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Strong start lifts Rice Baseball to win over Lamar

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A four-run first set the tone for a tremendous night for Rice baseball, which improved to 13-12 on the season with the victory over Lamar.

The first four to the plate for Rice baseball came around to score in the very first inning, a harbinger of good things to come for the Owls at the beginning of their five-game road trip. Little did they know it at the time, but those four runs would prove to be enough by themselves with Lamar’s only significant threat coming with a two-run fourth inning off reliever Garret Zaskoda.

With the game relatively close at that time, Rice broke out the boom sticks. Ben Royo, who hadn’t homered in a game this season until he went yard in the Saturday game against UAB, went yard for the fifth time in the Owls’ last seven games with a two-run shot in the sixth. Drew Holderbach added an insurance dinger in the seventh. Paul Smith and Guy Garibay each drove in a run apiece in the eighth.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball drops series, shows strengths vs UTSA

As the bats added to the total, the Owls’ arms kept the Cardinals off the board. Cristian Cienfuegos was terrific, striking out three of the five batters he faced. Jack Ben-Shoshan and Matthew Linskey each recorded multiple strikeouts and no runs in their relief appearances. It wasn’t a perfect performance from the pen, but it was a solid night, which is more than enough when the bats are hot.

What it means | Setting the tone

The bats deserve credit, but coming from behind to win games is far from an ideal strategy. To this point in the season, Rice has been able to get base runners early in games, but delivering a crooked number straight away hasn’t been in the cards… until Tuesday night.

Entering the game against Lamar, Rice had scored eight first inning runs in their first 24 games, an average of a third of a run per opening frame. That’s not very much. So when the Owls loaded the bases with no outs in the first, there was a sense of inevitability in the Beaumont air. Undoubtedly, the Owls were due.

More: Rice Baseball Nonconference State of the Program

A four-run first served as a resounding answer and set the tone for a midweek tilt that pushed Rice baseball back above .500. Getting that many runs in your first plate appearance aren’t likely to be an every night experience,  but the impact of the fast start had on the game was unmistakable. Having Justin Long deliver 2.2 scoreless innings on the mound helped, too. Rice needs more starts like this.

ON DECK | at FAU (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball drops series, but pushes UTSA to the wire

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Rice Baseball went toe-to-toe with league-leading UTSA and while the Owls lost the series, they measured up well against the Roadrunners.

FRIDAY | UTSA 4 – Rice 3 (11 inn.)

It didn’t seem like it would turn into a pitcher’s dual on Friday afternoon following an exchange of two-run home runs by each starter in the first inning, but that’s where the game went following Guy Garibay’s game-tying blast over the right field wall. Parker Smith would settle in from that point onward, finishing with three runs allowed (two earned) and six strikeouts in 6.1 innings pitched.

More: Rice Baseball nonconference Stat of the Program

The unearned run would prove to be costly, though. Smith committed an error on a leadoff bunt single, allowing the runner to advance to second. Then he came in to score shortly after on a wild pitch. Trailing 3-2, Rice baseball would rally to tie the score in the ninth on a pinch-hit single by Paul Smith before ultimately falling in the 11th inning.

SATURDAY | Rice 13 – UTSA 8

After a modest start at the plate for both squads, the bats came out swinging in earnest on Saturday. The teams combined for six runs in the second inning, with Garibay starting the hit parade for the Owls with a home run with Manny Garza and Benjamin Rosengard collecting RBI in the inning as well. UTSA would punch back to briefly take a 5-4 lead before the Owls’ offense exploded again.

Rice baseball struck for five runs in the fifth with two RBI from Garza and three from Paul Smith on a home run. The nine runs would be enough, but the Owls would add two runs each in the seventh and eighth innings for good measure, hanging on to win 13-8 and force a rubber game on Sunday.

SUNDAY| UTSA 6 – Rice 5

UTSA struck for two runs in the second inning against Rice starter Tom Vincent, signally another game that would require run production to win. Rice responded immediately afterward, taking the lead on back-to-back home runs by Aaron Smigelski and Ben Royo, on consecutive pitches, no less. UTSA answered with a two-run shot in the third to go up 4-3 and the game was on.

