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Strong starting pitching not enough as Rice baseball was swept at LA Tech

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Rice Baseball was swept for the second-straight weekend, this time falling in three straight games to Louisiana Tech on the road.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice baseball drops series 3-0

The decent down the standings continued this weekend for Rice baseball, who dropped another three-game series in conference play to reach a 3-9 conference record. The Owls have showed flashes, but weren’t able to combine the arms and the bats in the same way they did in a midweek blowout of Houston Baptist.

It was a tough result, with some good and bad mixed in. Here are a few takeaways from the weekend.

1. Counting on Cooper Chandler

Cooper Chandler got off to a rocky start with Rice baseball. He walked away from his first two starts with a 10.80 ERA, failing to get out of the fourth inning. Despite the poor numbers, head coach Jose Cruz Jr. was adamant Chandler was going to the Owls’ Friday night guy. Cruz Jr. said Chandler was “competing well” and “unlucky”, trusting his veteran hurler to stick it out and turn things around.

Half a season later, Chandler has cut his ERA in half, trimming it to 5.36. Perhaps even more impressive, he’s posted a quality start (six innings pitched with three of fewer runs allowed) in three of his last four appearances. The front runner of a team that has been desperately searching for consistency on the mound, Chandler has been a beacon of that in recent weeks.

Last Time Out: Rice baseball pummels HBU in midweek blowout

Since the Lamar game on Feb. 25, Chandler has allowed more than three runs in an outing just once. He’s posted more strikeouts than innings pitched in five of his six starts over that span. He’s been great. And Rice baseball is better for it. Hat tip to coach, he definitely got this one right.

2. Big hits can’t mask lineup struggles

As a team, Rice baseball holds a .254 combined batting average. That’s the 11th best in Conference USA, better than bottom-dwelling FIU by just seven points. The Owls rank in the bottom half of the league in doubles, home runs and RBI. They’re 11th in slugging percentage and ninth in on-base percentage. They’ve consistently drawn walks at a high clip, but the rest of the numbers are sobering.

And that’s why Rice puts up threes and ones in the run column against teams like Louisiana Tech. Rice had at least four hits combined from the top four spots in the order in every game this series. The bottom five hitters never combined for more than four base knocks in a game.

The lineup has skewed top-heavy this season, but it was abundantly clear this weekend when four players — Jack Riedel, Austin Bulman, Aaron Smigelski and Pierce Gallo — accounted for every RBI of the series. That’s not a winning formula and the numbers bear that out.

3. Hanging Tough

Louisiana Tech was one of the tougher opponents on the Rice baseball schedule this season. Being swept by the bulldogs, who are now 9-3 in conference play and 16-4 at home this year with two midweek wins over a ranked LSU squad, wasn’t a shocking development. From what we’ve seen on the field from both teams so far, Louisiana Tech is the better baseball team right now. But for most of the weekend, the gap didn’t see as big as it might have on paper.

The Owls’ largest deficit on the weekend came in a 9-3 lost on Saturday which was a 5-3 game after six innings. Two of the final four runs were unearned.  Rice dropped the other two games by two runs apiece, maintaining close contests thanks to three strong outings by their starters — possibly the first time they’ve gotten such a performance in unison in conference play this season.

Being swept isn’t fun, but being thumped is worse. Rice baseball wasn’t thumped this weekend. Now it’s time to get the arms and the bats working together.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | LA Tech 5 – Rice 3

A first-inning home run put Rice in a 3-0 hole early, setting the stage for what became a pitcher’s duel between the Owls’ Cooper Chandler and Louisiana Tech’s Cade Gibson, who would leave the game after six holding to that very same 3-0 advantage. That’s when Rice responded with a three-spot in the seventh inning sparked by a two-run home run from Jack Riedel and followed by a RBI double from Aaron Smigelski.

The deadlock would last for one more inning before Louisiana Tech used another long ball, this one a two-run variety, to put themselves ahead for good. Rice was shut out in the ninth, falling 5-3 in the opening game.

