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WBB: No. 25 Owls lock up regular season CUSA Title

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Rice women’s basketball turned a third quarter deficit into their 16th consecutive victory, coming from behind to defeat North Texas and clinch the regular season CUSA Title.

For the first time since joining Conference USA, Rice women’s basketball are regular season conference champions. The Owls last achieved a regular season title in 2005 while members of the WAC, the only other conference title in program history.

To do it, Rice needed to stage a comeback. Trailing by three at halftime, the deficit grew to as many as seven before Rice thundered back. Nancy Mulkey led the charge with 24 points and three blocks. Nicole Iademarco connected on three triples and Erica Ogwumike grabbed six rebounds, three on the offensive glass. It was another all-around team effort, something Rice has come accustom to in recent weeks. They’d win by a final margin of 59-47.

Winning the regular season conference title secures Rice the top seed throughout the conference tournament. The first round bye is a plus, but the path beyond that is less important; the Owls’ resume speaks for itself. If they’re able to cut through their first batch of postseason games like they’ve been able to cruise through conference play, they’ll secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Then the dance begins.

There are two kinds of teams the blue blood programs don’t want to face in the NCAA Tournament. Red-hot three-point shooting squads are scary — look at what 16-seed UMBC did to 1-seed Virginia on 12 made three-pointers while shooting 50 percent from deep. The second team is the defensive juggernaut: that’s Rice.

Defense travels. That’s the most intriguing, and at least to outsiders, the most terrifying aspect of this surging team. They’ve held every conference opponent but one, Marshall, to 51 points or fewer on their home court. That includes Western Kentucky (averaging 74 points per game), UAB (73.8) and most recently, North Texas (66.2). Rice is playing at an incredibly high level as the calendar approaches March. To this point, no other team in the conference has been able to keep up.

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Baseball: Previewing the UC Irvine series

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Rice baseball looks to rebound from a pair of midweek losses with a second straight weekend series win. Next, the Owls take on UC Irvine at home.

Listen online // Watch Friday (CUSA TV) // Watch Saturday (CUSA TV) // Watch Sunday (CUSA TV)

The UC Irvine Anteaters head east to Texas to play their first weekend series away from home this season. The fringe Top 25 club took two of three from Washington on opening weekend before falling to San Diego State on the road on Tuesday. Their record sits at 2-2.

Rice enters the series 2-3, losers of the past two games to a pair of college baseball powers, first Texas and then Arizona. The winner of this series will leave the weekend no worse than .500, an important distinction with so many high-caliber non-conference games still to play for both squads.

Projected Pitching Matchups

Friday – 6:30 pm: Matt Canterino (0-0, 0.00) vs Andre Pallante (0-1, 3.86)
Saturday – 2:00 pm: Evan Kravetz (0-0, 0.00) vs  Tanner Brubaker (0-0, 1.59)
Sunday – 1:00 pm: Jackson Parthasarathy (1-0, 0.00) vs  Trenton Denholm (0-0, 4.50)

UC Irvine Pitching

So far the knock on weekend starters Pallante, Brubaker and Denholm has been their longevity. None of the trio made it through the sixth inning. They’ve each been effective in shorter bursts, but if continued short outings will put added pressure on their bullpen, which has performed well up to this point.

Taylor Rashi will be the anchor on the back end. The senior righty is the only UCI pitcher to allow no hits or walks in multiple appearances. His five strikeouts are two shy of the team lead, but he got them in two innings compared to Denholm’s four frames.

Michael Frias and Ryan Johnston will see action out of the pen. John Vergara, if he can find the zone, has the potential to be dangerous against a Rice team which has proven susceptible at the plate so far this season.

UC Irving Hitting

Like Rice to some extent, UC Irvine has left plenty of opportunity at the plate. Third baseman Brandon Lewis has had the best start on the team so far, but aside from his two home runs, he’s only reached base on two other occasions. From a batting average perspective, Second baseman Brendan Brooks leads the team with a ,286 clip, but he’s only managed four hits on the young season.

Nobody in this lineup is particularly fearsome, but they have proven to be relatively patient at the plate, sometimes to a fault. The team has reached base 17 times via the walk, but have accumulated 42 strikeouts in four games. Shortstop Christian Koss is the chief offender, whiffing seven times in 14 appearances.

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Baseball: Defensive woes crush Owls in midweek loss to Arizona

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Rice baseball concluded a tough midweek set on Wednesday, dropping a somewhat uncompetitive home game to visiting Arizona at Reckling Park.

