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Rice Baseball salvages series finale against Charlotte

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Rice Baseball dropped a Friday doubleheader but rallied to salvage the series finale on Sunday against Charlotte, avoiding a sweep.

FRIDAY (AM) | Charlotte 5 – Rice 4

It took Parker Smith a while to settle in on the road against the Charlotte bats. He labored through the first and second innings, giving up three runs, no thanks to the defense behind him. By the third inning, he was in a groove, battling through 6.1 innings and surrendering five runs, only three of which were earned.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball hangs on to beat Lamar

The suspect defensive showing — the Owls were officially saddled with two errors — wasn’t assuaged by offensive production. Rice scored one run apiece in the fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings, failing to convert in clutch situations and falling in a one-run game that could have gone quite differently.

FRIDAY (PM) | Charlotte 9 – Rice 3

Rice struck first in the second game of the Friday doubleheader, taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the third, grabbing two runs from a bases-loaded, no-out situation. That would prove to be a crucial missed opportunity to do more damage when Owls’ starter JD McCracken failed to make it through the fourth inning, ceding to Jackson Blank with Rice trailing 4-2 in the fourth.

Blank and Tyler Hamilton would wade through the remainder of the game, combing to allow 11 hits and five runs. The offense was done, though. Rice managed just one more run for the remainder of the contest, an RBI single from Ben Dukes in the seventh.

SUNDAY | Rice 8 – Charlotte 5

Things started off sour for Rice baseball in the series finale. Starter Tucker Alch was lifted in the second inning after allowing four runs. Being forced to bring in Davion Hickson that early certainly wasn’t the plan, but he delivered five dazzling, scoreless innings anyway, striking out 10 of the 19 batters he faced. That respite allowed the Rice bats to get rolling.

More: Jose Cruz Jr. and the trajectory of Rice Baseball

Rice scored three in the fourth, two in the fifth, two more in the sixth and another in the seventh. All but two of those eight runs came via the long ball, of which the Owls had three on the day. Staked to an 8-4 advantage Tom Vincent finished the final 2.1 innings, securing the win.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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1. Stranded

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Rice Baseball hangs on to beat Lamar on the road

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Rice Baseball struck early and executed down the stretch to take down a 34-win Lamar squad on the road.

Rice baseball continued its recent them of strong starts, jumping on top of the hosting Lamar Cardinals with a 4-run second inning on Wednesday night. Kyle McDonald got the first run across in his return to the lineup after battling injuries, scoring Jack Riedel on a sacrifice fly. Tobias Motley and Jacob Devenny added RBI hits of their own in the inning. Pierce Gallo tacked on one more run in the third.

Staked to a 5-0 lead, Rice pitching was tasked with fulfilling their end of the bargain. Karl Ralamb drew the start, but quickly ceded the mound to Mauricio Rodriguez in what would become a true bullpen game. No Rice pitcher worked more than 1.2 innings.

Rodriguez, Jackson Mayo and Mark Perkins were each charged with two runs apiece, but by the time Perkins was charged with his second run and Reed Gallant had entered the game, the Owls had built enough of a cushion to weather a few missteps from the back end of the bullpen.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball tops AAC-leading UTSA in best of three

Leading 8-6 after six innings, head coach Jose Cruz Jr. turned the ball over to his most trusted options. Jackson Blank, Tom Vincent and Davion Hickson finished the game, allowing no more runs and securing the win.

What it means | Just keep winning

Lamar is a good baseball team and, by record, a better baseball team than Rice baseball has proven itself to be to this point, at least on paper. But Rice hasn’t been playing like the team that got off to such a slow start, quite the contrary. This version of the Owls looks as good as it has ever looked under Cruz. Winning games like this further solidifies that notion.

Rice has won nine of their last 11 including back-to-back midweek contests against Lamar and Texas A&M Corpus Christi. They’ve got a tough road ahead of them, including a rematch with Lamar next week and a trip to play at No. 1 Texas A&M. But the more wins they can stack along the way, the better.

ON DECK | at Charlotte (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball takes series from league-leading UTSA

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Rice Baseball took two out of three from league-leading UTSA, securing their third straight conference win to get back in the mix in the AAC.

FRIDAY | Rice 9 – UTSA 8 (10 innings)

Things were looking up when Tobias Motley and Ben Dukes each delivered two-run home runs in the second inning on Friday night, putting the Owls up 4-1 with Parker Smith on the mound. Smith would run into some trouble in the fourth, but leave the game in the sixth inning having staked Rice to a 7-3 advantage.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball sweeps USF

Tom Vincent and Davion Hickson got Rice to the ninth inning with a three-run lead, but Hickson suffered a rare blown save, allowing UTSA to tie the game in the top of the ninth. Garrett Stratton would come to the rescue, getting out of the ninth without allowing the Owls to fall behind and setting up a walk-off win. Motley led off the inning with a triple and scored on a squeeze bunt by Jacob Devenny.

SATURDAY | Rice 9 – UTSA 3

It was all Owls from the jump on Saturday. Rice loaded the bases with two outs in the first then picked up a pair of clutch hits: a bases-clearing RBI single from Nathan Becker to go up 3-0 and then a two-run home run from Trey Duffield.

As if that wasn’t enough, Rice followed that up with three runs in the second, taking advantage of errant UTSA pitching and an RBI single from Pierce Gallo to go up 8-0 midway through the second.