SATURDAY | LA Tech 9 – Rice 3

Rice baseball got on the board first in the middle game with another home run from Riedel. Austin Bulman tacked on another run via a double to give Rice a 3-0 edge in the fifth, but that’s where the Rice pitching staff would show its first true signs of weakness on the weekend.

Garret Zaskoda entered in relief of Alex DeLeon and surrendered three earned runs in two-thirds of an inning, allowing three of the five batters he faced to get hits. The 3-0 lead became a 4-3 deficit, which would lengthen for the remainder of the game, with Louisiana Tech scoring at least one run in each subsequent frame, winning 9-3.

SUNDAY | LA Tech 3 – Rice 1

Sunday’s are typically high-scoring affairs exhibiting strained bullpens and plenty of pent-up energy. That wasn’t the case at all in this series finale, which featured four total runs, scored in three innings, leaving plenty of white noise in between. Louisiana Tech scored three of Rice starter Thomas Burbank who matched a career-high five innings, set earlier in the week against Houston Baptist.

Unused up to that point, closer Matthew Linskey was handed the ball for the final three innings, tossing a career-high eight strikeouts in another dominant performance. Unfortunately for the Owls, it would be too little, too late.

Podcast: Rice Owls’ Voice JP Heath talks baseball, basketball, broadcasting

Rice would manage just one run on the day, scored on an RBI ground out from Pierce Gallo in the ninth inning. That left the tying run at the plate with just one out, but strikeouts from Smigeliski and Nathan Becker quelled any hopes of a comeback and finalized the series sweep.

ON DECK | Rice baseball at Sam Houston (Tues), vs UTSA (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball pummels HBU in shortened midweek bout

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It only took seven inning for Rice baseball to overwhelm HBU, sweeping the season series with a 7-inning victory over the Huskies on Tuesday night.

Simply put, Tuesday night was one of the most excellent performances Rice baseball has put forth on the diamond in quite some time. From start to finish, the Owls routed their crosstown rivals, sending HBU home after seven innings, a joint decision by the coaches given the decidedly one-sided state of the game.

The score became slanted as it was by an 11-run, 8-hit fifth inning in which Rice came one batter away from going through the order twice. Guy Garibay, Austin Bulman, Aaron Smigelski, Pierce Gallo and Antonio Cruz all reached base twice in the inning as the Owls tallied two triples in the frame.

Last Time Out : Rice baseball wrestling with sweep at hands of FAU

Rice was aided by an HBU error midway through the inning, but they did more than their fair share of damage without any help from the visiting Huskies.

As exciting as the big inning was, it would turn out to be window dressing on the final box score because of the superb pitching performance by Thomas Burbank. The San Jacinto transfer picked up his first win of the season, throwing five innings of one-hit ball, striking out five and silencing the HBU bats.

Burbank would have still picked up the win even if Rice had been shut out from the second inning onward. Smigelski broke the seal on the scoring with a two-run double in the opening inning. From then on it was smooth sailing for the Owls on the mound and at the plate.

“It was nice. It was something positive. We haven’t had something positive in a bit,” Rice baseball head coach Cruz Jr. said after the game. “Now its build on this, come back tomorrow, practice, tighten it up and get ready to go to Louisiana.”

What it means | Midweek magic

Outside of a sloppy 4-error, 9-run loss against Baylor in early March, midweek games have been favorable to the Owls so far this season. Rice is 4-4 in games played on Tuesday or Wednesday, and the majority of those losses have been competitive ballgames, including last week’s slugfest against Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

Meanwhile, Rice baseball is 5-17 in all other contests. That might mean the Owls are better equipped for the churn and chaos that comes with midweek games and stretched bullpen or it may just be a nod to the offense which has teed off against pitching and made opposing hurlers pay for their mistakes in recent weeks. Whatever the case, Rice will take the good fortune whenever it comes around.

