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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 2024 Season Review: Starting Pitching

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The Rice baseball starting rotation was imperfect, but productive in 2024, paving the way for much of the team’s successes.

For the first time under head coach Jose Cruz Jr, the Rice baseball starting rotation was truly set it and forget it. The Owls kept the same triumvirate of arms almost every weekend of the regular season and never had to truly consider demoting any of the three because of poor performance. The rotation was deployed without any hiccups.

For the purposes of this discussion, the three pitchers who were mainstays in the weekend rotation were included as the Owls tended to rotate through midweek guys as injuries cropped up and players produced. Here’s a rundown of how the starters faired this season.

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** Photo credit: Maria Lysakar **
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Rice Baseball rolls to run-rule win over Texas Southern

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Rice baseball wrapped up its final midweek game of the regular season, scoring 16 unanswered runs and run-ruling Texas Southern at Reckling Park.

The situation looked dire for Rice baseball in the early goings of its final game at Reckling Park this season. Owls’ starter Karl Ralamb allowed Texas Southern to load the bases without any hits in the first inning. He was lifted quickly in favor of Mauricio Rodriguez, but a wild pitch an a couple of RBI singles allowed the visiting Tigers to take a 4-0 lead in the opening frame.

After going quietly in the first, Rice chipped into the lead with a pair of solo home runs in the second inning, one each for Jack Riedel — who’s tenth blast at home this year is one-shy of the 11 home homers hit by Anthony Rendon in 2010 — and Pierce Gallo.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball takes battle of the Owls over Florida Atlantic

If that was signs of the dam leaking, it broke open completely the following inning. Rice sent 13 batters to the plate in the third inning, scoring eight runs. Aric Anderson began the scoring run with a leadoff home run and would pick up another RBI later in the inning with a bases-loaded walk.

Ben Dukes drove in a run in the fifth before Gallo’s second home run of the day jumpstarted a 5-run sixth inning that officially put the game out of reach. Texas Southern would get one run in the top of the seventh inning, breaking through after Mark Perkins twirled three innings of no-hit ball to earn the win. The game would be called after the top of the seventh inning with Rice baseball earning the run-rule victory.

What it means | Locked In

Rice baseball just authored perhaps its most impressive midweek game this season. In the grand scheme of things, the additional non-conference win doesn’t do much to bolster the Owls’ record nor resume, but it could serve as a notable signal that this team is as locked in as they can get going into what has become the most crucial series of the season.

If Rice wins the series this weekend at East Carolina they’re extremely likely to punch their ticket to the conference tournament. ECU, while still the top team in the league standings, has lost five games in a row and looks mortal for one of the first times all season. Rice played its best baseball today. ECU hasn’t had that sort of rhythm in a few weeks. The Owls are heating up at the right time. All that’s left to do is to capitalize on that momentum.

ON DECK | at ECU (Thr-Sat)

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Lamar avenges midweek loss, splits season series with Rice Baseball

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A week removed from beating Lamar on the road, Rice Baseball fell to the Cardinal at Reckling Park, evening the season series with the nearby foe.

Injuries and bullpen preservation for the upcoming weekend series against FAU left Rice baseball head coach Jose Cruz Jr. with some tough decisions in the Owls’ second midweek game in two days. He opted to hand the ball to Tucker Alch, who had recently cemented himself as the Sunday man for the club. He went two innings against Lamar, falling behind 2-0 when he left the mound and forcing the team into comeback mode once again.

Rice got one run back in the bottom of the second, cashing in on a home run from Jack Riedel, his team-leading 14th blast of the season. That one-run deficit would persist for two more innings before Lamar roughed up Karl Ralamb and Reed Gallant to the tune of five runs in the fifth inning before Tyler Hamilton came in to extinguish the threat.

Last Time Out: Texas A&M bats too much for Rice Baseball in midweek tilt

The damage had been done, though. Trailing 7-1 Rice was able to chip away in the later innings but never truly come close to threatening to take the lead. The loss evens the season series with Lamar. The Owls took the first game a week ago in Beaumont.

What it means | Waiting for the weekend

The decision to throw Alch on Wednesday tentatively points towards the potential of a new Sunday starter. Perhaps Davion Hickson is given a chance to stretch out in a starting role? Or could Alch still be available as the pitching staff treats this as more of a midweek bullpen appearance? Either option could be viable at this point.

Regardless of which way that decision goes, it’s worth noting who did not throw at all this week. Hickson wasn’t used against Texas A&M or Lamar. Tom Vincent didn’t throw either. The same is true for Jackson Blank and Garrett Stratton. This has all the markings of an intentional decision by the coaching staff to save their bullets for the games that matter the most.

Getting the series win against FAU this weekend remains the top priority. It’s pretty clear by the decisions the Owls made on the mound they weren’t pulling out all the stops to win these midweek contests and that strategy was probably the best option available to them at this present moment. Now they’ve got to prove themselves right and pitch well this weekend.

ON DECK | vs FAU (Fri-Sun)

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