Defensive lapses put Rice baseball into an insurmountable hole against Texas on Tuesday night, a contest the Owls dropped 11-4. They returned to the diamond for a second midweek contest, this time against Arizona.

Arizona struck first, and second and third. The visitors tallied single runs in the first three frames, putting the Owls into an early hole once again.

The Rice pitchers played with fire all night, as Arizona loaded the bases in the first, fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth innings. The breakthrough came in the sixth against Brandon Deskins. After striking out the side in his first appearance of the year, Arizona roughed him up, scoring three to blast the game wide open, 8-1.

To that point, Rice had managed one run. It came off an RBI single from Dominic DiCaprio in the fourth, his first hit of the season. The Owls cut the deficit to 8-2 in the bottom of the sixth, but that’s as close as the team would get for the duration of the contest, falling by a final score of Arizona 16, Rice 5.

Here are a few things which stood out from the loss:

Takeaways

1. Time to get back to the basics

The eight errors committed by Rice were one shy of the school record, 10, set against UNLV in 1997. Rice committed nine runs in their first four games, but had eight registered mistakes against Arizona alone. It’s not as if one guy was throwing the ball recklessly around the yard, the bulk of the team had at least one error charge to them on Wednesday. If you can’t throw and catch, you can’t win baseball games.

Coach Matt Bragga compared the defensive struggles to “little league” play in the aftermath of the Texas loss on Tuesday. If that’s the case, this team has a lot of work to do before conference play arrives.

2. This team misses Addison Moss

The starts from Drake Greenwood and Kel Bordwine during the Owls’ midweek games were decidedly mediocre. Both guys competed moderately well and were serviceable outside of a few fielding errors which negatively impacted their final lines.

Evan Kravetz was masterful in his spot start Saturday against Rhode Island, but his insertion into the weekend rotation forced him out of a midweek rotation spot, at least for now.

Having Kravetz on Tuesday will make Greenwood and Bordwine available to start Wednesday or come out of the bullpen. It gives coach Bragga options. Without Moss, this rotation looks thin — Rice needs him back as soon as he’s healthy.

3. Trei Cruz needs some help

So far, Trei Cruz is the pacemaker which keeps this offense churning. When he’s locked in, he sends a pulse throughout the entire lineup. It doesn’t mean the others in the batting order have come alive on cue, but without his presence, the offense has flatlined.

Cruz did his part on Wednesday, going 1-for-2 with a run scored before being lifted late in the game. Consistent producers to this point, Cade Edwards, Justin Collins and Bradley Gneiting went a combined 1-for-9 on the evening. Braden Comeaux’s hitless night dropped his season average to .182.

The season is young and someone will have to step up. The question is, who?

4. Position battles continue to rage on

Dominic Cox opened the season in center field for the Owls but his string of less-than-impressive plate appearances opened the door for someone else to have their shot. Aaron Beaulaurier hadn’t registered a hit yet in 2019, but his two doubles against Arizona were some of the best hitting from the Owls all evening. It’s safe to say that spot in the lineup is up for grabs.

Beyond centerfield, designated hitter and first base remain question marks. Andrew Dunlap is still looking for his first hit of the season while Dominic DiCaprio earned his first knock against Arizona. Outside of the heart of the order — Bradley Gneiting, Trei Cruz, Justin Collins and Cade Edwards — the rest of the lineup remains in flux.

ON DECK | vs UC-Irvine (Fri.-Sun.)

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Baseball: Previewing Wednesday matchup vs Arizona

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The opening stretch of home games at Reckling Park for Rice baseball continues Wednesday when the Owls welcome Arizona to Houston.

Winners of a four-game series against UMass Lowell over the weekend, Arizona will head east to play a set of four games in Texas. Their first matchup will is Wednesday night at Reckling Park against Rice before traveling down the road to play a three-game weekend series against Houston.

Rice and Arizona aren’t strangers on the diamond. The two teams met in the 2015 and 2016 season. Rice won the first series in Tucson 2-1. Arizona answered back the following year, taking the return series 2-1 in Houston. This is the second midweek game for Rice this week, who fell to Texas in a water-logged Tuesday night contest.

When and Where

Pitching matchups

Rice has thrown several arms through four games and has options Wednesday night against Arizona. If coach Matt Bragga opts to give starter Addison Moss a few more days of rest the Owls could turn to one of their arms out of the pen to toe the rubber against Arizona.

Zach Esquivel and Kendal Jeffries both started games at various points throughout the 2018 campaign. Evan Kravetz, who pitched well in lieu of Moss on Saturday, could be bumped up to a midweek role in anticipation of the return of the Owls’ second ace.