ON DECK | at Louisiana Tech

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Rice baseball swept at home, drops battle of Owls to FAU

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In a battle of Owls, Rice Baseball was swept at home by Florida Atlantic over the weekend, outscored by their visitors 24-10 in the three-game series.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice baseball drops series 3-0

A hot start early on in conference play has seemingly cooled off for Rice baseball, who dropped their fifth consecutive contest on Sunday as a three-game series against FAU resulted in a sweep. Going winless at your own ballpark is never fun, and Rice will have plenty to work on as they prepare for a tough road trip to Ruston, LA next weekend. But first, a few takeaways from the weekend.

1. Scoring output stumbles

The Rice bats haven’t been the problem in recent weeks. Even when they weren’t exploding for double-digit outputs, they still seemed to consistently reach six or seven runs, giving their pitching staff support and giving the team a chance in almost every game. Against FAU, Rice scored just 10 runs in three games.

FAU is in the bottom third of the conference in team ERA, and although they’ve pitched fairly well of late, this probably wasn’t the most dominant set of hurlers Rice baseball will see this season. They managed to do a number against the Owls.

Last Time Out: Ninth inning rally comes up short for Rice baseball vs TAMUCC

Perhaps this was just an off weekend, but it was telling that Rice baseball head coach Cruz Jr. opted to empty the benches on Sunday and put Jack Ben-Shoshan and Cullen Hannigan in the starting lineup for the first time in a long while.

He tried to shake things up and provide this lineup a spark. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. As the pitching staff struggles. the bats will continue to be relied upon to win Rice games. When they’re quiet, it’s going to make for long days at the ballpark.

2. Defense is picking up

It wasn’t that long ago where it seemed like Rice was due a three-error or four-error game every weekend. Keeping track of the baseball wasn’t something this team did well, that is, until the switch was flipped in late March and they became a stronger fielding team.

“I think our infield is starting to look really good defensively,” Cruz Jr. said, making note of the return of Hal Hughes to the lineup. Hughes made his season debut on Tuesday against Texas A&M Corpus Christi after missing the first half of the season with an injury.

Rice committed just two errors on the weekend, and although there were a few bad hops that some of the Owls’ defenders would have preferred to make, the focus is definitely better. That’s a plus, and a much-needed sign of growth for the program as a whole.

3. Pitching staff in progress

Had anyone offered Cruz Jr. a pair of two-pitcher games to open this weekend series he would have taken it in a heartbeat, especially against one of the best hitting teams in the conference. FAU leads Conference USA in hits, and although they picked up several against Rice, the Owls top end of the staff was competitive enough to be trusted with deep outings, even in the bullpen.

Weeks ago Cruz Jr. talked about finding a reliable corps to throw in the most high-leverage of situations. Even though the Rice bullpen gave up runs this weekend, it seemed evident some combination of Garret Zaskoda, Roel Garcia, Dalton Wood, David Shaw, Tom Vincent and Cristian Cienfuegos are going to the first guys to get the call just about every weekend from here on out.

More: Rice Baseball Midseason State of the Program

The shortlist has been built. What remains to be seen is which pitchers can make the adjustments and start to limit the damage against some of the deeper lineups in Conference USA. Matthew Linskey has been darn near perfect, but he can’ throw every day, not if he wants to maintain that level of effectiveness. No, it’s going to take another step up by a few more guys. Now it appears the staff knows who they’re looking for.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | FAU 9 – Rice 4

The series started out on a rocky note for Rice baseball starter Cooper Chandler who gave up four runs in the first two innings including a few very hard-hit balls. To his credit, he dug in and fought his way to the sixth inning. Cruz Jr. noticed his grit, saying Chandler “pitched really good”, casting his major complaints upon the Rice offense, which did little to support their Friday night guy.

Rice scored once in the first inning on a groundout. Guy Garibay pulled Rice within one run on a two-run blast in the fifth inning that made the score 4-3 in favor of FAU. The visitors tacked on five more runs after that, nickling-and-diming Chandler and Zaskoda as the Rice bats watched on, resulting in a 9-4 win for FAU.

SATURDAY | FAU 6 – Ricc 5

Filling for Parker Smith who left his start last weekend early, Alex DeLeon delivered a gritty four-run, five-inning effort in Game 2 with two of those runs unearned. Behind 3-0 in the fourth, Rice slugger Austin Bulman delivered an equalizing three-run shot down the left field line to breathe new life into the Rice dugout.

