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Rice Baseball 2024: Names to Know — Lineup

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Entering Year 3 under head coach Jose Cruz Jr the Rice baseball roster is starting to take shape. Here are a few names to know at the plate.

The primary lineup for the 2024 Rice baseball season should feature a solid mix of old and new. Veteran players, incoming transfers, up-and-coming home-grown players and everything in between will see action on the diamond at Reckling this season. Here are the key pieces the Owls will have to work with at the plate and in the field this season.

Moving On

Losing Connor Walsh stands to be the biggest hurdle to overcome at the plate for this team. Walsh led all regulars in average, slugging and on-base percentage last season. Drew Holderbach and Aaron Smigelski re the other two notable contributors at the plate who won’t be with the Owls this coming season.

Coming Back

Fortunately, the list of returning players is longer than those headed out. Jack Riedel flirted with a 300 average last year and showcased a decent amount of power. The plan had been for him to hold down third base, instead, he’ll be moving across the diamond to play first base. That transition is necessary because Guy Garibary suffered an ACL injury in practice and announced this week he will miss the entirety of the 2024 season.

More: Potential the word for Rice Baseball in Year 3 under Cruz

Going around the horn, Pierce Gallo will handle second with Ben Royo, fresh off a fantastic freshman season, holding down shortstop. Max Johnson is a utility guy who could potentially backfill at third in place of Riedel. Manny Garza will be the primary catcher.

Nathan Becker and Ben Dukes are potential reserve bats and designated hitter options, Becker especially, after seeing a more limited role a year ago. As things stand, designated hitter and third base appear to have the greatest amount of uncertainty.

Added to the Mix

The outfield should be flush with new faces. Wichita State transfer Kyte McDonald has the potential to be a middle-off-the-lineup guy in center field. He’ll be sandwiched by Florida State transfer Treyton Rank and Princeton transfer Brendan Cumming. On paper, that trio looks to be one of the most potent outfields the Owls have fielded in quite some time.

Like Royo did last year, someone will undoubtedly emerge and force their way onto the lineup card. Freshman Landon West might be the best bet right now. He’s impressed during his limited sample size and could see some at bats in the near future.

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Rice Baseball 2023 Season Review: Lineup

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The offense was underwhelming for Rice baseball in 2023, posting the second-lowest OPS in Conference USA with over 500 strikeouts.

It wasn’t a good year at the plate for Rice baseball. The 2023 season saw the Owls finish in the bottom three in the league in batting average, runs, RBI, total bases and OPS, among other offensive measures. There were individual highlights — described in more detail below — but for the most part, the offense struggled.

More: Rice Baseball Season Review – Bullpen
More: Rice Baseball Season Review – Starting Pitching
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Rice Baseball 2023: Names to Know — Lineup

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Entering Year 2 under head coach Jose Cruz Jr the Rice baseball roster is starting to take shape. Here are a few names to know at the plate.

Rice baseball hit somewhat of a reset last season in the first year under Jose Cruz Jr that featured a significant amount of turnover in the lineup following the departure of several veteran players. With the exception of a few notable transfers and incoming freshmen, the 2023 roster should have more continuity than the previous year.

Moving On

The presence of Austin Bulman will be missed this year. He was a keystone in the lineup and in the infield. Among the other notable departing names are outfielders Antonio Cruz and Justin Dunlap as well as infielders Hal Hughes and Drew Woodcox. Those losses aren’t insignificant, but it’s worth noting the Owls bring back a significantly larger portion of their production than they’re losing. That wasn’t the case last year.

Coming Back

Rice baseball is set to return seven of their top nine hitters from the 2022 season, led at the top of the lineup by outfielder Guy Garibay Jr. Nathan Becker, who led all everyday Rice players with a .310 batting average, is back as well as is standout freshman Aaron Smigelski.

Jack Riedel, Pierce Gallo and Connor Walsh, all of whom played important roles in last year’s squad, return as well. That’s a strong core for Rice to build around on offense.

Added to the Mix

Catcher Manny Garza isn’t a new face — he actually led the team with a staggering 1.023 OPS last season — but was limited to 22 appearances because of injuries. Adding his bat and defense to the lineup for the long haul will provide a boost.

As for newcomers to the squad, be on the lookout for big contributions from grad transfer Drew Holderbach, a DIII transfer who slashed .356 / .436 / .516 over four years at Mariette College, won two DIII gold gloves at first base and led his team to a DIII World Series appearance.

More: Expectations rise for Rice Baseball, Cruz Jr. in Year 2

Max Johnson, who joins Rice from Indiana where he appeared in 11 games last year, has drawn some early positive reviews, too.