Arizona hasn’t named a starter either. The Wildcats’ bullpen saw mixed results against UM Lowell. No reliever managed better than four strikeouts while walks were prevalent. Both Cameron Haskell and Randy Abshier have picked up saves. Rice could see either of them, or both, if the game stays close in the late innings.

Names to know from the plate

The top half of the Arizona order features some of the most dangerous hitters Rice will see in the early portion of their schedule. Leadoff hitter Cameron Cannon and second man Matt Frazier each collected eight hits during their opening series, scoring a combined 19 runs between them. Following right behind them will be Ryan Holgate who blasted three home runs and 12 RBI in his first four games.

Like Texas on Tueday, Arizona has plenty of talent in their lineup. The Owls had best be ready on the mound for another tough midweek test.

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Baseball: Fielding falters as Owls fall to Texas

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Rice baseball dropped a midweek intrastate battle to the Texas Longhorns 11-4. The Owls return to action Wednesday against Arizona.

Rice took two of three from Rhode Island over the weekend, securing the first series win of Matt Bragga’s tenure at South Main. Neither he or the team had time to dwell on their successes or failure with a short turnaround which began on Tuesday against visiting Texas.

It had been two seasons since the Owls and Longhorns met on the diamond. They last split a four-game set in Austin in 2017. This was the fourth meeting between Texas skipper David Pierce and Bragga, who faced off in the Super Regionals in Austin last season when Bragga was at the helm of Tennessee Tech.

Rice struck first via a Texas error which allowed Andrew Dunlap to reach at the beginning of the second inning. Antonio Cruz came through with a single on the ground to score Dunlap from second and give the Owls an early 1-0 lead.

Texas came thundering back, putting a five-spot on the board in the third before adding three more in the fourth. Rice battled back, clawing back three runs of their own in the fifth to bring the score to 8-4 entering the sixth inning.

The Longhorns would tack on an additional run in the sixth, eighth and ninth innings and win by the final score of Texas 11, Rice 4.

1. Fielding follies loom large

Seven errors on opening weekend wasn’t how Matt Bragga envisioned the beginning of his tenure at South Main. Rice committed two against Texas. Bragga was point blank in his critiques after the game. “It’s not good enough….defensively it’s just not been good for four games.”

The Longhorns came in prepared to test Owls in the field. After a leadoff walk, the next two Texas hitters attempted to lay down sacrifice bunts. The second was successful, forcing third basemen Braden Comeaux to make a quick throw, which he did with little hesitation.

For a brief moment, things looked to be trending in the right direction but two costly outfield mistakes in the second inning flipped the script on this game quickly. Antonio Cruz and Dominic Cox each missed diving attempts, resulting in a five-run inning for the visitors.

Bragga summed it up rather succinctly: “When you give away free bases you’re going to lose games… it’s going to cost us games and it already has.”

2. Two relievers made strong season debuts

Senior Blair Lewis was the third arm to enter the fray against a Texas. His teammates Drake Greenwood and Dalton Wood allowed eight runs (six earned) on a combined seven hits and four walks. Facing a sizable deficit, Lewis was asked to hold the line, which he did admirably.

His four innings pitched was a career high. Designated hitter Zach Zubia punched a solo home run to deep center field in the sixth. Left fielder Eric Kennedy followed with a triple to the same part of the ballpark in the seventh. Both players scored. Otherwise, Lewis was largely effective, eating innings and limiting the damage to two runs on six hits and no walks.

Freshman A.C. Plum made his collegiate debut at the back end of the game as well. He struck out one, walked one and allowed one run which had advanced to third on a wild pitch.

3. Strikeouts

One of the reasons for their inconsistent offensive production against Rhode Islands were the mounting strikeouts. Rice K’d 36 times over the weekend and continued those issues at the plate on Tuesday. Seven different Rice hitters registered at least one strikeout, 11 overall. Cade Edwards and Trei Cruz led the team with three whiffs each.

Discipline is going to be something this team needs to improve, quickly. They’ve simply left too many men on base, stranding nine against Texas. The value of putting the ball into play cannot be underestimated.

Bragga has plans to address during practice later this week. “We’re swinging at a lot of bad pitches,” he said, going on to describe the approach the plate with words like “apprehensive” and “timid.” The issues are apparent. Now it’s time for this team to make some adjustments.

ON DECK | vs Arizona (Wed), vs UC-Irvine (Fri.-Sun.)

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