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“So Many Things to Address”: Rice Baseball and David Pierce Embark on Crucial Offseason

May 22, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

Months removed from his midseason start, Rice baseball head coach David Pierce will finally get his first chance to step back and assess his new program.

For better or worse, Rice baseball head coach David Pierce has just endured the most chaotic months of his coaching career. When the spring began, he was an assistant at Texas State. A few short months later he was at the helm of a program someone else had built and which was careening toward a lost season.

That Pierce was able to right the ship and get this team to the postseason was remarkable in itself. That the Owls were sent home winless from the AAC Tournament further demonstrates how much more work still needs to be done.

Pierce began his closing remarks in Clearwater on Wednesday following the Owls’ elimination at the hands of Florida Atlantic with a sense or earned pride. “At the end of the day, I feel like this program’s gotten better he said,” adding later that he was “really proud of our team.”

In the same breath, the list of to-do’s was already on the top of his mind.

More: 59 Minutes — David Pierce Challenges Rice baseball to grow

“There’s just so many things that we just gotta address,” he said, looking ahead to what promises to be a crucial offseason, his first with the program as its head coach.

“We’ve got to address the structure of how we run some things within the program. We’ve got to address just our team itself, keep building our culture, understanding the standard. And then we got to look at a lot of options with the portal, potentially, because it’s available. And then we gotta get on the recruiting trail , start camps, recruit, the thing that happens at this time of the year.”

The list goes on and on. There’s so much to do.

But as Pierce embarks on that list, it’s worth reflecting on the work already done.

Rice had a .190 winning percentage before Pierce arrived this season. Pierce finished with a .361 winning percentage and went .500 across his last 20 games, which included four losses to top-seeded UTSA in the span of six days.

Pierce rediscovered the vintage form of Davion Hickson that had gone dormant through the first three months of the year. He salvaged cast-off bullpen piece Jack Ben-Shoshan and turned him into the most reliable reliever on the team. On the shoulders (and bats) of five freshmen, Pierce discovered a viable offensive identity. He got this team to believe again.

More: Jack Ben-Shoshan’s circuitous path to the top of the Rice Baseball bullpen

That belief is what Pierce and the Rice administration was banking on when they made the perhaps unprecedented decision to implement a midseason hiring, a shotgun wedding on the diamond which all parties hoped would produce a lasting romance between this once great program and a coach who remembers those glories days and who yearns to bring them back.

But at that podium in Clearwater, Pierce wasn’t thinking about those aspirations, not yet.

“This is my least favorite time of the year,” he admitted. “The first three weeks of transition from the end of the season, moving into the off season, it’s really kind of a tough transition. It is because you just put so much into it, you’re drained. You’re always working off adrenaline, and then you gotta switch gears.”

The man who just poured his heart and soul into a team assembled by someone else is finally going to sit down and put his own stamp on things. He mentioned changes to baserunning, defense, their approach at the plate, the short game and the program’s pitching philosophy. All things better suited to groom in the fall, not in the middle of a season.

Yes, for Rice baseball and David Pierce, the offseason has arrived. The first wave of chaos has subsided, and the next storm is brewing on deck. He and everyone invested in this program are banking on smoother waters next spring and a new, better tomorrow for a program that’s been long searching for that brighter tomorrow and believes it finally has the right captain to get it there.

** Photo credit: Maria Lysaker **

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Filed Under: Archive, Baseball Tagged With: David Pierce, Rice baseball

59 Minutes: David Pierce challenges Rice Baseball to grow

April 3, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

Following a midweek loss to UTRGV, Rice baseball coach David Pierce had a heart-to-heart with his team, hoping to spark change within the program.

By the time the first player rose from the dugout and began the walk back towards the locker rooms, the stands of Reckling Park had been emptied and attendants had long since finished combing the stadium seats for loose trash. Outside a few scattered family members down the right field line, the facilities were empty, with the exception of head coach David Pierce, his assistants, and every member of the Rice baseball team, huddled together in the dugout for an impromptu team meeting.

Pierce held court for 59 minutes following a 20-5 defeat at the hands of UT Rio Grande Valley. The words weren’t audible from the stands, but the tone was clear. Everyone in the dugout needed to wake up.

“We’re just really trying to find out who we are, not necessarily even as baseball players, just as teammates, the respect for each other and the accountability,” Pierce summed up after the lengthy gathering. “I think once we start becoming a closer team and chemistry’s built and accountability takes place, you won’t see those types of games.”

Pierce noted the conversation ranged from upperclassmen and underclassmen roles to leadership, body language on the field and how the players were treating each other.

“I told them, I lost my job last year. And I learned a lot about myself and learned a lot about falling back in love with just the purity of the game,” Pierce said. “And that’s really what I want them to do. Don’t worry about the record, become more involved in each other.”

