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Rice Baseball: Owls’ unraveled by errors in loss to Louisiana

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Fresh off their first series win of the season, Rice baseball dropped its midweek contest to Louisiana that was close through four innings.

Trei Cruz and Austin Bulman opened up the game with back-to-back doubles in the first inning, tying the score at one apiece after starter Ryan Rickett allowed a run in the first inning. That would become the extent of the Owls’ offensive production on the night.

Rice would manage to pull together five hits, paling in comparison to the 13 hits Louisiana accrued in their 10-run win. A game this lopsided has become all-too common this season, but it was the first time an opponent tallied 10 runs at Reckling Park this year.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Foreboding first innings

Rice has allowed at least one run in the first inning in seven of their 11 games this season. Their opponents are sending their best bats to the plate in the first inning. But that’s no reason for the Owls’ starting pitching to be this porous so early in games. Like Rickett tonight, who settled in for his short start after the one-run first inning, Rice starting pitching has been mostly adequate. If they can cruise through the second and third inning, getting three outs to start the game shouldn’t be too much to ask.

Owls can’t afford to be this sloppy

By the time the conference tournament came around, Rice baseball had become one of the better fielding teams in Conference USA. That level of play had held steady since. Entering Tuesday night, Rice had committed one error or less in eight of their 10 games. A pair two-error games were the exceptions.

Rice committed four errors against Louisiana, three of which came in the fifth inning. Three reliable infielders — Cruz, Bulman and Cade Edwards — all allowed free bases to the Cajuns who made the Owls pay. The seven-run fifth inning crushed what had been a promising start.

No rest for the weary

The schedule doesn’t ease up. Rice gets crosstown rival Houston on Wednesday night. Following that they draw Texas Tech for a three-game series on the road and return home for a midweek game against Texas A&M before starting conference play against Marshall.

The road looked tenuous before the Owls’ started playing games. The early results have been hard to process. How much of blame does Rice deserve? How much credit is due to the quality of the competition? As usual, the answer is probably a little bit of both.

Up Next | Houston (Wed), Texas Tech (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Football Recruiting: An offer from the Owls means more

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The 2020 Rice Football recruiting class was a highly-rated, hand-picked collection of players. The numbers reflect the Owls’ effectiveness.

The world of college football recruiting is swathed in layers upon layers of grey. Who gets offered by whom makes local and sometimes even national news. Meanwhile, whether or not that offer is “committable” or not is largely kept hidden in the shadows.

The 2020 Rice football recruiting class provided a decidedly unique level of clarity. The Owls distanced themselves from their peers in the effectiveness and efficiency of their recruiting offers. Based on data released from Hero Sports, Rice offered the fewest players in the 2020 recruiting cycle among all Conference USA teams. See the graph below.

 

The Owls’ 70 offers were only the fewest in Conference USA. Rice tied Northwestern as the choosiest FBS programs in the nation. Stanford (74) and Washington (79) were the only other programs that offered less than 100 players.

Keep in mind, classes are capped at roughly 25 players each season and FBS rosters are limited to 85 scholarship players. Offering 98 defensive linemen — something Southern Miss decided to do in the 2020 class — goes well beyond both the 25-man and the 85-man thresholds.

On a per offer basis, no school in the Group of 5 was as effective as Rice. The Owls turned 27.1 percent of their offers into commitments. See the graph below.

A little more than one out of every four offered players became a signee in the 2020 Rice Football recruiting class. That’s more than double the Conference USA average 13.4 percent. It’s also significantly better than the national average, which hovers around 11 percent.

There are no trophies handed out for recruiting efficiency. But the line of sight offered by an offer from Rice football is second to none. The Owls do their homework before they extend an offer. If you get an offer from Rice, it’s rock solid.

** Data sourced from Hero Sports
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Rice Baseball 2020: Owls notch series win over Missouri State

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It took a few games to get in a groove, but Rice baseball found their rhythm in a 2-1 series win over Missouri State over the weekend.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice wins the series 2-1

1. The bats are here!

Rice scored as many runs in the first inning of their Friday game than they managed in their previous four games combined. That’s seven runs prior to getting three outs compared to seven runs after 36 outs. It wasn’t a completely clean flip of the switch. The offense didn’t do much on Saturday and still could have been better than the five runs scored on Sunday.

