The source for Rice sports news

Rice Baseball shows growth in sweep of Houston Christian

By

Rice Baseball improved to 8-8 on the season, taking all three games against Houston Christian, some in thrilling fashion.

FRIDAY | Rice 5 – HCU 1

Parker Smith held Houston Christian to one run in five innings on Friday night, putting Rice baseball in a prime position for a series-opening win. Matthew Linskey took the baton and delivered what was probably his best outing of the year, tossing four scoreless frames with five strikeouts to earn his first save.

With those two hurlers keeping the Owls’ opponent at bay — HCU scored just one run in nine innings — the Rice offense was handed an easier assignment. In the second, Paul Smith drove in the first run via a sacrifice fly in the second to put Rice in front. In the third, Drew Holderbach tripled to drive in what would become the game-winner, stole home a few moments later then added another insurance run with an RBI single in the fifth.

SATURDAY | Rice 14 – HCU 12

If Friday was for the pitchers, Saturday was for the bats. Rice delivered the first crooked number, taking a 7-2 lead after three innings, but HCU would continue to chip away. The Huskies big break came in the top of the seventh with a three-run home run to left field giving the visitors a 10-7 lead. It would not be enough.

The HCU pitching imploded an inning later. Rice batters walked five times in the inning and were hit by pitches twice. Rice collected one hit, a single by infielder Ben Royo, but scored seven runs to take a 14-7 lead. HCU would give Rice a scare in the ninth, but couldn’t overcome the deficit, allowing Rice to secure the series win.

SUNDAY| Rice 7 – HCU 6

Rice starter Mark Perkins worked around a hit batter in the first inning before running into trouble with the back half of the lineup in the second. Houston Christian took a 2-0 lead following a pair of doubles in the inning, then doubled their advantage to 4-0 on a two-run homer from their nine-hole hitter.

JD McCracken who keep the Huskies off the board for the next several frames as everyone awaited the awakening of the Rice offense, which came via a six-run bottom of the sixth, highlighted a trip of two RBI singles to put Rice in front. HCU would tie the game in the seventh with a home run off Krishna Raj before Rice went ahead for good in the bottom of the inning on a bases-loaded hit by pitch. Converted outfielder Jack Ben-Shoshan got the win on the mound.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

Rice baseball notched a series sweep, taking all three games against Houston Christian, led by former Rice great Lance Berkman. Here are a few takeaways from the weekend.

1. Are we putting labels on things or not?

Subscriber content.<br /> Please login to see the full post or visit our Patreon page.
Sorry! This part of content is hidden behind this box because it requires a higher contribution level ($10) at Patreon. Why not take this chance to increase your contribution?

ON DECK | at Baylor (Tues),  at UAB (Fri-Sun)

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Baseball vanquishes UTRGV in midweek win

By

Rice Baseball vanquished Vaqueros, exploding past UTRGV to earn a midweek during one of their busiest stretches of the season.

A wild pitch in the first inning gave Rice baseball an early lead in their midweek battle with UT Rio Grande Valley. With Mauricio Rodriguez on the mound, the Owls’ pitching staff put up a couple of early zeroes and then the bats took off.

Rice sent 14 players to the plate in the bottom of the second inning, which began with a leadoff home run from Connor Walsh. The whole host of Owls would rally behind him, driving in nine runs, four of which came by way of bases-loaded walks. Had it not been for a few strikeouts, the crooked number might have been even more significant, but the nine they did score would prove to be more than sufficient.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball upsets Tech, falls to A&M/TCU at Shriner’s

Staked to a 10-0 lead, Rice was able to empty the bullpen and get work for several of their lesser-utilized arms to this point. Tyler Hamilton worked 2.1 innings and earned the win. Jack Ben-Shoshan, who made his Rice debut as an outfielder in 2022, made his first pitching performance, twirling a scoreless frame. Ryland Urbanczyk and Mark Perkins saw action too. Altogether, the staff allowed three runs, which is more than excusable when your own team puts up 14.

What it means | Midweek Mojo

It’s no secret the Owls’ early schedule has been absolutely brutal. Louisiana has been their “easiest” opponent so far, and they already own a four-game sweep of BYU and a weekend win over a ranked Campbell squad. Following those Ragin’ Cajuns up with a trip to Stanford and a three-game Texas-styled stretch at the Shriner’s Classic is about as challenging of an opening month as you could design.