Both teams traded runs in the fifth inning to set the score at 4-4. Again in the sixth, single tallies from each side made it 5-5. FAU would take the lead for good in the eighth with a leadoff home run against Roel Garia following which Rice would send the minimum to the plate in the final two half innings.

SUNDAY | FAU 7 – Rice 1

Things were shaping up to be a close game on getaway day, until they weren’t. Rice took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI double by Austin Bulman. FAU tied the game in the third, then jumped in front in the fourth. Trailing 3-1, the game still felt in reach until FAU delivered the gut-punch 4-run finisher in the sixth inning.

Podcast: Rice Owls’ Voice JP Heath talks baseball, basketball, broadcasting

Rice reliever David Shaw left with two runners on and one out, setting the table for Tom Vincent, who struggled to get out of the frame. He gave up three hits and allowed a run to score on a hit by pitch as Rice fell behind 7-1. They would not recover, tallying just four hits in the series finale.

ON DECK | Rice baseball vs Houston Baptist (Tues), at Louisiana Tech (Fri-Sun)

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Rice baseball wins first C-USA series, 2-1 over Marshall

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Rice Baseball took their first weekend series of the season, winning the opening two games against Marshall on the Owls’ first C-USA road trip.

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

A one-run defeat on Sunday must not be allowed to sully what was an impactful first Conference USA series win for Rice baseball head coach Jose Cruz Jr. and his team. The Owls held nothing back, pressing every button they could to ensure they didn’t fly back to Texas defeated.

Last Time Out: Rice baseball falls to Texas A&M in marathon game

The pair of wins gives Rice five victories in their last nine games. As modest as that may seem, playing .500 baseball following a 2-9 start represents a significant step-change in the trajectory of this program.  But first, a few takeaways from the weekend.

1. Finding the few

As Cruz Jr. mentioned earlier this week, finding a core group of pitchers he could trust in key situations was one of the Owls’ most pressing priorities. The picture might not be crystal clear right now, but things look much better after this weekend than they have at any other point this year.

On Friday, Rice was able to use one reliever (David Shaw) in between a quality outing from starter Cooper Chandler and a shutdown performance from closer Matthew Linskey. Getting one inning from Parker Smith on Saturday wasn’t the plan, but nice relief outings from Roel Garcia, Tom Vincent and Garret Zaskoda turned things around for the Owls before the day was through.

Vincent and Shaw reprised their performances was good Sunday appearances as well. At a minimum, it appears Chandler, Smith, and Garcia are reliable starting options, with DeLeon quality depth and a viable Sunday guy. Shaw, Vincent, Zaskoda and Linskey have also done enough to be trusted. Rice will still need a few more guys to enter that important circle of trust, but the foundation has clearly been laid.

2. Sharing the success at the plate

Early on in the season, the vast majority of the offensive production seemed to be coming from the contingent in the middle of the order. That group was typically comprised of Guy Garibay, Austin Bulman and Aaron Smigelski. That core has grown to include the red-hot Nathan Becker in recent weeks, but it’s been the productivity from top to bottom of the lineup that has been the most encouraging.

Piere Gallo, who has hit in the bottom third of the lineup for most of the season, is fourth on the team with 15 RBI. He has 11 RBI in his last eight games. And he’d have more if he hit even a few spots higher. Johnny Hoyle had big hits this weekend. So did Connor Walsh. It’s starting to feel like someone new is contributing every other night and the offensive production is reflecting that.

3. Weekend win

For the first time this season, Rice baseball has won a weekend series. The ascent has been slow. Things started out rocky. But Rice does appear to be rounding into form at the right time. Errors are down (just four total on the weekend). Runs are trending up (Rice outscored Marshall 17 – 12) and the pitching is becoming more well-rounded and reliable. Opponents are putting up fewer crooked numbers.

Part of that is the break from playing teams like Texas and Texas Tech in three-game series. That certainly plays a factor. But just watching the team that took the field this weekend makes it abundantly clear that something has changed, they’ve grown. They’re gotten better. And that makes what comes next all the more intriguing.

