldog” — Parker Smith’s Journey to Rice Baseball Ace

Following a four-run, no-out misadventure against Tulane on March 22, Ben-Shoshan made just four further appearances in the final two months of the season. Davion Hickson ascended to closer status while Ben-Shoshan was remitted to the bench, an arm reserved for blowouts and eating innings in games decided long before he was summoned to the mound.

A season that began with such promise had ended in disaster.

Ben-Shoshan, whose Rice baseball career had been anything but linear to that point, resolved not to let that bad year define him. He spent the summer working at the Driveline facility in Washington, an organization that prides itself on utilizing technology and analytics to improve performance. His goal was to get his mechanics back to where he’d been the previous season.

“I told myself I’m not going to let a year like that happen again. It’s a personal thing that I took,” he said. “I had a good fall last year and then it kind of fell apart during the season. I pretty much did whatever I could to not let that happen again.”

From his perspective, he’d been pressing too much. That search for added velocity had negatively impacted his command. When that went sideways, his confidence and composure on the mound followed suit. Given an offseason to reset, he returned to South Main ready to contribute.

At that point, though, he was an older arm that looked to have lost a step the season prior amidst a bullpen with more promising young pieces. The coaching staff collectively told him they envisioned him as a reserve reliever who might throw 20 or 30 innings in the season. In their eyes, the days of Ben-Shoshan being a high-leverage option were long gone.

The Road Back

Sure enough, Ben-Shoshan made four appearances in the first month of the season including a no-out, five-run debacle against a ranked Mississippi State squad. But when head coach Jose Cruz Jr. was fired in mid-March, Ben-Shoshan saw an opportunity for one final chance to make his case under the leadership of newly installed head man David Pierce.

Ben-Shoshan remembers it being right around that point in the year when he’d truly begun to settle into his routine. His velocity was where he wanted it to be and his command had returned, too. Most importantly, he was as mentally locked in as he could recall being in a long time. For him, the coaching change came at just the right time.

“[Pierce] came in and harped on working the strike zone, getting ahead early,” Ben-Shoshan recalled. “I think that’s something that I’m really good at. He really liked that part of me, filling up the zone.”

Rice Baseball, Jack Ben-Shoshan
March 29, 2025, Houston, Texas, US: Jack Ben-Shoshan delivers a pitch during game two between the East Carolina University Pirates and the Rice Owls at Reckling Park. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker | Rice Athletics

Flush with newfound confidence, Ben-Shoshan did just that. He did not allow an earned run in his first four outings under Pierce, including a marvelous nine-strikeout, 3.2-inning relief outing against Sam Houston. All of a sudden, Ben-Shoshan was back in his groove.

Since Pierce was hired, Ben-Shoshan owns a 2.41 ERA and his season-long ERA of 3.51 is the best on the team, narrowly edging out staff ace Davion Hickson’s 3.70 mark. Among Rice pitchers who have appeared in at least five games, none boast a lower WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) than he does. Put simply, he’s been the most reliable arm on the roster for the better part of two months.

It’s not as if Pierce entered with hopes of authoring Ben-Shoshan’s comeback story. He was hired to win baseball games, something that, in his estimation, requires a certain kind of fearlessness that Ben-Shoshan has developed through the trials along his path.

Pierce praised Ben-Shoshan as having a “bulldog mentality. Where he’s like, here’s my stuff, I’m coming at you. If you hit it, I’m going to do it again.”

“He’s not afraid of an at bat,” Pierce continued. “That’s the key, trusting his stuff. He knows he’s going to get popped a little bit, but he never backs down. And that’s impressive to me. That’s what I want from our pitchers. If you don’t believe in your stuff in the zone, then why should we believe in it? And he believes in his stuff.”

Given how unceremoniously his 2024 season ended and this campaign began, Ben-Shoshan’s reemergence represents perhaps the most stark turnaround of any singular player on the roster.

When asked to reflect on his bounce-back year, Ben-Shoshan couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“I’m not surprised,” he said.

“Starting at that Yale game, my confidence just kept going and going and I realized I was in a really good spot, to just keep working through that with that mentality and those mechanics and I didn’t need to change anything mentally of physically.”

The Journey Ahead

Ben-Shoshan credits his pitching success in large part to pitching coach Parker Bangs who has been with the program all three seasons Ben-Shoshan has been pitching for the Owls. It was Bangs who was briefly named the interim coach for the week between Cruz and Pierce trading places and Bangs who gave Ben-Shoshan the opportunity against Yale he credits as the beginning of his turnaround.

