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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 falls to UH in 21-pitcher midweek nail-biter

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Rice baseball and Houston each emptied their respective bullpens on Wednesday night, but the Cougars’ staff lasted one inning longer.

Things couldn’t have gotten off to much more of an inauspicious start for Rice baseball on Wednesday night against Houston. A leadoff single was followed by another single, neither struck particularly hard. Back-to-back walks put Rice in a 1-0 hole before Guy Garibay’s diving snag turned the tide and kept Rice in the game.

Rice would then fight back from 2-0 and 4-2 deficits to tie the game. A smattering of relievers combined to hold the Houston offense at bay, with two of the Cougars’ first five runs scored on wild pitches with two outs remaining in the inning.

Mark Perkins came on in relief shortly afterward and kept the Cougars’ run total at five, giving the Rice offense a chance. The Owls squandered a bases-loaded opportunity in the eighth but cashed it in during the ninth, forcing extra innings.

Ultimately it was Tom Vincent who got his bell rung in the 12th, ceding three runs before ceding the mound to Garet Zaskoda, the 20th pitcher of the game — Houston would throw No. 21 in the bottom of the inning — as the game ticked past the four-hour mark. Houston went on to win, clinching the Silver Glove series victory.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball suffers heartbreaking sweep vs DBU

“It stinks to be on the losing end of a game like this. We were very competitive, it just seems like there’s there’s one thing that happens, or two things, four things today that happened that makes life difficult for us and we end up having to talk about not winning again. It’s getting annoying,” head coach Jose Cruz Jr. said.

“I mean, I know we’re close. [We’ll] just keep showing up, keep grinding, keep game planning like we are and just have faith that things are going to turn around.”

Cruz singled out the wild pitches, errors and missed RBI opportunities as key moments that turned the course of the game.

The Owls won’t have much time to lick their wounds. They hit the road tomorrow for a three-game tilt with UTSA before returning home where they’ll face Houston again in one of two midweek games.

ON DECK | at UTSA (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball grinds out hard-fought sweep at UAB

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Rice Baseball earned their second straight weekend sweep, this time taking all three games in their conference opening series at UAB.

FRIDAY | Rice 8 – UAB 1

Connor Walsh got the party started with a  three-run bast over the left field wall in the third inning to give starter Parker Smith some breathing room on the road. UAB would scratch across a run in the fifth on a single, but that would be the only damage ceded by the Rice pitching staff on the day.

More: Rice Baseball nonconference Stat of the Program

Leading 3-1 after seven, the Rice bats provided some extra insurance runs in the eighth and ninth. Graiden West picked up his first career hit, contributing to late inning boon. Manny Garza had RBI in both frames and Benjamin Rosengard and Walsh (again) drove in one apiece to round out the parade. Altogether Rice entered the bottom of the ninth with a commanding 8-1 lead and won by the same score.

SATURDAY | Rice 2 – UAB 1

JD McCracken earned the Saturday start and tossed a strong 4.1 innings of one-run ball, striking out five before ceding his turn on the mound to Justin Long who continued the impressive pitching run. He worked 3.2 scoreless innings and was credited with the win, thanks to an RBI single from Drew Holderbach in the seventh that broke an early 1-1 stalemate that had persisted since the third inning.

Krishna Raj was called upon to close out the game in the ninth. He allowed one walk, but struck out two, collecting his second save of the season and his first of the weekend.

SUNDAY| Rice 3 – UAB 1 (10 inn.)

Unlike most getaway days, this Sunday affair was a low-scoring slugfest that echoed Saturday’s nailbiter. It was UAB who took the early lead this time, chasing Rice starter Blake Brogdon from the game in the second inning and driving in the first run off Tom Vincent that same inning, although the blame lies on Brogdon’s box score.