Names to Know: Under the radar Rice Baseball players for the 2023 season

For that reason, it has become absolutely essential that Rice baseball wins these midweek games, especially those against unranked foes. A rematch with the Aggies at Reckling Park on Wednesday might be the exception, but the games against smaller programs need to be wins to keep the record headed in the right direction. Rice did that on Tuesday, improving to 5-7.

ON DECK | vs Texas A&M (Wed), vs HCU (Fri-Sun)

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Baseball 2022: Owls rally past Houston in extras

By

Rice Baseball rallied to take the lead against Houston in the 12th inning, holding on for a big win over their crosstown rivals on Tuesday.

Although the Silver Glover series had already been decided, Rice baseball entered their final midweek tilt against crosstown rival Houston with renewed focus. The Owls lost the first game to the Cougars 10-7, then dropped the second contest 8-2. That second contest kicked off a nine-game losing streak, which the Owls brought into the series finale at Schroeder Park on Tuesday night.

Last Time Out : MTSU thumps Rice baseball in Owls’ final home series

Houston struck first on an RBI single in the third inning off Rice starter Parker Smith. Rice answered quickly with a run of their own in the next half inning, driven in by this no-doubt blast from Connor Walsh:

Tied at one, both teams swapped two-run frames in the sixth inning, setting up a close contest as the fast-paced game careened into the later moments. Houston would take the lead in the bottom of the eighth, forcing the Owls into a do-or-die ninth inning where Wals, again, was the hero. He doubled, advanced to third on an error and scored on a balk to tie the game.

Garrett Zaskoda was tremendous in extras, pitching the tenth, eleventh and twelfth innings without allowing a run. Those zeroes allowed the offense, courtesy of a crucial two-out single by Jack Ben-Shoshan, to put Rice in front for the first time in the game before Zaskoda returned to close out the win.

What it means | Proof of life

It’s been a rough month for Rice baseball. Any thoughts that this team had turned the corner after a series win against Western Kentucky were quickly dashed by a string of games that were largely uncompetitive.

Win or lose, this team was supposed to show progress as the season moved onward. It hasn’t really felt like that’s been the case of late. That’s what made Tuesday’s somewhat inconsequential game so important.

No matter the record, head coach Jose Cruz Jr. indicated he hadn’t thrown in the towel just yet. When discussing the last few games after their weekend series with Middle Tennessee, Cruz Jr. was fairly frank. “I try to win every game I play,” he said. “I’m still expecting them to go out and give me high effort and get out there and try to win a ballgame.”

For the first time in more than two weeks, the Owls did it. On the road against a rival they came from behind, forced extra innings, pitched well enough to win and found the big hit when they needed it most. One good game won’t erase the weeks of disappointing play. But it is proof — however slight — that Rice baseball hasn’t quit just yet. There may still be hope here after all.

ON DECK | vs FIU (Thr-Sat)

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Baseball bats quiet in sweep by No. 6 Southern Miss

By

Rice Baseball was swept by No. 6 Southern Miss despite numerous chances to make the series much closer early in the weekend.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice baseball drops series 3-0

From a pitcher’s duel to a blowout-shortened game, Rice baseball saw everything in their weekend sweep by Southern Miss — everything except for runs. The Owls have lost four consecutive conference series and enter the last few weeks of the regular season with an 11-29 overall record, 4-14 in conference play. Here are a few takeaways from the weekend.

1. Situational hitting

Finding base runners was challenging this weekend, but for the most part, Rice had opportunities to drive in runs but did not capitalize. Rice was 1-for-2 with runners in scoring position in Friday night’s 1-0 pitcher’s duel, then 2-for-12 on Saturday and 1-for-6 on Sunday.

The Owls had one two-out RBI. Southern Miss had eight. There wasn’t any way to squint at the boxscore and walk away feeling comfortable with what the lineup was able to do in situations where one hit had the potential to tangibly impact the bottom line.

Last Time Out: Rice baseball sweeps season series over SHSU with midweek win

For the weekend, Rice hit .167 when the bases were empty. The Owls hit .128 with runners on in any capacity, tallying five total hits when they had anyone on base in the three game series. The Southern Miss pitching was tremendous, but Rice wasn’t exactly putting their best foot forward at the plate either.

2. Strikeouts

Rice baseball hitters struck out 42 times in 25 innings, a rate of roughly 1.7 batters per inning. When more than half of your at bats don’t get the ball in play at all, you have a problem. There were several occasions where those punchouts killed golden run scoring opportunities.