Handed a commanding lead, JD McCracken bore down and tossed another gem. He made it all the way to the ninth inning before being lifted for Jackson Blank, who picked up the final two outs.

SUNDAY | UTSA 4 – Rice 2

Seemingly out of nowhere, a pitcher’s duel broke out in the series finale. Rice’s Tucker Alch squared off with UTSA’s Ulises Quiroga for the better part of six innings with neither man ceding much to his opposition. Ben Dukes was able to sneak a two-run home run just inside the right-field foul pole in the third, but that was the only score either starter yielded on the day.

More: Jose Cruz Jr. and the trajectory of Rice Baseball

Rice maintained a slim 2-0 lead from that point onward, keeping the game in check until UTSA broke through with a four-run rally in the top of the eighth. The Roadrunners struck six hits in the frame, including a go-ahead two-run home run off Garrett Stratton. That would prove to be the deciding swing.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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1. Loud and clear

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Rice Baseball soars past USF with resounding sweep

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Rice Baseball released weeks of pent-up frustration on the USF Bulls, routing their hosts in three straight games for their first-ever AAC sweep.

FRIDAY | Rice 13 – USF 4

Parker Smith had to earn every bit of his 6.2 inning outing on Friday night, allowing eight hits and two walks as he battled and worked through trouble, keeping USF to single runs in the first, second and fourth innings, respectively. While Smith did what he could to keep his team in the mix, the bats slowly got warmed up and began to contribute on their own.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball takes series from UAB

“After we went one round through everybody started to get a little bit better,” head coach Jose Cruz Jr. said. “We started to have better at bats.” Those at bats started with singular runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Treyton Rank opened the door wider with a three-run blast in the seventh before all doubts were erased with an emphatic five-run ninth to put the game out of reach.

SATURDAY | Rice 10 – USF 6

The Rice bats delivered a crooked number in the fourth inning on Saturday, culminating with a clutch two-out, two-RBI double from Rank to put the visitors in front 5-2.

With the Bulls on the ropes, JD McCracken picked up right where Smith left off, navigating through a potent USF lineup as best he could before being lifted in midway through the sixth inning after four runs had been charged to his ledger. That total didn’t grow thanks to Davion Hickson, who stranded two runners in McCracken’s final frame, getting the Owls back into the dugout with a chance to turn the tide.

USF would get back within two in the following innings until Rice broke things open with another four-run frame, this time in the eighth. Eric Correa, Tobias Motely and Rank delivered the RBI hits, putting Rice way in front and ensuring a series-clinching win.

SUNDAY | Rice 10 – USF 3

Seeking their first-ever AAC sweep, the Rice bats came ready to roll for the series finale. Pierce Galloe put Rice in front with an RBI double in the second before his teammates expanded that lead in the third, highlighted by a bases-clearing double from Trey Duffield and a follow-up RBI double from Manny Garza to put Rice in front 6-0 early.

USF would get to Rice starter Tucker Alch in the fourth, putting three runs on the board, but that would be all for the hometown team. Jackson Blank and Garrett Stratton put up zeroes for the remainder of the game as the offense added two more runs apiece in the eighth and ninth to secure the sweep.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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Rice Baseball edges UAB for first-ever AAC series win

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Rice Baseball narrowly missed a series sweep, settling for two wins over the weekend against UAB, their first-ever AAC series victory.

FRIDAY | Rice 4 – UAB 2

The Rice bats wasted no time on Friday night, staking staff ace Parker Smith to an early lead. RBI singles from Treyton Rank and Pierce Gallo put the Owls in front 2-0 in the first. Rank drove in another run when he was hit by a pitch in the second inning.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball tops TAMU-CC in midweek action

Leading 3-0, Smith cruised through six innings. He briefly ran into trouble in the fourth, allowing the Blazers to score twice, but was otherwise unscathed. Jacob Devenney added an insurance run on an RBI double in the sixth. Tom Vincent took over in the seventh and bridged 1.1 innings to closer Davion Hickson, who earned the save.

SATURDAY | Rice 4 – UAB 3 (15 inn.)

JD McCracken delivered a quality start in Game 2, his lone blemish coming via an unearned run when a defensive error allowed the Blazers to get on the board in the third inning. McCracken avoided having a loss tacked on his ledger when Devenny delivered a sac fly in the eighth inning to tie the game. That would be the last run for quite a while as the game entered extra innings and stayed deadlocked at 1-1 until the twelfth.

UAB went in front with two runs in the top of the inning and it might have been more had the potential third run not been tagged out at the plate. That proved to be significant soon after as Rice tied the game in the bottom of the inning with a single and a sac fly. Level at 3-3, Eric Correa provided the final dramatics, delivering a walk-off double to right field to clinch the series.

SUNDAY | UAB 4 – Rice 3

The two sides traded runs in the early innings, completing the third inning tied at one and the fourth inning tied at three before UAB went out in front in the fifth, 4-2. Rice starter Tucker Alch was lifted for the tandem of Garrett Stratton and Mauricio Rodriguez, who combined to throw five scoreless innings, giving the offense a chance to claw back.

Rice got one run in the eight on a two-out, RBI single from Ben Dukes. They then had a golden opportunity to tie the game in the ninth, but squandered a leadoff triple from Jack Riedel, failing to get him home. With the running run 90-feet away, the Owls fell by one run.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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