Coaching isn’t a one-size-fits all type of business. And while there’s no better way to measure its effectiveness than wins and losses, there’s something to be said for the time spent in the dugout on Wednesday night by a coach whom quite easily could have assumed leadership and accountability for this program after an offseason of improvements yet instead chose to get his hands dirty in the midst of a season already veering off center.

“This could be a perfect night for us if they take it the right way,” Pierce said.

Podcast: Unpacking the Pierce hire and midseason start

Moments like this are part of what pulled Pierce back to South Main after so many years away.

“I told them every day how much I love this place and it’s my mission to get the mentality the way it’s supposed to be and [to elevate] the cultural and the standard. And I’m not gonna stop until we get that,” he declared. “And if we got guys that are just cruising, then they don’t need to play, they probably don’t need to travel and probably don’t need to be on the roster.

“But they have the opportunity right now to flip the switch and really, just get back to enjoying the game and enjoying being in a clubhouse with teammates because it’s going to pass them by.”

On Tuesday, the Texas State team Pierce was assisting at the beginning of the season defeated No. 5 Texas. Sticking around in San Marcos would have been the easier path. Yet here Pierce is, spending 59 minutes in a post game dugout, pouring his heart and soul into players someone else recruited, days removed from taking over a 5-17 team that didn’t reach that record by happenstance.

“I can handle anything. I mean, at the end of the day, I’ve been through it on both sides,” Pierce remarked, shaking off the single game result as he willed his players to see the bigger picture.

“I just was so fortunate to be a part of what Coach [Wayne Graham] started and be a piece of the nine-year share of what this place became,” he said. “And that’s my goal, my mission, to just get that attitude and the fan base excited about us playing. There’s a lot of things that need to be done. And I don’t want to get ahead of myself because I want to make sure that I do everything possible for these guys. I think they want it. They just don’t know how to get it yet.”

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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Filed Under: Archive, Baseball, Sidebar Tagged With: David Pierce, Rice baseball

“Why Wait?” David Pierce dives in as Rice Baseball coach right now

March 19, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice baseball welcomed a familiar face back to South Main this week as they named former Owls’ assistant David Pierce their next head coach.

There wasn’t an empty seat in the Brian Patterson Center as the clock ticked toward noon on Wednesday, March 19. It was spring break on campus, the middle of the lunch hour for fans and alumni and the press conference had been scheduled with barely 24 hours’ notice, but none of that seemed to matter as a host of Owls’ faithful gathered to welcome their new head baseball coach.

Less than a week from the dismissal of Jose Cruz Jr as the Owls’ baseball coach, David Pierce was introduced as his successor, set to take over the team immediately, starting with practice scheduled just hours after his introductory remarks.

If the unconventional, whirlwind week bothered him, Pierce didn’t show it. “It’s Rice,” he remarked. “We didn’t have a lot of hesitation. It was a pretty easy decision for us.”

As Athletic Director Tommy McClelland had alluded just moments before in his comments, that Rice would look into Pierce as a potential candidate shouldn’t have surprised anyone. However, McClelland acknowledged he had two driving motivations when it came to his search. How could he make the most out of the rest of this current baseball season and how could he best position Rice baseball going forward?

“The answer to both of those questions happened to be the same person, David Pierce,” McClelland said.

Podcast: Unpacking the Pierce hire and midseason start

It was Pierce who first suggested the process move at this rapid pace, prompting McClelland to ponder his first question again. McClelland noted Pierce’s insistence and passion stood out to him and helped drive those conversations.

“He brought up the idea and that concept that it should happen sooner rather than later. Why not start now?” he said. “Why wait til the end of the season when I can jump in the boat with the players and the staff now and get to rowing with them.”

And just like that, Pierce was on the road from San Marcos to South Main set to inherit a head coaching position in media res. Pierce began the year as an assistant at Texas State, having made a promise to his wife that he wasn’t going to chase a job this year. That if the stars aligned and a situation fell into place, they’d know. Months later, he was on the road to Houston.

He shook familiar hands, donned a cap with the famous Old English R embroidered on top, excited to start work and, in his words, “win now.”

“What I really want from the players is to really start with a clean slate,” he said. “There’s goals in front of us that we can attain now if we truly believe that and we’re truly willing to put in the work for that. You never know.”

A week ago, many would have considered it impossible to hire an accomplished coach who had almost a decade of experience at the institution and even more postseason success since he left. But here we are. And here is David Pierce, ready to take on the challenge and get Rice baseball back to where it once was.

“College baseball is much better when Rice University is playing in the postseason,” he said.

The above-capacity crowd at the Patterson Center hung on every word. Pierce was hired to get Rice back to the postseason. The first stop, though? Boca Raton for conference play in three days time.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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Filed Under: Archive, Baseball Tagged With: David Pierce, Rice baseball

The Roost Podcast | Ep 197 – David Pierce takes over Rice Baseball right now

March 17, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

Fresh off the presses, Rice baseball has a new head coach, right now. David Pierce will lead the Owls beginning this week. Let’s break down the details.

