Rice Baseball started fast but couldn’t hang on to an early 4-0 lead, falling 8-6 to Florida Atlantic and seeing their 2025 season come to an end.
With their season on the line, Rice baseball came out on the offensive, loading the bases in the first inning, taking a 1-0 lead. Rice added another run in the second and two more in the third and looked to be in command with a 4-0 lead in their elimination game against FAU as JD McCracken returned to the mound for his third inning of work.
McCracken recorded two quick outs before issuing back-to-back walks. A long fly to center field should have ended the threat, but the ball glanced off the webbing of Colin Robson’s glove, allowing two runs to score. A home run by John Schroeder in the next at-bat leveled the score turning one pivotal miscue into a game-changing inning.
“You’re in such a groove, everything’s going right and you’re feeling your pitches, then things don’t go your way,” Rice baseball head coach David Pierce said of McCracken’s fateful inning. “He did a really nice job of regrouping and continuing to pitch for us.”
After escaping the remainder of the third without further damage, McCracken would retire seven FAU batters in a row until Schroeder returned to the plate. He opened the sixth inning with a solo home run, putting FAU in front for the first time on the afternoon. Another solo home run in the seventh drove McCracken from the game and put Rice in a two-run hole.
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For a few moments, Max Johnson looked to be the Owls’ unlikely hero. The senior delivered a bases-loaded bloop single with two outs in the the top of the eighth, driving in the two runs Rice needed to even things up. FAU would answer with haste with another home run in the bottom half of the inning, this one a two-run blast from Brando Leroux to retake the lead.
Rice would threaten in the ninth — bringing the go-ahead run to the plate with two outs — but could not complete the rally. The Owls season ends with a 17-40 overall record and a long road ahead for Pierce in his first offseason as the helm of the program.
“At the end of the day, I feel like this program’s gotten better,” Pierce said. “Our guys are bought in. The culture is going to continue to get better.”
