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Rice Football 2024 Spring Practice Notebook 5: Scrimmage 2

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The defense punched back in the second scrimmage of Rice football spring practices, dominating the afternoon after the offense started the week strong.

On a beautiful spring afternoon, the Rice football defense roared back to life in the second scrimmage of spring practices, emphatically declaring their preeminence against the offenses’ best. In the words of head coach Mike Bloomgren, it was “complete domination to start” with the offense not really showing much life until later in the session. Here are the standouts, impact plays, stat lines and more from Scrimmage 2:

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“Nobody could move the ball on them”

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Rice Football 2024 Spring Practice Notebook 4: Halfway Point Observations

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Rice football is halfway done with spring practices and things continue to go smoothly as the Owls’ experienced roster works to improve.

There’s been less Rice football 101 this spring as an experienced roster transitions from learning the basics to perfecting their craft. That’s been a theme throughout the last two and a half weeks of practices and something the coaching staff has noticed, much to their delight. This update hits on those signs of veteran experience while touching on a younger position group making big strides. As always, the entire archive of practice reports is available on our Patreon.

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Halfway Mark

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Rice Football 2024 Spring Practice Notebook 3: Scrimmage 1

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Rice football wrapped up its first scrimmage of spring practice on Saturday which began with the offense marching down the field for a touchdown.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren said he was “incredibly pleased” when the first scrimmage of the spring concluded on Saturday. Rice football got some splash plays from their offense, a few defensive highlights and lots of different faces onto the field in a busy afternoon at Rice Stadium. More on how the quarterbacks faired as well as the biggest takeaways from the scrimmage:

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Offense starts fast

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Rice Baseball swept by Stanford

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Rice baseball left Reckling Park without a win this weekend, falling in three straight games to Stanford.

FRIDAY | Stanford 6 – Rice 2

The home crowd exploded with cheers when Jack Riedel launched a seventh-inning pitch over the left field berm for a no-doubt, leadoff home run. While the blast was impressive, it also represented the Owls’ first hit of the night in a game they trailed 5-0 before that ball crossed over the fence.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball drops midweek bout with LSU

Stanford starting pitcher Matt Scott had allowed just two base runners to that point, both on walks. Smith outdueled Rice ace Parker Smith who had labored through six innings, earning the loss. A late-inning rally would prove too little, too late.

SATURDAY | Stanford 8 – Rice 2

Following a spectacular complete game the weekend prior, Rice pitcher JD McCracken was not as fortunate this time out. He labored through 5.2 innings, leaving in a precarious spot in the sixth before two more runs were added to his ledger on a double surrendered by Jack Ben-Shoshan.

Trailing 8-0 with one hit of their own, Rice couldn’t mount a meaningful comeback. Jack Riedel gave the Owls their only offensive spark of the day, lifting a two-out home run over the wall to prevent a shutout. That salvaged some pride but had no impact on the Owls’ chances at a comeback.

SUNDAY | Stanford 4 – Rice 3

Although Stanford did strike first once again, things were much closer on Sunday in the series finale. After the Cardinal put up a two-spot in the first, Rice rallied to tie the game in the second inning. Treyton Rank delivered a key RBI double to even the score at 2-2.

The game would remain deadlocked there until the fifth inning when Stanford chased Rice start Ryland Urbanczyk from the game and moved ahead on a two-run homer off his successor, Tom Vincent. Rice got one back in the bottom half of the inning but wouldn’t score again.

Rice had a chance to break through in the eighth but stranded the bases loaded. Davion Hickson was a bright spot in the late innings, striking out five in 3.1 scoreless.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

Rice baseball wrapped up a rough week on the diamond with a weekend sweep at the hands of Stanford. Here are three takeaways from the series:

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1. Missing my Guy

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ON DECK | vs PVAMU (Tues), at Hawaii (Fri-Mon)

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Rice Women’s Basketball runs out of gas vs North Texas

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Rice Women’s Basketball played North Texas tight for 38 minutes before the Owls shooting struggles finally came home to roost.

For 38 minutes, Rice women’s basketball and North Texas were locked in the makings of a class game between these two Texas-based powers. Through 38 minutes, neither team led by more than six points. There were 10 ties and seven lead changes. The back-and-forth was constant and neither team ever felt in control.

Malia Fisher and Emily Klaczek were productive from the field with Sussy Ngulefac coming off the bench with a team-high 13 points as well as four boards. Everything seemed to be going well for the home team until all of a sudden the shots stopped falling at the most inopportune time.

More: Roost Podcast — Spring Roundup

The Owls missed eight consecutive shots in the final 2:05 before a last-second layup that proved irrelevant to the final result. The run of misses inflated a woeful day from deep in which Rice converted a dismal 3-of-30 attempts from three-point range, further depressing a disappointing 31 percent shooting performance from the field.

Final Box | North Texas 63 – Rice 54

Key takeaway | Slipping away

There’s never a good time to lose four in a row, but the last weeks of the regular season are a particularly painful time to do so. Two weeks ago the double-bye in the conference tournament looked exceedingly likely. Today, not so much.

Rice is currently tied in the win column with Charlotte,  UAB, Memphis and UTSA. They don’t hold the tiebreaker with any of those four, with the Roadrunners still on the schedule in the final game of the regular season. That lack of a tiebreaker is what makes the double-bye seem so out of reach right now.

If Charlotte beats FAU on Sunday or ECU on Tuesday, they’ll be guaranteed the spot ahead of Rice in the standings. The same goes for UAB if they’re able to beat Wichita State on Tuesday.

The Owls’ only chance right now would require Charlotte to lose both games, UAB to lose to Wichita State, Memphis to lose to North Texas AND Rice to beat UTSA. If that exact scenario happened, Rice would finish 10-8, a game ahead of that entire grouping.

Up Next: at UTSA (Tuesday, Mar. 5)

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