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Rice Baseball 2024 Season Review: Lineup

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The offense was underwhelming for Rice baseball in 2024, posting the second-lowest OPS in the AAC while leading the league in strikeouts.

Rice baseball took a while to figure out the bats in 2024, but even when the Owls did get things going at the plate, the lineup remained fairly hot and cold. Fortunately for the Owls, having the league’s top home run hitter and some veteran pieces helped keep them competitive at the plate through the hard times. Through it all, there were individual highlights — described in more detail below — but for the most part, it was another challenging year with the sticks.

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Rice Baseball 2024 Season Review: Bullpen

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The bullpen made improvements as the 2024 Rice baseball season progressed, turning into a dependable unit by season’s end.

It was a rocky start for the Rice baseball bullpen. It took a few weeks for the staff to figure out who they could trust in the most high-leverage moments and for the players put into those positions to feel comfortable in their own shoes. Once everything came together, though, this pitching staff really excelled, providing plenty of backing for the starting pitching and give the Owls a shot to win some ballgames. For the purposes of this discussion, we focused on players who through at least 20 innings this season.

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Rice Baseball 2024 Season Review: Starting Pitching

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The Rice baseball starting rotation was imperfect, but productive in 2024, paving the way for much of the team’s successes.

For the first time under head coach Jose Cruz Jr, the Rice baseball starting rotation was truly set it and forget it. The Owls kept the same triumvirate of arms almost every weekend of the regular season and never had to truly consider demoting any of the three because of poor performance. The rotation was deployed without any hiccups.

For the purposes of this discussion, the three pitchers who were mainstays in the weekend rotation were included as the Owls tended to rotate through midweek guys as injuries cropped up and players produced. Here’s a rundown of how the starters faired this season.

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** Photo credit: Maria Lysakar **
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AAC Baseball sends ECU, Tulane NCAA Tournament

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AAC Baseball will have two representatives in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, regular season champ ECU and tournament champ Wichita State.

East Carolina

East Carolina was a force throughout the 2024 AAC Baseball season, impressing in nonconference play and following it up with a top finish in the league. Injuries saw them stumble a bit down the stretch, but the Pirates have a shot to make some noise with several of those key players expected to make their return for the NCAA Tournament.

The Pirates will host their regional as the No. 1 seed. Joining them in Greenville is their first opponent, No. 4 Seed Evansville, as well as  No. 2 Seed Wake Forest and No. 3 Seed VCU.

This is ECU’s sixth time hosting at Clark-LeClair Stadium and the Pirates’ 34th  appearance in the NCAA Tournament. They’ve qualified for regional play eight times in 10 years under head coach Cliff Godwin.

The Greenville Regional is paired with the Knoxville Regional, home of No. 1 National Seed, Tennessee.

Tulane

Tulane secured automatic entrance to the NCAA Tournament field by virtue of their AAC Baseball Tournament championship, their second tournament title in as many seasons after taking home the trophy last season as well. This is Tulane’s 10th conference tournament title and their 23rd appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

The Green Wave are the No. 4 Seed in the Corvallis Regional, home of host Oregon State, the No. 15 overall seed in the tournament. Also in the field are No. 2 Seed UC-Irvine and No. 3 Seed Nicholls.

Tulane has met two of its regional members on the diamond already this year. The Green Wave were swept in New Orleans by UC Irvine and won a pair of midweek games against Nicholls earlier in the season, one at home and one on the road.

The Corvallis Regional is paired with the Lexington Regional, home of No. 2 Seed, Kentucky.

NCAA Tournament Bracket

Elsewhere in the AAC

South Florida has made a coaching change, dismissing Billy Mohl after seven seasons with the Bulls. USF was one of two teams, the other Memphis, who failed to reach the AAC Baseball Tournament, falling in their final game of the season to UAB and ending up on the wrong side of the bubble. USF is the only program to have made a coaching change at this time.

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Grab Bag: What’s going on around Rice Athletics? May 2024 Q&A

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Rather than drill down on one topic, subscribers had a variety of questions this month touching all areas of Rice Athletics. We hit on them all.

A lot is going on around Rice Athletics right as the academic year winds down. This mailbag touches on a host of topics ranging from the state of college sports, possible Rice Athletics sports additions, existing sports and more.

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Q: What’s happening with upgrading Rice Stadium?

A: Finding a solution for the current stadium situation was one of the first things athletic director Tommy McClelland mentioned when he was hired and while proposed solutions haven’t been communicated yet… hang tight. The wheels are turning and progress is being made on that front. When the time comes to share those next steps, I think most Rice fans will be excited about the direction the administration wants to head with the stadium.

Q: Any chance for men’s soccer?

A: In short, probably not. Rice had now added two women’s programs, diving and golf, but both of those were logistical slam dunks. Now that the Owls are adding the sport, every D1 program in the state has women’s golf and bolstering the swimming program with diving was an obvious next step. When it comes to a brand new program with a larger scholarship base, I’d look towards the possibility of another women’s program, but a decision like that probably isn’t imminent.

Q: What’s going on with women’s soccer? The last two years have been disappointing. Is Brian Lee the right guy for the job?

A: Lee made noise when he arrived on campus and took Rice soccer to the Sweet 16, a first in program history. They were undefeated in conference play in 2022 before the aforementioned rough 2023 campaign in which they went 3-13-2. McClelland has demonstrated he’s not averse to making a change if needed, but I’d find it hard to believe there was imminent pressure on Lee or the program given what they’ve accomplished so far.

As far as recent news, Rice has the No. 32 recruiting class in the country coming to campus. Those reinforcements should be a huge boost to the program.

Q: Where does Rice fit in the future of college sports?

A: Rice obviously doesn’t have the resources of some of the biggest national brands that are making headlines. And while that’s true, it’s equally apparent Rice is committing itself to being competitive in collegiate sports for the long haul. What that will look like in two years, five years, ten years? Nobody can be certain.

The most recent NCAA House case settlement has cast further uncertainty around what that future world will include, but it won’t spell the end of college sports, far from it. Things are going to look different. Athletes are going to get compensated in ways that were unfathomable even a few years ago. But college sports aren’t going anywhere and Rice will continue to participate.

Consider this an educated guess. Rice Athletics will strive to maintain its spot in the highest level of competition available to them and will spend commensurate amounts alongside its peers to compete for championships. I don’t envision a scenario where the Owls voluntarily “give up” on that aspiration because conditions become too challenging or vary too far from the traditional model of collegiate athletics that existed in the pre-NIL world.

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