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Rice Baseball 2021: Previewing Owls vs Texas State

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The Rice baseball draws a midweek rematch with Texas State on Wednesday. The Owls lost to the Bobcats in the Shriner’s Classic.

Rice baseball would love to keep the momentum going after their first three-win weekend of the series. To accomplish that, they’ll need to even the season-series with in-state foe Texas State on Wednesday.

Game Notes

Times: Wednesday 6:00 p.m.
Venue: Bobcat Ballpark
Radio: Stretch Internet Portal

How each team fared this weekend

Rice baseball (8-7) took both games against Northern Illinois and split a pair of games against Kansas State.

Texas State (7-10) lost two of three to Houston at home. They picked up their marquee win of the season, upsetting TCU 11-1 in seven innings at Bobcat Ballpark.

Texas State Pitching

Garrett Herrmann toed the rubber in Texas State’s most recent midweek bout with TCU. He went three innings and allowed one unearned run. As is often the case in midweek affairs, we could see several arms out of the bullpen for both sides. Relievers Otto Wofford and Matthew Nicholas have both been extremely effective so far, owning WHIPs of 0.500 and 0.720, respectively.

Texas State Hitting

Not much has changed for Texas State since the Owls last met up with them less than two weeks ago. It’ll still be a lot of familiar faces in the lineup that produced nine runs against the Rice pitching staff at Minute Maid Park.

Third baseman Justin Thompson led the team in hits (3) and RBI (2) in that game. It’s not a coincidence he leads the Bobcats in both measures (26 hits, 18 RBI) for the season as well, outpacing the next closest hitters by a wide margin.

Behind Thompson, left fielder Will Hollis is the other top-of-the-lineup bat to be wary of on Wednesday. He was 1-for-4 against Rice at the Shriner’s Classic, but is second on the team for the season with a .306 average and enters the week with a team-high four home runs.

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Rice Football 2021: Spring Practice Week 2 Notebook

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Rice football had their first scrimmage of the spring this past week. A few players stood out, including one very notable position switch.

Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren called spring practice “the lab” during his opening media sessions. The phrase stuck with me as I’ve watched the team go through drills over the last two weeks. Many things seem relatively mundane, but a few things did stand out as decidedly unique. Whether or not those tidbits remain in the fall might depend on how well the experiments go this month.

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For those that might have missed it, you can check out the initial depth chart reactions as well as the Week 1 notebook. Not subscribed? The Roost will have you covered every step of the way this spring and beyond. Subscribers get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features. Subscribe on Patreon and get access to it all today.

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Rice Women’s Basketball: Owls headed to WNIT for postseason play

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The Rice women’s basketball season ends without an NCAA Tournament selection. Instead, the Owls are headed to WNIT for postseason play.

Rice women’s basketball lost a heartbreaker to Middle Tennesse in the Conference USA Championship Game on Saturday. Rice trailed by as many as 10 points in the second half but thundered back to make it a one-score game in the final seconds.

The loss marks the first conference tournament defeated in the last three sees for Rice. It also means the Owls’ long-hoped automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament disappeared as well. Hoping for an at-large selection, Rice was disappointed when their name was not called on Selection Monday.

The Owls season is not over yet, though. Rice will accept an invitation to the WNIT as an automatic qualifier. Rice will play Arizona State in their first round matchup.

Fellow Conference USA squad Charlotte has also made the field. They’ll play Florida. Rice women’s basketball will play its first game on Friday. It can be streamed on FloHoops.

Podcast: Former Rice football star Christian Covington talks football, Marvel

The structure for the tournament has been tweaked. Each of the four regions will include an opening round on Friday, March 19 followed by a second-round on Saturday, March 20 featuring semifinal matchups and a consolation round. The finals for the championship bracket and consolation bracket will be played on Monday, March 22.

Rice last played in the WNIT in 2018. The Owls defeated Texas State in Round 1 before falling to New Mexico in Round 2. Rice last made the NCAA Tournament in 2019, falling in overtime to Marquette in College Station, TX.

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Rice Baseball: Owls take three of four from NIU and Kansas State

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Rice baseball went three for four on the weekend, sweeping Northern Illinois and splitting a pair of games with Kansas State.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

1. Rice baseball rotation is starting to settle in

The rotation has been somewhat of a work in progress over the first several weeks of the regular season. With Roel Garcia working his way back to 100 percent and the order in flux because of the winter storm, some growing pains were expected as the Owls readied for conference play in a few weeks.

As a whole, the starters compiled what has to be considered their best weekends of the season to date:

  • Blake Brogdon earned a win, pitching into the seventh inning while allowing just two earned runs with six strikeouts.
  • Roel Garcia went 5.2 innings against a potent Kansas State offense, allowing four earned runs, but keeping Rice in the game until he departed.
  • Mitchell Holcomb threw 7.2 innings of scoreless ball, striking out for and allowing just five hits.
  • Brandon Deskins struck out six in 5.0 innings, allowing four hits with one walk.

Altogether, the four arms in the weekend rotation pitched 24.2 innings and allowed six runs, a 2.19 ERA.

2. Gneiting not under the radar anymore

Entering the season, senior Bradley Gneiting was expected to be a part of the outfield rotation and platoon at the designated hitter spot. The same was said for a half dozen players who hoped to earn playing time on a regular basis. Not only has Gneiting had his fair share of at bats, he’s inked his name on the lineup card for the foreseeable future.

Gneiting reached base in all four games this weekend, going 5-for-15 with a home run and two RBI. He currently leads in batting average, OPS, hits and RBI. He’s one five players to start and finish every game this season.

3. One significant shutout

In the final season of the Wayne Graham era, Rice baseball won two games with shutouts. They beat Western Kentucky 4-0 and downed Old Dominion 9-0 that season. The next year, Matt Bragga’s first, Rice earned just one shutout win, a 4-0 victory over Southern Miss. They did not blank any of their opponents in 2020.

In total, Rice pitched one shutout victory in the first 75 games in Bragga’s tenure, a rate of 1.3 percent. So far in 2021, they tallied three such skunks in their first 14 games, 21.4 percent of their games. That doesn’t account for the two games in which they came up one run short.

More than the positive feelings of seeing a zero on the opponent’s box score, a string of shutouts points to a pitching staff capable of operating at a high level. Channeling that potential into consistent, dependable performances from a core of trustworthy options could make this team dangerous if and when the bats follow suit.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | Rice 6 – Northern Illinois 3

Northern Illinois struck first with a run in the top of the third but the 1-0 lead didn’t last long. Guy Garibay delivered the equalizing home run in the bottom half of the inning. Then Rice exploded for four more runs in the fifth to take a commanding 5-1 lead. Four different Owls had an RBI hit in that inning.

Blake Brogdon and Reed Gallant proved to be a strong tandem on the mound. Gallant took over in the seventh, allowing two inherited runners to score, but finished the remainder of the game unscathed, giving Rice the win.

SATURDAY 1 | Kansas State 8 – Rice 3

Things were close in the second game for the Owls right until they weren’t. Roel Garcia kept the Kansas State bats at bay, allowing two runs through the first five innings. Unfortunately, the offense was only able to muster one run of support over that span.

When Garcia exited, Kansas State pounced. Already leading 4-1 at the time, the Wildcats tacked on four more runs over the final three innings. Rice finished 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position in the loss.

SATURDAY 2 | Rice 4 – Northern Illinois 1

Rice responded well in the second half of the Saturday double-header. Mitchell Holcomb delivered far and away his best performance as an Owl, going 7.2 innings without allowing a run. The strong start allowed the offense to gradually pull further and further away over the course of the game.

The Owls first took the lead on a bases-loaded walk in the second inning. They added two more runs in the fifth and another in the sixth. By the time Holcomb exited the game and Christian Cienfuegos extinguished any hopes of a late NIU rally in the eighth, Rice was in total command.

SUNDAY | Rice 1 – Kansas State 0

The bats were more subdued when Rice met Kansas State for the second time on the weekend. Once the rain dried up and the tarp was removed, Brandon Deskins and KState hurler Connor McCullough were lights out. Neither side scored against the other teams’ starters, leaving it to the bullpens to finish up the game.

Rice would prevail thanks to the bat of Braden Comeaux who drilled a liner at the foot of the Kansas State shortstop. The ball deflected just far enough for Ben Dukes to scamper home and break the tie. Dalton Wood converted the save.

ON DECK | Rice Baseball vs Texas State (Wed), Southern (Fri-Sun, four games).

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Rice Women’s Basketball: Rally falls short vs MTSU in CUSA Tournament finale

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Rice women’s basketball lost a heartbreaker in the final seconds to Middle Tennesee in 2021 Conference USA Tournament Championship Game.

Middle Tennessee was picked to win Conference USA in the preseason polls. Rice women’s basketball were the defending champs and finished with the best record in the regular season. It was only fitting that these were the two teams pitted against each other in the conference championship game on Saturday night.

A rematch of the 2019 Championship Game between these two teams, the 2021 edition shared an eerie resemblance early on. Middle Tennessee took a modest 32-26 lead into halftime, never getting too far ahead, but doing enough to keep Rice off balance. Courtney Witson’s five three-pointers in the first half were crucial to Middle Tennessee’s early success.

Both teams went on runs in the third quarter, with Rice clawing ever so slightly closer. In the fourth quarter, Nancy Mulkey got hot. She scored the first six points in the final frame, giving Rice the lead for the first time since they led 6-5 in the first quarter.

Podcast: Former Rice football star Christian Covington talks football, Marvel

Then came a heart-stopping finale. Middle Tennessee went on an 11-0 run to go up by 10. Rice responded with a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to three. Trailing by two, Rice had the ball with a chance to force overtime, but a pass to Mulkey in the paint was knocked away leaving Rice with little more than a full-court hail mary on the ensuing possession that fell short.

Mulkey finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks. Katelyn Crosthwait and Jasmine Smith both had 13 points, with Smith tallying a double-double with 10 rebounds.

After the game, head coach Tina Langley took the blame for the heartbreaking result: “In the end, I thought I could have made some better decisions for our team,” she said. “I thought they fought their tails off. Really this is on me.”

With the win, Middle Tennesee clinches an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. Rice women’s basketball will now await their postseason fate, announced on Selection Monday. By RPI, the Owls stand a decent chance to earn an at-large berth, but the NET Rankings have them as a fringe team, at best. Given the weighting toward NET, the Owls’ season could very well be done.

No matter what happens on Monday, it was another remarkable run for this team.

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