Another home run, this time by Connor Walsh, evened the score at five in the sixth inning where the margin remained until UTSA came through with a two-out double to right-center in the eighth, going ahead for good. Rice would not reach base in either of their final two frames, dropping the game and the series on Sunday afternoon.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

Rice baseball has dropped their three-game series with UTSA two games to one, narrowly losing out on the chance to win a series against the best team in Conference USA. Even in defeat, the Owls acquitted themselves well and proved they belong near the top of the standings in a variety of ways. Here are a few takeaways from the weekend.

1. Game On

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ON DECK | at Lamar (Tues),  at FAU (Fri-Sun)

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Fast start not enough as Rice Baseball falls to Texas A&M for third time

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Rice Baseball started fast, but couldn’t hold on, falling to Texas A&M for the third time on the season in as many games.

Rice baseball couldn’t have asked for much of a better start to their midweek tilt against Texas A&M. Benjamin Rosengard mashed a leadoff home run to put the Owls in front 1-0. Drew Holderbach followed two innings later with a two-run blast, spotting the road team a 3-0 lead entering the bottom half of the inning. The lead would not last.

Texas A&M drove Rice starter Garret Zaskoda from the game in the fourth, connecting on four consecutive extra-base hits to tie the game in the process. A pickoff attempt gone awry by Cristian Cienfuegos in the following frame would allow the Aggies to go ahead, an advantage they’d lengthen as the game progressed.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball grinds out hard-fought sweep over UAB

Texas A&M added an insurance run in the sixth and two more in the eighth, all via the long ball. Trailing by four in the ninth, Rice snapped out of their offensive funk. Ben Royo hit the game’s fifth home run, getting Rice within two. Then Guy Garibay, with a runner on, deposited a ball over the right-center fence to tie the game.

Rice went to Justin Long in the ninth, proof of their desire to find a way to win. A walk followed by two softly hit balls in the infield loaded the bases, setting up the Aggies for a walk-off win which would come via a hit by pitch. For the third time this season, Rice fell to Texas A&M.

What it means | Cienfuegos joins the circle of trust

At this point, it seems unrealistic to expect Rice baseball to solidify a singular midweek starter for the season. It’s fairly obvious that head coach Jose Cruz Jr. and pitching coach Parker Bangs are willing to mix and match as they work to narrow down their pecking order on the mound. This time around, it was Cristian Cienfuegos that turned heads.

More: Rice Baseball Nonconference State of the Program

Cienfuegos stranded the would-be go-ahead runner on third base on his way to 2.2 strong innings with three strikeouts. He did allow one run (unearned) on a sequence that felt like a halfhearted throw to second that was blocked by the base runner. This was his third consecutive quality outing in a row and it probably should earn him a relief opportunity this coming weekend.

ON DECK | vs UTSA (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Women’s Basketball’s WNIT run blocked by stingy Oregon defense

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Rice women’s basketball fought hard, but couldn’t overcome the size and physicality of Oregon, falling to the Ducks in the second round of the WNIT.

Oregon landed the first blow in their second round WNIT matchup with Rice women’s basketball, knocking down a trio of three-pointers in the first three minutes of action to take an 11-3 home lead. Trailing in a hostile road environment, Rice remained poised and battled back, chipping away at the deficit to take their first lead of the night on their first shot of the second quarter.

From that point on, the back-and-forth commenced. The lead changed six times in the second quarter as the stingy Rice defense forced several turnovers, balancing out an uneven shooting performance that produced just a 33 percent clip from the field in the first half.

Oregon’s length and physicality continued to pose problems for Rice as the game progressed. The Ducks took advantage of a lightly-whistled game and worked the Owls from the inside out. As the Rice shots kept missing, Oregon exploded on a 23-9 run in the third quarter. The fourth quarter was all Oregon, too, overwhelming Rice with smothering defense until the Owls ran out of gas.

Rice shot 27.4 percent from the field, by far their worst shooting performance of the season. The previous low came on Jan. 11 against Middle Tennessee, 32.7 percent. Oregon picked up nine blocks and altered many more shots. They kept the Owls out of sync and eventually wore them down, securing the win with breathing room down the stretch.

Final Box | Oregon 78 – Rice 53

Key takeaway | Close

Rice women’s basketball played four Power 5 opponents this season: Texas A&M, TCU, BYU and Oregon. Three of those games were played away from home. Rice went 3-1 in those contests.

Four games do not a season make, but that sample paints a compelling picture of the type of team Rice has become, largely because the two pairs of games took place almost three months apart. Destiny Jackson, Malia Fisher and Trinity Gooden started the games against Texas A&M and TCU. None of those three started against BYU or Oregon.

Injuries have forced head coach Lindsay Edmonds to adjust, that’s true, but she’s also proven herself brave enough to tinker with a good thing in search of something better. Rice has continued to evolve from the team that struggled through a 1-4 start in conference play to the current iteration that’s won six of its last eight in the most important month of the season.

The first three weeks of conference play represented arguably the only subpar stretch of basketball this team played all season. Rice women’s basketball finished 23-9, which is a hair behind the clip of prior teams that made it to the NCAA Tournament or won the NIT. Rice isn’t back to that level yet, but the progression toward that end is clear. So long postseason, Rice women’s basketball will be back.

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Furious comeback falls short as Rice Basketball falls to SUU

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Rice basketball engineered a furious comeback, but couldn’t make the final defensive stop, falling to Southern Utah in the CBI Tournament.

Whether it was exhaustion, poor execution or just bad luck, Rice basketball started its quarterfinal round game against Southern Utah in a nine-point hole. SUU came out shooting extremely efficiently, knocking down 62 percent of their shots from the field in the first half as the Owls struggled immensely to get going.

“We just couldn’t make a shot,” head coach  Scott Pera said in dismay. “We couldn’t make a shot, other than Travis [Evee].”

It was Evee who kept Rice afloat. He scored a team-high 18 points in the first half while his teammates scored 21 combined. Rice went into the break trailing 12, in desperate need of a rally that wouldn’t come for quite a long time.

“I was hoping the run would be at the 17-minute mark or the 14-minute mark or the 9-minute mark,” Pera said.

Instead, that run came in the final minutes of the game. Trailing by 14 points with 6:30 to play, Rice started to chip away. Quincy Olivari hit some free throws then Mekhi Mason made a three to make it a nine-point game. Olivari and Max Fiedler (twice) each converted and-one opportunities, offset by a few SUU free throws to make it a six-point game. Cam Sheffield cut the deficit to three.

Then, with 24 seconds on the clock and the season on the line, Evee delivered the game-tying three. Southern Utah would drain the clock down to its final seconds then connect on the go-ahead jumper. Olivari’s long heave at the buzzer did not go and despite erasing an unthinkable deficit, the Owls’ season still ended in bitter fashion.

Final Box | SUU 81 – Rice 79

Key takeaway | Doomed by defense

A year ago, Rice basketball played in this same CBI Tournament in this same arena on this same court. Pera hasn’t forgotten because the image of last season’s CBI defeat is seared into his brain in much the same way this loss will be. After overcoming a late deficit, that time against Ohio, Rice watched the Bobcats hit the game-winner at the buzzer and end the Owls’ season.

“That’s two years in a row on the same basket,” Pera lamented.

This time around, Rice basketball doesn’t get to the final shot without several crucial defensive stops in the second half. It wasn’t all offense that fueled this comeback. That the bottom line remains the same. In back-to-back seasons Rice basketball has needed one final stop to prolong their season and they haven’t been able to do it.

More: Rice Women’s Basketball defeats BYU to advance in WNIT

In some respects, Pera is right when he credited his opponents and the player in question, Tevian Jones who ended with 30 points including that game-winner. “They made one more play. That kid made a heck of a shot,” Pera said. But the Owls are still going home.

If Rice basketball wants to be a championship-caliber program, they have to get drastically better on defense. They’ve proven time and time again they can find good shooters. They’ve proven they have the mental capacity to climb out of unthinkable holes. But they haven’t consistently been able to get the most important stop when their season depends on it. And now they’re going home.

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