“We click,” Ben-Shoshan said of Bangs. “He understands how to coach me and how to motivate me, what kind of feedback I work well with. I would credit a significant portion of my pitching to him. I think he’s been unbelievable in helping me.”

The coordination between Pierce — who comes to Rice with an extensive history as a pitching coach — and Bangs has allowed Ben-Shoshan to thrive.

“When I’m on the mound, I know I’ve got two coaches who have my back and are going to help me if I need anything. I think it’s just a confidence boost when I’m up there,” Ben-Shoshan said. “I can trust myself. I can trust the guys behind me. I can trust the coaches. That’s been a big, big change that I really enjoy.”

To that extent, Ben-Shoshan’s emergence is a testament to the level to which mindset and confidence are essential to pitch at a high level. There was no ah-ha moment, new pitch or refined windup that restored the Owls’ 6-foot right-hander to prominence. No, it was his mind that needed to be readjusted. That, and plenty of hard work to turn those dreams into tangible results.

“I think it’s a mental thing,” Ben-Shoshan said. “I spent the whole summer trying to get my mechanics back to what they were and once I got comfortable with them, kind of just not changing them and trying to do more.”

More: 59 Minutes — David Pierce Challenges Rice baseball to grow

Back in his sweet spot, Ben-Shoshan is doing all he can to take it one pitch a time. He admits he at least briefly entertained the notion of going pro and thoughts of the MLB Draft and potential opportunities he might have after the season, but at the end of the day, focusing on the present is the best thing he can do to bolster his chances of future success.

“I’m hesitant to think about what comes after this because part of me thought about that last fall, and I think it hurt me,” Ben-Shoshan said. “For most of this season it’s just been living in the moment, trying to keep stringing good outings together and then, you know, if it happens, it happens.”

“If I can keep playing, I would love to, but at the same time I don’t want to get bogged down on that and affect how I pitch.”

And so he’ll continue to take the baseball whenever he’s asked, soaking in his situation and reflecting on the winding road he took to get here. The future, he hopes, will sort itself. For now, Jack Ben-Shoshan is living in the present and doing all he can to get one more out for his team, one at bat at a time.

**Photo credit: Maria Lysaker**
Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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Filed Under: Baseball, Featured, Sidebar Tagged With: Jack Ben-Shoshan, Rice baseball

Hickson gem propels Rice Baseball to series win over Charlotte

May 4, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

Davion Hickson persevered through the elements on Friday, tossing a complete-game one-hitter that set the tone for a Rice Baseball series win over Charlotte.

FRIDAY | Rice 2, Charlotte 0

In a rare occurrence during the 2025 Rice baseball season, a pitcher’s duel broke out at Reckling Park on Friday night. Despite a mid-game weather delay and the ominous threat of further impending storms, Davion Hickson spun a marvelous complete game one hitter against the 49ers in the series opener. Charlotte manage just a single in the third inning as Hickson racked up nine strikeouts.

More: 59 Minutes — David Pierce Challenges Rice baseball to grow

With Hickson dealing on the mound, the Rice bats were only required to do a little to push the team over the top in game one of the series. Blaine Brown broke the 0-0 deadlock with a double to right center in the sixth, scoring one. Then Paul Smith homered to right in the eighth to provide a bit of insurance before Hickson returned for the ninth to slam the door.

The one-hit shutout by Hickson was the first by a Rice baseball pitcher since Matthew Reckling defeated East Carolina 2-0 at Reckling Park in 2012, striking out 10 in the process.

SATURDAY | Rice 7, Charlotte 6

Scoring was much more prevalent in game two. Charlotte wasted no time, jumping in front with a two-run homer in the first inning off Rice starter JD McCracken. Rice rallied with three of their own in the second inning on a groundout and home run from Cole Green before Charlotte knocked McCracken out of the game with another pair of runs in the third.

Last Weekend: Rice Baseball drops series at UAB

Garrett Stratton relieved McCracken and combined with Jack Ben-Shoshan to limit the 49ers to two more earned runs in the final six innings, rendering a smattering of Charlotte hits fruitless. As they grinded on the mound, the Rice bats delivered a two-run sac fly in the fourth from Green to tie the game and a go-ahead two-run home run from Landon West in the eighth. Ben-Shoshan closed things out and earned his third win of the season.

SUNDAY | Charlotte 12, Rice 2

Multiple days of frustration were taken out against Jackson Blank and the remainder of the Rice bullpen in the series finale. After the Owls went in front on a solo home run from Michael Zito in the first inning, Charlotte took control of things with a five-run fourth inning, which knocked Blank from the ballgame.