Big weekends from Austin Bulman, Bradley Gneiting, Rodrigo Duluc, Trei Cruz and others have given the Owls a semblance of a starting lineup. There’s still a bit more work to be done organizing the outfield, but the offense has cleared the first hurdle. This was a positive step after two successive backward weekends.

2. DeLeon shows he can do it — but consistency still a problem

DeLeon’s seven innings of five-hit, four-run ball don’t qualify as a quality start, nor should they after the rocky start. Still, the way the veteran was able to settle in and battle for as long as he did showed a tremendous amount of poise and control. Getting comfortable after a first-inning as poor as he had and going deep into the game says a lot about his staying power within the Rice rotation.

The stat sheet still shows a grisly 9.82 ERA next to his name. For him, though, the bad has come in bunches. His ERA would drop significantly if not for the few awful innings he’s been a part of for one reason or another. You can’t cherry pick stats to fit a narrative, but any good story need context. DeLeon has been about as good as his high ERA says. That said, there’s clearly room for improvement if he can eliminate his early game struggles.

3. The sky is not falling

Things were grim after the 0-7 start. 2-8 doesn’t look much better on the official tally, but it will feel a lot different between the ears of this Rice baseball team. The psychological impact of a series win outways whatever good this series will have in the final standings. Missouri State hasn’t proven themselves to be all that great of a baseball team this season. Unless Rice plays themselves into a position for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, this weekend won’t drastically impact their season. Still, it mattered to this team. It mattered a lot.

On some level, Rice just needed to remember how to win. Batting around on Friday night, responding to a “here-we-go-again” scare with the most impressive offensive outburst of the season shows what this team can be. Consistency will be the key. And they’ll have to figure that out on the fly too.

FRIDAY | Rice 12 – Missouri State 4

Things started out rocky for the Owls on Friday night. Missouri State stuck with a four-spot in the first inning off pitcher Alex DeLeon. The embattled starter did not face a deficit for long. His offense woke up, batting around in the bottom half of the inning. By the time he returned to the mound, Rice had staked themselves to a 7-4 lead.

A home run by Trei Cruz and triples by Rodrigo Duluc and Bradley Gneiting highlighted a night in which the Owls had more extra-base hits than Missouri State totalled base hits of any kind.

SATURDAY | Missouri State 9 – Rice 3

Missouri State took an early lead, but Rice kept things close in the middle game up until the seventh inning. An error allowed the leadoff man to reach, setting the stage for four un-earned runs to extend the visitor’s lead from 4-0 to 7-0. Rice would tack on a few runs at the end, but it was never enough to make it feel like the Owls were close to making this a game again after that.

SUNDAY | Rice 5 – Missouri State 1

Rice fell behing in the first inning during Sunday’s rubber match. Seeking their first series win of the season, the Owls dug deep, scratching across runs in the third, fourth, fifth and seventh innings to take and extend the lead. Rice only out-hit Missouri State nine to seven, but the Owls got the more timely hits — something that had eluded them in recent weeks.

ON DECK | at Texas State (Tues), vs Missouri State (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Basketball 2020 Game Preview: Owls vs Middle Tennessee

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Rice basketball returns home in need of a win to keep their Conference USA Tournament hopes alive. How do the Owls’ stack up against Middle Tennessee?

Rice Basketball

Time: March 1 at 2:00 p.m. CT
Venue: Tudor Fieldhouse
Radio: Stretch Internet Portal
TV: CUSATV

MTSU 7-21 (3-12), Last 5 (1-4)

  • 75-70 (L) vs North Texas
  • 91-83 (L) vs Rice
  • 83-72 (L) at UAB
  • 79-66 (L) vs UAB
  • 61-53 (W) at Southern Miss

Rice 13-15 (5-10), Last 5 (3-2)

  • 86-72 (W) at UAB
  • 91-83 (W) at MTSU
  • 73-70 (L) vs Old Dominion
  • 70-54 (W) vs Charlotte
  • 68-62 (L) at UTEP