Friday, Top 7. With Rice trailing 1-0 and Aaron Smigelski at second base, Pierce Gallo struck out. The runner would never advance. Rice would lose 1-0.

Saturday, Top 3. Rice had the bases loaded with no outs and had already forced Southern Miss to go to the bullpen. After an infield fly from Galo, Jack Ben-Shoshan struck out looking, handing a two-out situation to Justin Long who grounded out. Rice wouldn’t score again for the rest of the game.

It’s not an individual problem, and those two examples aren’t meant to isolate the players themselves, moreso they point to a trend that has proven extremely detrimental to this team over the past several weeks.

3. Silver linings

  • Aaron Smigelski had a sold weekend at the plate, accounting for three of the Owls’ 13 hits.
  • Manny Garza went 2-for-3 on Sunday, his second multi-hit game of the year. He’s batting .438 on the season after recently returning to the lineup after injuries kept him on the shelf for several weeks.
  • The defense turned three double-plays on Saturday, a season high. Fielding was altogether better on the whole. Rice committed four errors in three games, but had just one error in the first two games combined.
  • Cooper Chandler was fantastic on Friday night, throwing a season-long seven innings.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | Southern Miss 1 – Rice 0

The first seven Rice batters struck out and the offense didn’t collect their first hit until the fourth inning. On most days, particularly away from the confines of Reckling Park, that would have left the Owls in a sizable hole. That wasn’t the case this time around, thanks to the near-flawless outing of Cooper Chandler.

Chandler allowed a leadoff double in the sixth which would come around to score on a sacrifice fly, but otherwise he was superb, allowing five hits in 7.0 innings with four strikeouts and no walks. Matthew Linskey followed with a spotless eighth, but the bats never got going. Rice managed three total hits, two of which came in the fourth inning when Nathan Becker was thrown out at the plate.

SATURDAY | Southern Miss 6 – Rice 3

Rice got another strong outing on the mound on Saturday, this time from Alex DeLeon who cruised through four innings before running into trouble in the fifth. Rice led 3-1 at the time, cobbling together a few runs in the second and third innings. It wouldn’t be enough. When DeLeon was ambushed, the situation devolved quickly.

Southern Miss led off that inning with back-to-back doubles followed by a home run. David Shaw would finish the free, but the damage had been done. Trailing 6-3, the Rice offense wouldn’t score again, despite Shaw finishing out the game with an impressive 3.2 innings of one-run ball.

SUNDAY | Southern Miss 12 – Rice 2 (7 innings)

That one crooked inning would do Rice in again on Sunday, but early on everything seemed to be in line with the beginnings of the first two contests of the weekend. Southern Miss scratched across singular runs in the second and third off starter Thomas Burbank. Rice tied the game up in the second on a two-run home run from Nathan Becker.

Even when Southern Miss answer in the fifth with three runs against Roel Garcia, it didn’t feel like the game was out of reach. But that would prove to only be the tip of the iceberg. Southern Miss erupted for seven runs in the seventh inning, ending with a grand slam to put the home team ahead 12-2. The game was called at that point, leaving Rice to head back home on a low note after two much more competitive games.

ON DECK | vs Western Kentucky (Fri-Sun)

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice baseball swept at home, drops battle of Owls to FAU

By

In a battle of Owls, Rice Baseball was swept at home by Florida Atlantic over the weekend, outscored by their visitors 24-10 in the three-game series.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice baseball drops series 3-0

A hot start early on in conference play has seemingly cooled off for Rice baseball, who dropped their fifth consecutive contest on Sunday as a three-game series against FAU resulted in a sweep. Going winless at your own ballpark is never fun, and Rice will have plenty to work on as they prepare for a tough road trip to Ruston, LA next weekend. But first, a few takeaways from the weekend.

1. Scoring output stumbles

The Rice bats haven’t been the problem in recent weeks. Even when they weren’t exploding for double-digit outputs, they still seemed to consistently reach six or seven runs, giving their pitching staff support and giving the team a chance in almost every game. Against FAU, Rice scored just 10 runs in three games.

FAU is in the bottom third of the conference in team ERA, and although they’ve pitched fairly well of late, this probably wasn’t the most dominant set of hurlers Rice baseball will see this season. They managed to do a number against the Owls.

