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Rice Baseball 2024 Season Review: Bullpen

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The bullpen made improvements as the 2024 Rice baseball season progressed, turning into a dependable unit by season’s end.

It was a rocky start for the Rice baseball bullpen. It took a few weeks for the staff to figure out who they could trust in the most high-leverage moments and for the players put into those positions to feel comfortable in their own shoes. Once everything came together, though, this pitching staff really excelled, providing plenty of backing for the starting pitching and give the Owls a shot to win some ballgames. For the purposes of this discussion, we focused on players who through at least 20 innings this season.

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Rice Baseball falls victim to big bats of Texas A&M

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Rice Baseball hung around for a while but couldn’t go the distance against the homerun-heavy Texas A&M offense, which blasted four longballs to down the Owls.

Texas A&M needed just one batter, leadoff man Gavin Grahovac, to take a lead over Rice baseball in their midweek tilt. Two batters later, the Aggies were leading 2-0, courtesy of a second solo home run in the opening inning. Rice hurler Mauricio Rodriguez commanded the ball fairly well from that point onward, striking out six in 3.2 innings, but several wild pitches and some miscues around him saw him leave the game trailing 6-1.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball salvages one at Charlotte

The Owls’ only score to that point was a solo blast from Manny Garza, who put one over the right field wall in the third inning. The lone run wouldn’t be nearly enough against the Aggie onslaught. Texas A&M added two more home runs in the fourth, part of a four-run frame charged to Jackson Mayo that ensured the home team would be in the driver’s seat.

The Aggies scored two more in the fifth before Rice stole a run back in the sixth. The dam finally broke in the sixth when the back end of the Owls’ bullpen walked in five straight runs. After a quiet seventh, the game was officially decided via a run-rule.

What it means | Not the same game

Texas A&M baseball entered Tuesday as the No. 3 team in the nation. They had been the top-ranked squad until dropping two games this weekend, the first time they’d been beaten twice in a row this year. They responded by run-ruling LSU in the series finale before moving on to the Owls, their final non-conference opponent of the regular season.

Thanks to their victory over Rice, Texas A&M will finish the season a perfect 25-0 in nonconference play. They’ve only lost eight games all season long. The Aggie faithful will be disappointed with this season if they’re not playing in Omaha in a month’s time.

To put it plainly, these are two teams on different strata of the sport with very different expectations and very different goals. Pulling off a midweek win over a team of this caliber would have been nice but nothing about the Owls’ current aspirations changes with Tuesday’s defeat. The Owls have to turn the page and move on quickly. Lamar comes to Reckling tomorrow and would love nothing more than to avenge last week’s result in Beaumont.

ON DECK | vs Lamar (Wed), vs FAU (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball swept by Notre Dame on Opening Weekend

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Rice Baseball got several leads, but couldn’t hold any of them, leaving opening weekend without a win in a three-game series with Notre Dame.

FRIDAY | Notre Dame 3 – Rice 1

Seven strikeouts through four-plus innings is typically indicative of an encouraging start, but that wasn’t the case this time for Rice baseball ace Parker Smith on Friday night. The righty struggled with command, dancing through danger in every inning but the third because of two hit batters, four walks and a couple of defensive errors behind him.

More: Parker Smith’s journey to Rice baseball ace

Smith left in the fifth inning, earning the loss after Jack Ben-Shoshan was unable to keep a pair of inherited runners from scoring. Davion Hickson would deliver a sterling, four-inning, hitless performance, but it wasn’t enough. Rice managed just one run, credited to Nathan Becker on an RBI single in the very first inning.

SATURDAY | Notre Dame 9 – Rice 5

Jack Riedel got the scoring going on Saturday, earning the first of two RBI on a solo home run in the first inning. JD McCracken did his part on the mound, holding Notre Dame to three runs (two earned) through 5.1 innings before handing the ball to Tyler Hamilton in relief. The Owls held a 4-3 lead at that point and kept the score there through seven innings before disaster struck.

Hamilton was tagged for two home runs which gave the Irish the lead. It was Garrett Stratton who came on next, but he registered just one out before being forced from the game. And just like that, a 4-3 Rice lead became a 9-4 deficit entering the ninth as the bullpen failed to hold on in the final innings.

SUNDAY | Notre Dame 13 – Rice 10

The ball was flying all over the yard on Sunday, beginning in the opening inning with a two-run shot off the bat from Pierce Gallo to give the Owls a 2-0 lead which miraculously persisted into the third inning despite five walks and a hit batsman from Rice starter Jackson Mayo who lasted just two innings.

Rice looked to have claimed a commanding lead in the sixth on a three-run bomb by Jack Riedel, but the Owls’ bullpen crumbled quickly soon afterward, allowing a five-run inning from the Irish and coughing up the lead. Trailing 8-7 in the eighth, Rice managed to even the score, but Notre Dame responded with a crushing five-run ninth to secure the series sweep.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

Rice baseball leaves opening weekend without a win. A series sweep will always sting, especially when the Owls were within striking distance in each contest. Here are three takeaways from a tough weekend at home.

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1. Free passes and hit batsmen loom large

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ON DECK | vs Sam Houston (Tues), at Louisiana (Fri-Sun)

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