MTSU statistical leaders

  • Scoring | CJ Jones – 16.4 per game
  • Rebounds | Jayce Johnson – 4.9 per game
  • Assists | Donovan Sims – 3.5 per game
  • Steals | Donovan Sims – 1.6 per game
  • Blocks | Tyson Jackson – 0.7 per game

Rice statistical leaders

  • Scoring | Trey Murphy – 13.2 per game
  • Rebounds | Drew Peterson – 6.5 per game
  • Assists | Drew Peterson – 3.4 per game
  • Steals | Trey Murphy – 1.1 per game
  • Blocks | Trey Murphy – 0.6 per game

Rice keys to victory

When Rice basketball and Middle Tennessee last met the Owls shot the lights out of the Murphy Athletic Center in Murfreesboro. Rice shot 52.8 percent from the field and scored 91 points, the most against any conference opponent this season.

A hot shooting start would be a plus, but it’s the defensive side of the ball which could hold the key. Middle Tennessee is a poor rebounding team that is currently ranked in the top half of Conference USA in turnovers. Rice is going to be able to score against Middle Tennessee’s porous defense. Staying vigilant on the other end of the court should ensure the Owls get a much-needed bounce-back win.

Standings check

Middle Tennessee win against Southern Miss in their previous game puts the burden to win this matchup squarely on Rice. If the Blue Raiders win, they’ll finish above Rice in the final standings with two wins and the tiebreakers over the Owls. If Rice wants to control their own destiny, they have to win this game.

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Rice Women’s Basketball 2020 Game Preview: Owls vs LA Tech

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Rice women’s basketball is back on a winning streak and has their eyes set on C-USA’s top seed. A win over Louisiana Tech would get them one step closer.

Rice Women's Basketball

Time: Feb. 29 at 2:00 p.m. CT
Venue: Thomas Assembly Center
TV: CUSATV

LA Tech 13-13 (5-10), Last 5 (3-2)

  • 60-50 (W) vs Marshall
  • 68-44 (W) at FIU
  • 77-75 (L) at FAU
  • 63-61 (L) vs Southern Miss
  • 62-52 (W) vs FIU

Rice 18-8 (13-2), Last 5 (3-2)

  • 77-60 (W) vs MTSU
  • 66-59 OT (L) at Old Dominion
  • 62-51 (L) at Charlotte
  • 69-66 (W) vs North Texas
  • 74-65 (W) at UAB

LA Tech statistical leaders

  • Scoring | Amber Dixon – 12.0 per game
  • Rebounds | Anna Larr Roberson – 5.4 per game
  • Assists | Rzizel Guinto – 2.9 per game
  • Steals | Amber Dixon – 1.7 per game
  • Blocks | Grayson Bright – 0.7 per game

Rice statistical leaders

  • Scoring | Erica Ogwumike – 18.9 per game
  • Rebounds | Erica Ogwumike – 10.3 per game
  • Assists | Jasmine Smith – 3.0 per game
  • Steals | Sydne Wiggins – 1.7 per game
  • Blocks | Nancy Mulkey – 3.3 per game

Rice keys to victory

Rice women’s basketball used their suffocating defense to overcome Louisiana Tech in the first meeting of these two squads this season. That came back in mid-January. Both teams have come a long way since.

Louisiana Tech has won three-of-five games for the first time in conference play. Rice is recovering from their first C-USA losing streak since 2018, winning their last two games.

The Rice offense has been up and down. The defense has remained firm. Rice maintains the second-best field goal defense in Conference USA. Louisiana Tech is 12th in the same metric. The Owls have learned to rely on their depth more often in recent weeks. Combing their tenacity with a few bright spots from their younger playmakers will keep Rice alive in the conference race.

Standings Check

Old Dominion and Rice sit atop the Conference USA standings with three games remaining in the regular season for both squads. The Monarchs hold the tiebreaker — for now. A rematch on March 7 could decide who claims the No. 1 seed between these two 13-2 teams. The Monarchs have additional games remaining between FAU and UAB.

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