Austin Eppley, Marco Fuentes and Tucker Alch each gave up at least one run in relief as the 49ers scored 12 unanswered runs to take a commanding lead in the finale. By that point the damage had been done and the 49ers won the finale by run-rule.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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Filed Under: Baseball, Featured, Premium Tagged With: Austin Eppley, Blaine Brown, Cole Green, Davion Hickson, game recap, Garrett Stratton, Jack Ben-Shoshan, Jackson Blank, JD McCracken, Marco Fuentes, Michael Zito, Paul Smith, Rice baseball, Treyton Rank, Tucker Alch

Rice Football 2025 Spring Practice Notebook 8: Defensive Takeaways

April 30, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

Now led by defensive coordinator Jon Kay, the Rice football defense made strides this spring. Here are a few things that stood out the most.

The Rice football defense lost a lot of leaders to graduation this offseason. Having a familiar face in Jon Kay take over as the coordinator helps, but there was still plenty of dust to knock off as the Owls went through spring practices over the last several weeks. With new staff and new players, the program had plenty to work on from a defensive perspective.

More: Rice Football Spring Game Takeaways

“I think there’s a fair amount of new,” Kay said, addressing those changes during the offseason. This spring practice review tackles some of that new, some of the old and takes a more holistic look at what this side of the ball looks like with spring practices complete.

Ty Morris, you’re up

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Filed Under: Featured, Football, Premium Tagged With: practice notes, Rice Football, spring practice

Rice Baseball avoids sweep, but drops series to UAB

April 27, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice Baseball salvaged the series finale against UAB after dropping the first two games behind a largely quiet offense that went off for 12 runs on Sunday.

FRIDAY | UAB 3, Rice 0

Back in the Friday night role after several weeks in the bullpen, Davion Hickson delivered what was unquestionably his best performance of the season. Hickson went 7.2 innings, striking out a career-high 10 while limiting the Blazers to three hits.

More: 59 Minutes — David Pierce Challenges Rice baseball to grow

UAB snuck the first run across in the opening inning with a single, a stolen base and a groundout. Hickson put things in cruise control after that, getting through the first two outs of the eighth before allowing two runners to reach and exiting the game. The last two runs charged to his ledger were allowed by Jack Ben-Shoshan in relief. The Rice bats did little to help the cause, tallying three hits, no runs and 13 strikeouts.

SATURDAY | UAB 8, Rice 6

Rice baseball did not get its typically sharp start from JD McCracken in Game 2, a reality that proved fateful as the bats struggled to produce. UAB scored three in the first, two in the second and on in the third before McCracken was lifted in favor of Von Baker and eventually Mark Perkins. By the time the fourth inning came to a close, Rice was trailing 8-0.

Last Weekend: Rice Baseball takes two of three from Memphis

The Owls most encouraging offensive inning of the weekend would soon follow. The Owls loaded the bases off Braxton Shelton with one out, then proceeded to rattle off five consecutive hits, scoring six runs before a double-play ended the inning. Back within two runs, Rice would manage just two base runners for the remainder of the game, dropping the series.

SUNDAY | Rice 12, UAB 10

The Rice bats woke up for the series finale, scoring three times in the first off UAB starter Isaac Warrick, who would then be the victim of two Rice home runs in the second, putting the Blazers in a 6-0 hole after two frames. UAB gave Rice a scare with a five-run third, with Ben-Shoshan getting a strikeout to strand the would-be tying run in scoring position.

A three-run home run from Blaine Brown, his second long ball of the afternoon, gave Rice some breathing room before the Owls added another insurance run in the sixth and the seventh before UAB began a comeback of their own. UAB scored five straight to get back within one.

Rice pushed one run across in the ninth, turning the ball over to Jackson Blank in the bottom of the inning. Blank got two outs, but loaded the bases. Marco Fuentes entered and coaxed a fly out to right field to extinguish the threat and end the game.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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Recent Posts
  • Rice Baseball season ends with AAC Tournament loss to FAU
  • Rice Baseball falls to UTSA in AAC Tournament Opener
  • 2025 AAC Baseball Tournament: Preview, schedule, how to watch
  • Rice Baseball clinches AAC Tournament spot despite sweep by UTSA

Filed Under: Baseball, Featured, Premium Tagged With: Blaine Brown, Colin Robson, Davion Hickson, game recap, Jack Ben-Shoshan, Jackson Blank, JD McCracken, Marco Fuentes, Mark Perkins, Michael Zito, Rice baseball, Tucker Alch, Von Baker

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