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Rice Baseball eliminated from Conference USA Tournament by FAU

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Rice Baseball concluded a short stint at the Conference USA Tournament on Thursday, eliminated by FAU by the final score of 6-1.

JD McCracken and Parker Smith were essentially the only bonafide starting pitchers Rice baseball had at its disposal entering the Conference USA Tournament. If they were going to go on any sort of run, getting quality innings from both was absolutely essential.

When Smith left the mound on Wednesday after allowing 10 runs in 3+ innings, McCracken’s 6-run effort in Thursday’s do-or-die game was the nail in the coffin. To McCracken’s credit, it didn’t look like he would last through the second, but he wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam to earn himself a few more innings before the Owls’ 2023 season reached its unsatisfying conclusion.

The pitching woes were magnified by another quiet day from the bats. Pierce Gallo collected the Owls’ only hit in the first five innings, reaching second after an error but failing to score. He would be the last Owl to reach scoring position until the sixth, but that effort was scuttled by a double play.

More: Parker Smith’s journey from hometown kid to Rice Baseball ace

Rice would scratch across a single run in the ninth inning. Guy Garibay drove in Manny Garzza, who doubled to get in scoring position. It wouldn’t be enough to get the Owls back in the game.

“[We] definitely did not play our best here these last two games,” head coach Jose Cruz Jr. said in the aftermath. “We got here, but still I’m not very satisfied about it. Obviously, we have some work to do.”

Rice baseball ends the season 21-37, winless in its first Conference USA Tournament games since 2019. With the conclusion of the season, the Owls bid adieu to the conference and will make the transition to the American official later this summer.

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Rice Baseball blasted by DBU in Conference USA Tournament Opener

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Rice Baseball fell to Dallas Baptist in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament on Wednesday by a final score of 13-2.

Parker Smith walking off the mound with no outs in the fourth inning was not part of the script Rice baseball was hoping to see in their return to the postseason. The Owls — who hadn’t played in a Conference USA Tournament game since 2019 — had high hopes after watching lower seeds win each of the first two games on Wednesday morning. Those dreams met an abrupt ending.

“It’s not how we drew it up. They set the tone early. We had some opportunities to make some plays and we did not,” head coach Jose Cruz Jr said. “That’s how baseball goes sometimes. Unfortunately, it was here at the conference tournament.”

Dallas Baptist struck for three in the first after a full-count walk and a bunt single that left nobody covering first base put the first two runners on. Back-to-back RBI singles spotted the No. 1 seed Patriots to a 3-0 lead. Rice clawed back with a run in the second and the third innings, punctuated by a booming long ball from Connor Walsh to get the Owls back within one.

More: Parker Smith’s journey from hometown kid to Rice Baseball ace

From there, the route was on. Dallas Baptist scored three in the third and four in the fourth, the latter including a three-run home run that drove Smith from the game. It was at that point Rice opted to save their higher-leverage bullpen arms and play for tomorrow.

“Everybody’s hot. The whole bullpen is hot. Everybody’s on red alert immediately,” Cruz said. “Hopefully, JD [McCracken] comes out and performs and gets us deep into the game. I like our chances if that happens.”

Rice baseball will play the loser of Wednesday’s nightcap between Western Kentucky and Florida Atlantic. If the Owls prevail they’ll live to fight another day. If they don’t, they’ll be watching the remainder of the tournament from the stands.

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Rice Baseball punches ticket to C-USA Tournament with series win vs FIU

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Rice Baseball took two out of three against FIU, punching their ticket to the 2023 Conference USA Tournament at Reckling Park later this week.

THURSDAY | Rice 9  – FIU 7

Parker Smith was not his best in the series opener, allowing six runs (four earned) through 5.1 innings. He fell behind in the first inning, allowing a three-run home run and forcing the Owls to play catch-up, something that wouldn’t take very long at all. Connor Walsh evened the score in the bottom half of the inning and the back-and-forth began.

Last Time Out: Rice baseball bounces back with run-rule win over PVAMU

Jack Riedel put Rice ahead with a two-run double in the second. FIU answered in the fourth. Both teams added a few more in the middle innings and the teams entered the bottom of the eighth with the score tied 7-7. Drew Holderbach scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch and Walsh delivered an insurance run in that same at bat. Matthew Linskey sat down three in order in the ninth to secure the win.

FRIDAY | Rice 2 – FIU 1

After a slugfest in the opener, runs were at a premium on Friday night in large part because of the stellar pitching of JD McCracken. He delivered a pristine 7.2 innings with six strikeouts allowing just one run and one hit. That lone score came in the first inning and staked FIU to a narrow lead until Drew Holderbach leveled the score with an RBI double in the seventh.

Both teams put up zeros in the eighth and Linskey shut down FIU in the ninth, giving Rice a chance for their first walk-off win in conference play this year. Ben Royo opened the inning with a single then later came around to score on a two-out error by the FIU shortstop.

SATURDAY | FIU 10 – Rice 7

Rice struck first in the series finale but spent much of the afternoon trailing FIU, which took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second and extended their advantage with one run in each of the third and fourth innings, respectively.