Down 1-0 for most of the game, Rice finally had their chance in the seventh. Max Johnson drew a leadoff walk then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Ben Royo moved him to third on a single to left field before Pierce Gallo’s sac-fly tied the game. The game would stay knotted at 1-1 until the 10th when Rice delivered the game-winning run courtesy of an RBI single from Manny Garza before he came around to add one more insurance run to secure the sweep.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

Rice baseball has now swept consecutive weekend series, something they never accomplished last season. It was also the Owls’ first series sweep to open conference play since 2015. Here are a few takeaways from the weekend.

1. Being elite in one thing

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ON DECK | at Texas A&M (Tues),  vs UTSA (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball 2023: Nonconference State of the Program

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Rice Baseball begins conference play this week. Here’s where the program stands and what’s next for the Owls on the diamond this spring.

With a three-game set with UAB in Birmingham now on deck, Rice baseball is about to enter the thick of its conference schedule. Scattered non-conference games remain in the midweek, but as the Owls enter the middle portions of their season, every game will start to count a little bit more. Nonconference games aren’t finished, but a new portion of the Owls’ schedule is getting ready to start.

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Following a series sweep of Houston Christian, Rice baseball head coach Jose Cruz Jr. says the staff is “excited for the direction that we’re headed.” In this midseason State of the Program, we’ll look at the highs, lows and everything in between as we explore where Rice baseball is now and where it might be in the weeks ahead.

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Rice Baseball shows sparks, but gets swept by Stanford

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Rice Baseball gave Stanford a fight at the Farm this weekend but left California without a win, falling to 2-5 on the season.

THE PLAY BY PLAY | Rice drops series 3-0

FRIDAY | Stanford 6 – Rice 3

Parker Smith cruised through the first several innings of the series opener against Stanford on Friday afternoon, giving up a hit or a walk here or there, but never really feeling like he was in any real danger early on. Part of that comfort was generated by Drew Holderbach, who delivered a two-out single through the left side to put Rice ahead 2-0 in the third inning. Stanford would get one run back in the fourth, but Rice was in control as the game went into the later innings.

More: Under the radar players for Rice baseball in 2023

Things got hairy in the sixth after Pierce Gallo committed a pair of errors that enable Stanford to tie the game. With runners on second and third and one two outs, the Owls went to Matthew Linskey, who gave up the go-ahead run and eventually two more after he lost command in the seventh. That would be it for the Owls’ who couldn’t claw back from the late deficit.

SATURDAY AM | Stanford 11 – Rice 1

With a doubleheader scheduled for Saturday, a string of bullpen games was expected. Mauricio Rodriguez got the start in the first game and gave up two earned runs in 3.2 innings. Unfortunately for him, the Owls’ offense would only score once, eventually saddling him with the loss

Stanford was able to get to almost every Rice reliever that followed. Tyler Hamilton got it the worst, allowing five runs on two hits and three walks in the eighth inning, more or less the unofficial white flag for a Rice team that had collected just four hits on the day.

SATURDAY PM | Stanford 7 – Rice 4

Headed to the bottom of the second inning tied 2-2, Rice has weathered Stanford’s first scoring strike and answered. Stanford would punch back, going up 4-2 only to see Rice respond in the fourth with two runs of their own. After going through much of Friday in an evenly matched game, the second half of the doubleheader had a similar feel.

Rice had the chance to break things open with the bases loaded in the fourth inning. They scored twice, one of which came on a bases-loaded walk to Trey Duffield. They couldn’t get a bigger number across, despite the fortuitous situation. Justin Long gave the Owls a chance with a masterful 4.2 innings of scoreless relief, but the lack of run production in that key moment would come back to bite them, with Stanford scoring three in the eighth to take the lead for good.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

Rice baseball made it into the sixth inning tied with the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal twice this weekend but walked away without any wins. The Owls had the muscle to hang around with the Cardinal but didn’t possess that extra oomph needed to close out either of their close games. Here are a few takeaways from the weekend.

1. Rice baseball has a Friday night guy

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ON DECK | at Sam Houston (Tues),  Shriners Classic – vs Texas Tech (Fri), vs Texas A&M (Sat), vs TCU (Sun)

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