More: Rice Baseball Midseason State of the Program

Cruz Jr. was intent not to “promise the moon” upon his arrival. A few good weekends of baseball should be cause for anyone to offer major course corrections when it comes to those expectations. But it’s clear that should Rice string a few more positive weekends together, they’ll officially be a competitive team that has the ability to go toe-to-toe with anyone in their conference.

If the Owls can do that, they’ll have done more than enough to earn a passing grade for Cruz Jr,’s first campaign. From there, the limits aren’t predetermined. This team still has the potential to be as good as it believes it can be.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | Rice 7 – Marshall 2

Pierce Gallo put Rice baseball out in front in the top of the second inning with a solo shot down the right field line. Austin Bulman followed in the third with a home run of his own with the Owls tacking on one more to take a 3-0 lead. Marshall would tally two runs on solo shots of their own in the bottom of the third, but that would be all they were able to do against Rice pitching that afternoon.

Rice starter Cooper Chandler breezed through six innings, allowing just those two earned runs on four hits with seven strikeouts. He gave way to David Shaw and eventually Matthew Linskey who stifled the Marshall bats while the Rice offense tacked on additional insurance runs in the fifth, seventh and ninth, winning by the final score of 7-2.

SATURDAY | Rice 6 – Marshall 5

Things started out poorly for Rice baseball in the middle game of the series. The Owls committed two errors in the first inning and fell behind 4-1. Starter Parker Smith would last just one inning as the Owls’ were hurled into comeback mode. Marshall added another run in the second, stretching their lead to 5-1 before Rice would mount a counteroffensive.

The Owls sent six men to the plate in the fourth inning, scoring three times, the final two runs coming from an RBI double from Austin Bulman. That put Rice back within reach, trailing 5-4. Roel Garcia delivered a masterful three scoreless innings out of the bullpen, keeping things tight before Guy Garibay and Nathan Becker could tack on RBIs in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively to give Rice a 6-5 win.

SUNDAY | Marshall 5 – Rice 4

Marshall scored first for the first time in the weekend, jumping out in front of Rice 3-0 as Alex DeLeon battled through 4.1 contested innings. He would leave after 4.1 innings, charged with four runs, the same total as the Owls’ hard scored in his defense. Rice scored all of their runs in the fourth and fifth innings, leveling the game at 4-4 before both teams went quiet for several at bats.

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It was Marshall that broke the quiet, delivering an RBI double against Thomas Burbank in the eighth to steal the game and avert the series sweep.

ON DECK | Rice baseball vs Texas A&M Corpus Christi (Wed), vs FAU (Fri-Sun)

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Rice baseball pushes UAB to the wire, but drops first C-USA series 2-1

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Rice Baseball pushed UAB to the brink in a decisive rubber match but missed the chance of their first series win by the slimmest of margins.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice baseball drops series 2-1

If two blowout victories in midweek games wasn’t a clear enough indication, a hard-fought opening weekend to conference play served as further proof this Rice baseball squad has turned the corner. Who knows what was said following a 10-1 Friday night shellacking at the hands of Texas Tech, but ever since, this has been a different ball club.

Last Time Out: Rice baseball blasts SFA and Sam Houston in midweek wins

Rice baseball won their first Friday night contest of the season and leaves the weekend feeling like they ought to have won the series. That’s tremendous progress for a team that was struggling to win singular games of any sort a few weeks ago.

“There’s something here,” Rice baseball head coach Jose Cruz Jr. said after the series. “We’re working it.”

Texas A&M comes to town on Tuesday after taking a weekend series from a ranked LSU squad, promising to challenge the Owls even further. But before we turn the page, a few takeaways from the weekend.

1. The bats are back in town

Following last a sweep at the hands of Texas Tech, Rice baseball was averaging 3.5 runs per game. There had really only been three solid performances at the plate through 18 games — An eight-run Sunday against Lamar, a seven-run midweek outing against Houston and nine runs in the series finale against Harvard. Every other outing was unremarkable, at best.