Things changed quickly in the fifth, though. Ben Dukes, Ben Royo and Guy Garibay reached picked up RBI hits, propelling the Owls to a 6-4 advantage. FIU caught back up in the sixth and took the lead for good on a three-run home run in the eighth, going on to win 10-7.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

Down to their final weekend, Rice baseball found a way to get the wins they needed to extend their season. The Owls are Conference USA Tournament bound. Here are three takeaways from the Owls’ clutch weekend series win.

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1. Best for last

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Rice will face DBU in the first round of the conference tournament. Despite being swept by the Patriots earlier this season, Rice led all three games after seven innings. The complete seeding list is as follows:

  1. DBU
  2. UTSA
  3. Charlotte
  4. WKU
  5. FAU
  6. Louisiana Tech
  7. Middle Tennessee
  8. Rice

ON DECK | 2023 Conference USA Baseball Tournament

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Rice Baseball powers past PVAMU, gets final midweek win

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Rice baseball roared out to a big lead against Prairie View A&M at home and held on to win their final midweek game of the season.

Even with a short rain delay pushing back the first pitch, it didn’t take long to for Rice baseball to make their presence known in their final midweek game of the 2023 season. A week removed from knocking off Houston 13-7, the Owls kept the offensive fireworks alive with a four-run first, three-run second, two-run third and a one-run fourth inning.

Rice surpassed double-digits in the hits column before the end of the third inning. By the time the fifth inning was in the books, six of the seven starters had multiple hits and all but two had either scored or driven in a run themselves.

Last Time Out: Bats stifled as Rice Baseball swept by WKU

On the mound, Garret Zaskoda was charged with a pair of runs in 2.1 innings, giving way in the third inning to a string of various bullpen arms that held the Owls’ advantage. Jack Ben-Shoshan lower his season-long ERA to 3.24. following a 1.2-inning scoreless outing.

The best bullpen outing was had by Krishna Raj, who bounces back from a tough weekend appearance with a flawless three innings, striking out five without allowing any hits.

What it means | The bats work!

Against UTSA, Rice scored 7 runs, 8 runs and 6 runs. Then they hung 13 on Houston. A tough weekend against the plate against WKU — who leads the league with a 3,52 ERA in conference games — looked to have erased most of that offensive momentum. However, Tuesday’s 18-run outburst proved the bats might still have some juice left to share. A season-high 23 hits echoed that hopeful tune.

The Owls’ upcoming opponent, FIU, ranks dead last in conference play with a staggering 7.35 ERA. The Praire View A&M staff entered Tuesday night with a 7.11 season-long ERA. If Rice can put up runs in bunches against this staff, they should be able to score this weekend in a do-or-die series.

ON DECK | vs FIU (Thr-Sat)

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Rice Baseball swept by WKU, extending Owls’ C-USA slump

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Rice Baseball was swept for the third consecutive weekend, this time falling in three games to Western Kentucky on the road.

FRIDAY | WKU 5  – Rice 4 (10 inn.)

Rice baseball ace Parker Smith was met with a forceful greeting on Friday night in Bowling Green, allowing four runs in the first two innings, more than he typically allows over the course of a full start. Even with the rocky beginning, though, Smith settled in and was able to pitch into the eighth, allowing no further runs as he waited for the offense to arrive.

Last Time Out: Rice baseball snaps losing skid with win over Houston

The Owls got on the board for the first time in the fifth, using three doubles to score three runs, followed a frame later by a solo home run from Drew Holderbach to even the score. Smith left without a decision, but the game was within reach. He had done his job. Justin Long would be less fortunate. He pitched a scoreless remainder of the eighth and a flawless ninth before WKU walked it off against him in the tenth.

SATURDAY | WKU 10 – Rice 2

With JD McCracken on the bump, Rice and WKU moved quickly through a pitching-centric game in the early goings on Saturday. Both starters had allowed just one run through four innings and it wasn’t until McCracken ran into some trouble in the fifth that the bats on either side began to wake up. McCracken would battle through another two innings, leaving in the seventh in a one-rune game.

Jack Ben-Shoshan was called upon for just one batter — he walked him — before handing the ball to Krishna Raj. That would turn out to be a fateful decision. Raj was handed the disservice of entering the game with the bases loaded an no outs, but he was pelted to the tune of seven runs (four charged to him) as Rice fell behind 10-2. That would be the eventual final score.

SUNDAY | WKU 5 – Rice 2

Rice struck first in the finale on a Guy Garibay RBI single in the top of the second, but the lead was short-lived. WKU took the lead back in the bottom of the inning, scoring twice. The Hilltoppers added single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to cautiously extender their advantage. Much of those insurance runs would prove unneeded.

Jack Riedel, who saw his 16-game hit streak snapped, delivered an RBI groundout in the top of the seventh, scoring the Owls’ only other run of the afternoon. Rice simply had no answer for WKU hurler Dawson Hall who earned the win with six innings of one-run ball, tallying as many strikeouts (five) as hits allowed.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

Rice baseball couldn’t afford to be swept this weekend, but they were handed three-straight losses nonetheless. Here are three takeaways from a tough weekend on the road.

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1. Fast start fizzles again

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ON DECK | vs PVAMU (Tues), vs FIU (Thr-Sat)

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