Rice also signed five freshman position players who are expected to be in action this season. Christian Salazar, Trey Duffield and Jacob Devenny could each contend for playing time in the outfield this season. Paul Smith is a catcher from just down the road at Episcopal. Ben Royo, who has impressed early, has a good shot to find some at bats.

** Photo Maria Lysakar **
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MTSU thumps Rice Baseball in Owls’ final home series of 2022

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Rice Baseball wrapped up their final homestand of the 2022 season with a whimper, falling in three straight games to Middle Tennessee at Reckling Park.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice baseball loses the series 3-0

The final home series of the 2022 Rice Baseball season ended with a thud. Not only were the Owls officially eliminated from any sort of postseason appearance, they were outscored 33 to 11 in the three-game slate. The sweep is the Owls’ fifth of conference play. Rice is now 13-37 overall and 6-21 in conference play. Here are a few takeaways from the weekend.

1. The Seniors

Sunday was Senior Day for Rice Baseball. Pregame festivities included jersey presentations and a formal thanks in front of the crowd at Reckling Park. This class features several players who have become mainstays for the Owls in recent seasons.

Austin Bulman, Alex DeLeon and Brandon Deskins each made their marks at Reckling Park. Bulman has been one of the most productive bats in the Rice lineup over the past three seasons. DeLeon has worked as a Friday Night starter, bullpen option and everything in between. Deskins became one of the more reliable options out of the pen, becoming a frequently used reliever during his time at Rice.

Last Time Out: Rice baseball swept by explosive ULL offense in midweek duet

Roel Garcia, Thomas Burbank, Jonny Hoyle, Justin Dunlap, Dalton Wood, Drake Greenwood and Antonio Cruz were also honored.

2. The Future

After reflecting on the contributions of the seniors, head Coach Jose Cruz Jr. did express his excitement for the young core of players who saw meaningful experience on the diamond this year. Guys like Aaron Smigelski, Guy Garibay and Nathan Becker proved they’d be key pieces of this team moving forward. Garibay and Becker each collected hits in each of their starts on the weekend.

Catcher Manny Garza, who missed the middle portion of the season, went 3-for-5 on Saturday and 2-for-4 on Sunday, driving in four runs across those two games.

Cruz Jr. hopes the same will be true on the mound. Mark Perkins battled through two innings early before the wheels fell off on Sunday. Matthew Linskey through three innings on Saturday, allowing one earned run while facing 12 batters.

3. Four more

There will be much more to be said about the season as a whole in the weeks and months ahead. For now, Cruz Jr. hasn’t turned the page just yet. Regarding their midweek game against Houston and final C-USA series against FIU, Cruz said “I try to win every game I play. I’m still expecting them to go out and give me high effort and get out there and try to win a ballgame.”

By virtue of their losses this weekend, Rice baseball will officially fail to qualify for the Conference USA Tournament. Even given the understandably lowered expectations entering this season, to fall this far in the conference standings can only be viewed as a disappointment.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | MTSU 7 – Rice 0

For the second consecutive Friday night, Rice baseball was shut out by their opponent. This time around they were overpowered by Middle Tennessee starter Peyton Wigginton, who threw a complete game, striking out 10 batters and allowing just two hits and three walks. He kept the Owls off balance from start to finish.

On the mound, the two-man tandem of David Shaw and Alex DeLeon did what they could to limit the Blue Raiders’ bats. DeLeon entered in the fifth inning and held MTSU to three runs on five hits, but he did not get the support he needed from his offense to make the game competitive down the stretch.

SATURDAY | MTSU 5 –  Rice 4 (10)

Manny Garza opened up the scoring with a single that drove in Pierce Gallo in the bottom of the second inning. The Rice lead would not last long. Middle Tennessee answered immediately with three runs in the third and one more in the sixth, taking a 4-1 lead into the ninth inning.

For the second day, Rice struggled to get productive at bats against MTSU’s starting pitcher. This time, though, they were able to do some damage against their bullpen. Rice scored three in the ninth inning, two from a Jack Riedel home run, to force extra innings. Matthew Linskey would be charged with the loss allowing one run in the 10th in his third inning of relief.

SUNDAY | MTSU 21 – Rice 7

All smiles that lingered from Senior Day festivities were quickly put away in the Sunday finale as the Middle Tennessee bats went to work. The visitors scored one run in the first, two in the second and 11 in the third. Starter Mark Perkins was driven from the game in the third but Thomas Burbank did little to stifle the Blue Raiders’ attack, ceding to Garrett Zaskoda before the inning was over.

Trailing 14-0, Rice got its first hit of the game in the bottom of the third. Two runs that inning wouldn’t be nearly enough to stem the onslaught. MTSU would go on to hang 21 runs on Rice, taking the game and the series in landslide fashion.

ON DECK | vs Houston (Tues),  vs FIU (Thr-Sat)

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

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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)

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