When things clicked, the Owls’ offense exploded. Beginning with a 19-run outburst against SFA on Tuesday, Rice would score 13 against Sam Houston on Wednesday and tallies of eight, six and eight runs against UAB. Rice baseball averaged a whopping 10.8 runs per game in those five contests.

This is lightyears ahead of anything the Owls have put forth at the plate so far this season and it’s risen from a collective step-change across the breadth of the lineup. If Rice can hit like this, they’re going to continue winning games.

2. Secret weapon Matthew Linskey

Perhaps no player on the entire Rice baseball roster has elevated their game to the same degree as closer Matthew Linskey. The sophomore hurler appeared in 10 contests last season and finished with a 7.15 ERA. He had 12 strikeouts and 14 walks in 11.1 innings. He had some good outings, but he wasn’t anywhere near the shut-down pitcher he’s become this season.

“I think he understands his body,” Cruz Jr. said. “There’s been a few adjustments made on his mechanics and he’s really become a force for us, which is great for us.”

So far in 2022, Linskey has already worked a stretch in which he retired 14 out of 16 batters with strikeouts. Entering the season, he had never retired the side with three-straight K’s in his career. He’s done that twice already this season and accrued three strikeouts in exactly 1.0 inning of work on four separate occasions.

3. Playing better baseball

It hasn’t always been a masterclass in how baseball should be played, but the simple face of the matter is this: Rice baseball has won three of five — and they nearly walked it off on Sunday — after sputtering to a 5-13 start to the regular season. And beyond the final box scores, the Owls simply looked like a different team this week.

Cruz Jr admitted dropping the series was disappointing, but he seemed cognizant of the overarching growth saying that he thinks the Owls are finally “finding their groove when it comes to the lineup, the roles and rhythm. Which is great.”

There’s more to work on. The Rice pitching staff looked vulnerable on too many occasions this weekend, giving up 17 hits in the Sunday finale. Even though they won it, the Rice defense still compiled another five-error game, their third of the season. Those need to be cleaned up, but the Owls have something solid to build on.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | Rice 8 – UAB 7

There was nothing conventional about the opening game of the series which started as a pitcher’s duel and ended as a slugfest. Cooper Chandler put up zeroes on the mound for the Owls through six innings, collecting seven strikeouts in what was undoubtedly his best outing in a Rice baseball uniform.

Rice took the lead early via three home runs, one from Austin Bulman and two from Aaron Smigelski. Up 4-0, Rice surrendered six runs to the Blazers in the top of the sixth before punching back with four runs of their own in the bottom of the frame.

With Rice leading 8-7, closer Matthew Linskey would enter with one out in the top of the eighth and work a five-out save to notch the Owls’ first Friday night win of the season.

SATURDAY | UAB 10 – Rice 6

There were moments when it felt like Saturday’s game would be a mere reprisal of the Friday night affair. UAB put up the first crooked number of the day in the third inning, scoring three to break a scoreless start by both sides. Rice took the lead with a four-run fourth, riding a series of RBI singles and one sac fly to pull ahead.

Unlike Friday, though, Rice didn’t have enough in the tank on the mound or the plate to hold that advantage. UAB ripped the lead right back in the fifth and extended their advantage to 10-6 in the eighth, roughing up Brandon Deskins and Reed Gallant in the process. UAB would hold on to win by that score

SUNDAY | UAB 9 – Rice 8

The theme of unraveling pitching staffs and crooked numbers continued into the rubber game of the series. Both teams swapped single runs in the first inning. UAB would take a brief 2-1 lead heading into the fifth before expanding that edge to 6-1 as they drove Rice starter Parker Smith from the ballgame.

Down, but not defeated, Rice answered with a four-spot in the seventh inning, aided by the fourth home run from Smigelski on the weekend. The two sides would trade runs in the next two innings and UAB’s skipper would get tossed. It would finally come down to a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the bottom of the ninth. Rice needed three runs to win or two to tie. They got one, falling 9-8.

ON DECK | Rice baseball vs Texas A&M (Tues), at Marshall (Fri-Sun)

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