Last Time Out: Ninth inning rally comes up short for Rice baseball vs TAMUCC

Perhaps this was just an off weekend, but it was telling that Rice baseball head coach Cruz Jr. opted to empty the benches on Sunday and put Jack Ben-Shoshan and Cullen Hannigan in the starting lineup for the first time in a long while.

He tried to shake things up and provide this lineup a spark. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. As the pitching staff struggles. the bats will continue to be relied upon to win Rice games. When they’re quiet, it’s going to make for long days at the ballpark.

2. Defense is picking up

It wasn’t that long ago where it seemed like Rice was due a three-error or four-error game every weekend. Keeping track of the baseball wasn’t something this team did well, that is, until the switch was flipped in late March and they became a stronger fielding team.

“I think our infield is starting to look really good defensively,” Cruz Jr. said, making note of the return of Hal Hughes to the lineup. Hughes made his season debut on Tuesday against Texas A&M Corpus Christi after missing the first half of the season with an injury.

Rice committed just two errors on the weekend, and although there were a few bad hops that some of the Owls’ defenders would have preferred to make, the focus is definitely better. That’s a plus, and a much-needed sign of growth for the program as a whole.

3. Pitching staff in progress

Had anyone offered Cruz Jr. a pair of two-pitcher games to open this weekend series he would have taken it in a heartbeat, especially against one of the best hitting teams in the conference. FAU leads Conference USA in hits, and although they picked up several against Rice, the Owls top end of the staff was competitive enough to be trusted with deep outings, even in the bullpen.

Weeks ago Cruz Jr. talked about finding a reliable corps to throw in the most high-leverage of situations. Even though the Rice bullpen gave up runs this weekend, it seemed evident some combination of Garret Zaskoda, Roel Garcia, Dalton Wood, David Shaw, Tom Vincent and Cristian Cienfuegos are going to the first guys to get the call just about every weekend from here on out.

More: Rice Baseball Midseason State of the Program

The shortlist has been built. What remains to be seen is which pitchers can make the adjustments and start to limit the damage against some of the deeper lineups in Conference USA. Matthew Linskey has been darn near perfect, but he can’ throw every day, not if he wants to maintain that level of effectiveness. No, it’s going to take another step up by a few more guys. Now it appears the staff knows who they’re looking for.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | FAU 9 – Rice 4

The series started out on a rocky note for Rice baseball starter Cooper Chandler who gave up four runs in the first two innings including a few very hard-hit balls. To his credit, he dug in and fought his way to the sixth inning. Cruz Jr. noticed his grit, saying Chandler “pitched really good”, casting his major complaints upon the Rice offense, which did little to support their Friday night guy.

Rice scored once in the first inning on a groundout. Guy Garibay pulled Rice within one run on a two-run blast in the fifth inning that made the score 4-3 in favor of FAU. The visitors tacked on five more runs after that, nickling-and-diming Chandler and Zaskoda as the Rice bats watched on, resulting in a 9-4 win for FAU.

SATURDAY | FAU 6 – Ricc 5

Filling for Parker Smith who left his start last weekend early, Alex DeLeon delivered a gritty four-run, five-inning effort in Game 2 with two of those runs unearned. Behind 3-0 in the fourth, Rice slugger Austin Bulman delivered an equalizing three-run shot down the left field line to breathe new life into the Rice dugout.

Both teams traded runs in the fifth inning to set the score at 4-4. Again in the sixth, single tallies from each side made it 5-5. FAU would take the lead for good in the eighth with a leadoff home run against Roel Garia following which Rice would send the minimum to the plate in the final two half innings.

SUNDAY | FAU 7 – Rice 1

Things were shaping up to be a close game on getaway day, until they weren’t. Rice took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI double by Austin Bulman. FAU tied the game in the third, then jumped in front in the fourth. Trailing 3-1, the game still felt in reach until FAU delivered the gut-punch 4-run finisher in the sixth inning.

Podcast: Rice Owls’ Voice JP Heath talks baseball, basketball, broadcasting

Rice reliever David Shaw left with two runners on and one out, setting the table for Tom Vincent, who struggled to get out of the frame. He gave up three hits and allowed a run to score on a hit by pitch as Rice fell behind 7-1. They would not recover, tallying just four hits in the series finale.

ON DECK | Rice baseball vs Houston Baptist (Tues), at Louisiana Tech (Fri-Sun)

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts