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Rice Baseball 2022: Owls lose late inning lead, fall to Louisiana

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Rice Baseball was competitive early, but couldn’t hold on in their first of two midweek games against Louisiana on Tuesday night.

Rice baseball entered their first of two midweek games against Louisiana looking for some positive vibes and fresh momentum after four consecutive losses. Things didn’t get off to a good start as the Owls committed an error on the first play of the game, eventually learned to a pair of runs for the visiting Ragin’ Cajuns.

Although it was an inauspicious start, Rice bounced back with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning and would go on to take the lead in the third thanks to RBI hits from Nathan Becker and Manny Garza. Rather than fold, Rice quickly responded and took the lead.

Last Time Out : Rice baseball swept by Charlotte in pivotal CUSA series

That score would hold for the next several innings until Louisiana broke through. With the scored tied in the seventh, the Owls would call upon closer Matthew Linskey, who allowed the go-ahead single — the run charged to Christian Cienfuegos. Linskey would be charged with three runs of his own in the eighth, an uncharacteristically ineffective performance for one of the most consistent players on the roster.

Trailing 7-3, Rice was unable to answer. Louisiana would hold Rice off the scoreboard for the final six innings.

What it means | More missed opportunities

Louisiana outhit Rice 15-8, but the run differential was slimmer, just four. At least in part, that difference can be traced back to how well each team hit in critical run scoring opportunities. Louisiana hit .364 with two outs, .435 with runners on base and .400 with runners in scoring position.

Altogether they hit .385 for the duration of the game, meaning the Ragin’ Cajuns were more productive in the key moments than they were on average throughout the course of the game.

Rice didn’t fair nearly as well in those metrics. The Owls hit .235 overall for the game, .222 with two outs, .167 with runners on and .214 with runners in scoring position. Collectively, Rice was better on average when there was no pressure to drive anyone in.

Rice wasn’t “clutch” on Tuesday. Louisiana was. Louisiana won. Converting scoring opportunities has been a challenge for the Owls all season. Tuesday served as a reminder the nagging problem hasn’t been cleaned up yet as the season begins to wind down.

ON DECK | vs Louisiana (Wed),  vs MTSU (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball 2022: Early miscues doom Owls at UH

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Rice Baseball was unable to overcome a costly early error, dropping the game and the Silver Glove Series to Houston on Wednesday night.

Winners of their last two midweek games, Rice baseball saw that streak come to an end on Wednesday night against the Houston Cougars. After a scoreless first inning, both teams traded runs in the second. The modest start continued into the third, but after Owls’ reliever Garret Zaskoda collected two quick outs, a fateful error extended the inning.

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Instead of heading back to the dugout in a tied, 1-1 game, things began to unravel. The next three Houston batters reached base, including a two-run double followed by a two-run home run. Instead of a close game, Rice found themselves trailing 5-1 after three innings.

Having dropped the first game of the series in March, the Silver Glove was at stake and Rice was already in a sizable hole.

Houston would extend their lead with a run in the fourth. Rice got that one back in the sixth but would go on to leave eight runners on base throughout the course of the game. The big hit that Houston collected would go on to evade Rice. The Cougars had five two-out RBI. Rice had one. That alone would prove to be the difference on Wednesday night.

What it means | Focus back on C-USA

For better or worse, Rice baseball can now fully turn its attention to conference play. The Silver Glove was the last non-conference achievement the Owls had to look toward this season, two-midweek games against Louisiana notwithstanding.  If Rice wants to make the Conference USA Baseball Tournament, they have to win and win a lot in their final nine conference games.

What does that look like, from a practical standpoint, head coach Jose Cruz Jr. was crystal clear regarding just how sizable the task at hand will be. “We’re basically gonna have to win every series to even have a chance,” he said. “We need at least need six wins. If we can get a seventh that’d be even better.”

Every team talks about turning the page and moving on to the next game. This time, more than ever, Rice needs to be locked in and ready to go when they make the trip to Charlotte this weekend.

ON DECK | at Charlotte

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Rice Baseball sweeps season series with road win over SHSU

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The Rice baseball bullpen stood stall, collectively holding Sam Houston at bay to earn a series sweep of the Bearkats this season.

For the second time this season, Rice baseball notched a victory over Sam Houston. The Owls entered the game as winners of one of their last nine and left Hunstville with one of their more well-rounded performances of the season.

Hot-hitting Jack Riedel opened the game with a double to right-center field before he and Guy Garibay (who had walked) were driven in by Aaron Smigelski who smoked a ball down the right-field line for a double of his own. Staked to a 2-0 lead, Rice trusted their bullpen to piece together enough outs for the midweek win.

Last Time Out : Takeaways from Rice baseball sweep by LA Tech

Mark Perkins got the start and went two and two-thirds innings, allowing the only run of the night surrendered by Rice pitching on a double to the last batter he faced in the game. After he exited in the third inning, a combination of David Shaw, Roel Garcia, Brandon Deskins and Matthew Linskey combined for 10 strikeouts and just three hits over the remaining six and one-third innings.

Shaw was credited with the win. He left the game after the fifth inning with a 3-1 lead, a score which would endure for several more frames before Hal Hughes added two more insurance runs on a double in the top of the eighth. Rice would go on to win 5-1.

What it means | Beating good baseball teams

Sam Houston is a good baseball team. The Bearkats entered the game 12-4 at home and 19-12 overall with wins over Oklahoma State, Baylor and Texas State. Anything can happen in a midweek game in April — college baseball is known for its oddities — but the Owls’ win didn’t feel fluky at all, especially considering this is the second time this season Rice has beaten Sam Houston.

The rest of the Owls’ list of victories might not look as impressive on paper. Rice was blasted by Baylor earlier this season and has been swept in back-to-back weekends by some of the better teams in Conference USA. When the competition has been at its best, this team has struggled. And that’s what makes wins like this one more meaningful.

“I think this is the best game overall we’ve had all year, from top to bottom” head coach Jose Cruz Jr. said.

If you can beat good teams, you can beat anyone. Doing it consistently separates the good from the great. Rice baseball still has a ways to go to reach that mark, but they did all they could control tonight. They’ll get three more games this weekend against another good baseball team in UTSA. If they’ve really turned a corner they’ll have another chance to put that on display soon.

ON DECK | vs UTSA (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball pummels HBU in shortened midweek bout

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It only took seven inning for Rice baseball to overwhelm HBU, sweeping the season series with a 7-inning victory over the Huskies on Tuesday night.

Simply put, Tuesday night was one of the most excellent performances Rice baseball has put forth on the diamond in quite some time. From start to finish, the Owls routed their crosstown rivals, sending HBU home after seven innings, a joint decision by the coaches given the decidedly one-sided state of the game.

The score became slanted as it was by an 11-run, 8-hit fifth inning in which Rice came one batter away from going through the order twice. Guy Garibay, Austin Bulman, Aaron Smigelski, Pierce Gallo and Antonio Cruz all reached base twice in the inning as the Owls tallied two triples in the frame.

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Rice was aided by an HBU error midway through the inning, but they did more than their fair share of damage without any help from the visiting Huskies.

As exciting as the big inning was, it would turn out to be window dressing on the final box score because of the superb pitching performance by Thomas Burbank. The San Jacinto transfer picked up his first win of the season, throwing five innings of one-hit ball, striking out five and silencing the HBU bats.

Burbank would have still picked up the win even if Rice had been shut out from the second inning onward. Smigelski broke the seal on the scoring with a two-run double in the opening inning. From then on it was smooth sailing for the Owls on the mound and at the plate.

“It was nice. It was something positive. We haven’t had something positive in a bit,” Rice baseball head coach Cruz Jr. said after the game. “Now its build on this, come back tomorrow, practice, tighten it up and get ready to go to Louisiana.”

What it means | Midweek magic

Outside of a sloppy 4-error, 9-run loss against Baylor in early March, midweek games have been favorable to the Owls so far this season. Rice is 4-4 in games played on Tuesday or Wednesday, and the majority of those losses have been competitive ballgames, including last week’s slugfest against Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

Meanwhile, Rice baseball is 5-17 in all other contests. That might mean the Owls are better equipped for the churn and chaos that comes with midweek games and stretched bullpen or it may just be a nod to the offense which has teed off against pitching and made opposing hurlers pay for their mistakes in recent weeks. Whatever the case, Rice will take the good fortune whenever it comes around.

ON DECK | at Louisiana Tech

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Texas A&M outlasts Rice Baseball in marathon midweek game

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Rice baseball and Texas A&M played a marathon midweek game into the late hours of Tuesday night which went the way of the Aggies when it finally wound down.

It was clear from the start this wasn’t going to be a quick midweek reunion for two Lone Star state rivals. The last time Rice baseball and Texas A&M had met at Reckling Park had been their final game of the 2020 season before COVID-19 shut the sports world down later that week. Both teams made up for the long break with a four-hour, 27-minute ballgame, the longest of the season for the Owls.

Rice opened the scoring in the bottom of the first, courtesy of a wild pitch that allowed Austin Bulman to score from third, but not until seven Owls had come to the plate and Texas A&M had made a pitching change. Texas A&M would answer in the next frame, scoring four and forcing Rice to make a pitching change of their own.

The first two innings alone lasted more than an hour. Things wouldn’t speed up too much after that. Both squads would combine for four home runs, 23 total runs, 25 hits and 13 walks, providing plenty of traffic on the basepaths and very few short innings. 15 combined pitchers appeared in the nine-inning game.

For about half an hour, it felt like Texas A&M had broken things open with a fourth-inning grand slam that gave the visitors an 8-2 lead at the time. Despite the deficit, Rice baseball resolved to keep chipping away

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The Owls scratched across a pair across to start the bottom half of the fourth inning. Then Nathan Becker delivered a bases-clearing double to get Rice within one. Benjamin Rosengard drove in the equalizer on the next at bat. Two and a half hours after they’d started, it was a brand new ball game.

Texas A&M would gain further margin down the stretch, tacking on six more runs over the course of the next two hours of action. Rice threatened on several occasions but was unable to produce a second six-run rally, falling at home by the final score of 15-8.

What it means | Rice can hang

Rice baseball doesn’t have the luxury of throwing out the first month of the regular season, but it’s abundantly clear they aren’t letting the rocky start linger. The Owls did enough over the course of the past week to prove they’ve got what it takes to turn things around start winning some baseball games. During Tuesday’s marathon, they proved they belonged.

Texas A&M came to Houston fresh off a weekend series win over No. 8 LSU. The Aggies aren’t a perfect team by any means and midweek bullpen games can get squirrely — this one did — but after Rice erased a six-run deficit and hung around with a variety of bullpen arms, it sure felt like the Owls were every bit the equal of the team visiting from College Station.

Rice spotted Texas A&M four runs after loading in the fourth, allowing the Aggies to load the bases without a hit, then ceding a grand slam. They dropped multiple balls in the outfield, although only one counted as an error. Even still, it wasn’t until Texas A&M put up a three-spot in the eighth to extend their lead to 14-8 that things truly felt somewhat secure.

For the better part of four hours, Rice baseball hung around. And if Rice can hang with Texas A&M, they can hang with Marshall, FAU and everyone else on their schedule.

ON DECK | Marshall

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