The last time The Roost Podcast was recorded we ran through offseason news on the football front and mused about what might come when spring arrived. Rice Baseball was just beginning to take shape at that time. Since then, everything has changed, including the Owls’ head coach.

The Roost broke the news last Thursday that Cruz was out and reported late Monday afternoon that Pierce was in. Now it’s time to talk through the logistics of the move, something that might just be a first for Rice and the sport.

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 197.

Follow @TheRoostPod

Episode Notes

DCTF

The Roost Podcast is now part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You’ll still get the same content with the same hosts, but now under the DCTF banner.

Homefield

We’re thrilled to partner with Homefield Apparel, the premier proprietor of college football clothing. First-time buyers can use the code ROOST for 15% off their order. The Owls hoodie is a personal favorite as is the Luv-Ya-Owls shirt. Make sure you check out the brand-new sailor hat (pictured below) as you shop the Rice collection or pick up something else (or both)!

Homefield

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Rice Baseball to hire David Pierce, right now.

  • The timing of the coaching change and how Pierce’s availability figures into the logistics
  • Why the Owls believe Pierce is the right fit for the program right now
  • Pros and cons of installing Pierce right now rather than after the season

Where can you find us?

The Roost Podcast is part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You can find this podcast and all of our partner podcasts on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts
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Filed Under: Archive, Baseball, Podcast Tagged With: David Pierce, podcast, Rice baseball

BREAKING: David Pierce to be named Rice Baseball head coach this week

March 17, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

In a potentially unprecedented move, David Pierce is expected to be introduced as the next Rice baseball head coach, effective this week, The Roost has learned.

On Thursday, Rice baseball made a change, dismissing head coach Jose Cruz Jr. A week later, the Owls expect to have a new coach in place. David Pierce, currently serving as the assistant to the head coach at Texas State, will be officially appointed Rice baseball head coach this week and will be the manager as Rice Baseball opens conference play against Florida Atlantic on Friday, The Roost has learned.

Pierce’s availability as an assistant and the timing of the Owls’ coaching vacancy set up a first for the Owls, and perhaps most of college baseball. Pierce will get hands-on experience evaluating the roster, managing the team, and familiarizing himself with the program.

Typically, this would happen in the offseason. With Pierce available right now, the Rice administration is moving with much more urgency. Pierce will be formally introduced at a press conference during the week.

Roost Pod: David Pierce takes over for Rice Baseball… midseason!

Pierce is an alum of the University of Houston who had two stints as an assistant with Rice, the first in 1991 and the second from 2003 to 2011 where he was part of the Owls’ national championship-winning team. He then went on to head coaching stops at Sam Houston, Tulane and Texas.

Although Pierce shares ties to the program as Cruz did, his track record as a successful college baseball coach spanning multiple stops across a decade-plus of work is thought to be the differentiator here. He won six conference championships, went to the College World Series in 2018 and was named Baseball America’s Coach of the Year that season.

Stay tuned to The Roost on Patreon for updates as well as game analysis and more as the Owls look to finish out the season.

The athletic department has since issued a release with comments from Athletic Director Tommy McClelland and coach David Pierce:

From McClelland

We are excited to bring David Pierce back to South Main as the next head coach of Rice Baseball,” McClelland stated “Although it is unconventional to bring a new head coach in during the season, as soon as Coach Pierce and I came to an agreement that he would be our next head coach, he expressed his strong desire to start immediately. It is a testament not only to the bright future ahead for Rice Baseball but also to the potential of our current team.

“I want to thank Parker Bangs for his leadership as our interim head coach during this transition. He provided a calming presence during a challenging time and remains an important part of the coaching staff.

From Pierce:

Rice represents a very special place for my family and me, and I am truly honored to have this opportunity to return to Reckling Park as the head coach of the Owls. I owe a great deal of my success as a head coach to my time at Rice, and I firmly believe we have all the elements in place to add to the great tradition here.

I did not want to wait until the end of the season because I believed that we have great potential and a lot of baseball in front of us this year. I can’t wait to get on the field with these players and coaches and prepare for the start of conference play on Friday.

**Updated to reflect comments from Rice Athletic Director Tommy McClelland and David Pierce **
Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts
  • “So Many Things to Address”: Rice Baseball and David Pierce Embark on Crucial Offseason
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Filed Under: Archive, Baseball Tagged With: coaching search, David Pierce, Rice baseball

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  • Jack Ben-Shoshan, Rice Baseball
  • Rice Football
  • Rice Baseball, David Pierce
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  • “He’s a Bulldog”: Parker Smith’s Journey to Rice Baseball Ace
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