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Rice Baseball 2024 Season Review: Lineup

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The offense was underwhelming for Rice baseball in 2024, posting the second-lowest OPS in the AAC while leading the league in strikeouts.

Rice baseball took a while to figure out the bats in 2024, but even when the Owls did get things going at the plate, the lineup remained fairly hot and cold. Fortunately for the Owls, having the league’s top home run hitter and some veteran pieces helped keep them competitive at the plate through the hard times. Through it all, there were individual highlights — described in more detail below — but for the most part, it was another challenging year with the sticks.

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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 wraps up tough Year 3 under Jose Cruz Jr.

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Rice Baseball has closed the book on an up-and-down 2024 season as the program and head coach Jose Cruz Jr hope for brighter days ahead.

Three years into the Jose Cruz Jr. era, Rice baseball won its first postseason game of any kind since 2019, taking top-seeded ECU down to the wire twice in their final week of the season and coming up just short. Rice won the most games it’s ever won under Cruz, (23) the most conference games it’s ever won under Cruz (11), and took a weekend series from a Top 25 team (Louisiana) on the road for the first time under Cruz.

All of that is true, however, the other side of the coin is equally real and much less glamorous.

A team that Cruz described frequently as the best team he’s had yet at Rice finished 13 games under .500. They made the AAC Tournament on a tiebreaker, nearly sunk by a three-game sweep at the hands of a Memphis team that finished dead-last in the league. They were at the bottom of the conference in most offensive statistics, striking out almost 10 times for every home run they hit.

For much of the season, they were a bad baseball team underperforming their records in each of the prior two seasons before catching fire late. To call this season uneven would be generous. For a while, it was a runaway train, finally salvaged before it ran completely off the tracks. That reconnection and refocusing is what Cruz says he’ll remember most about this squad.

“At one point I think we were like one and nine in conference or something like that, so for us to have played well enough to get in [to the AAC Tournament] was really remarkable.”

According to Cruz, that late-season surge helped solidify a culture and an identity that he felt hadn’t quite materialized yet in full.

More: Rice Baseball wraps up 2024 season with AAC Tournament loss to ECU

“This season we ended up creating an identity for ourselves. [We] created what we are about, especially on the offensive side, deciding what the standard is, and what we expect of our guys in order for you to be in the lineup. I think all the guys that were bought in ended up being the guys that ended up playing a lot and ended up elevating us really to be able to make the tournament and go this far.”

And therein lies the conundrum with the Cruz-led Owls and the biggest question mark about this program moving forward. Why did it take three years to find that identity? And if the Owls have found it, what’s it going to take for this program to get out of the conference basement?

“I’m excited for the talent level to elevate moving forward. I think we’re going to have better athletes each year,” Cruz said, painting the implicit picture that this team will be better once it gets better players, players that are on the way in the form of, “my best recruiting class coming in next year.”

As we’ve seen with other Rice sports in recent years, a slow start doesn’t mean there isn’t hope for the future. Mike Bloomgren and football turned a woeful 2-win team into a back-to-back postseason-caliber program. It took time and talent, the two things Cruz continues to assure all onlookers remain on track.

Losing is a hard pill to swallow, especially at a program with as robust a history as Rice baseball possesses. If more talent is truly all this team needs, 2025 should be — and in many ways must be — the year everything comes together and this program gets back on track. Everyone is tired of tough seasons, Cruz the foremost, and while patience exists to allow him to build, it won’t be there forever. At some point, the wins need to come.

“The alumni’s support is great. The athletic department support is great. It is a new chapter in Rice baseball,” Cruz vowed, speaking that bright future into existence. “It’s exciting times for us.”

This game marks the end of the 2024 Rice baseball regular season. Thanks to everyone who has followed along with us this year and read our content. There’s plenty more on the way. Make sure you’re subscribed on Patreon for deep dives on the pitching staff, lineup and more in the weeks to come. If you’d like to send us a one-time token of appreciation, you can donate here. Thanks for joining us on the journey. Next season can’t get here soon enough.

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Rice Baseball season ends with AAC Tournament loss to ECU

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The fifth time was not the charm for Rice baseball, falling to ECU once again as the Owls’ AAC Tournament run came to an end on Friday.

For the second time this week and the fifth time in the last nine days, Rice baseball and East Carolina met on the diamond. The Owls had been swept in a three-game series in Greenville last week before falling to the Pirates in a heartbreaker on Tuesday to begin their AAC Tournament play. The Owls’ almost unprecedented fifth chance to take down the league’s top team did not get off to a good start.

The magic Rice had captured in their near-upset earlier in the week appeared to have run out as Rice starter Tucker Alch was lifted one batter into the second inning after allowing ECU to score three times in the first. With the season on the line, head coach Jose Cruz Jr. went to JD McCracken in a rare relief appearance, but the veteran didn’t have the same level of control this time around, allowing an inherited runner and three more runs to follow.

Rice found themselves with a lot of work to do. Trailing 6-0 after two innings and Manny Garza out of the game with an injury, Tyler Hamilton took the mound and gave his team a chance. Apart from allowing an inherited runner to come around, Hamilton dazzled with one run allowed on three hits, tossing five incredibly important innings.

“It was just really personal. He left it all out there and gave us all he had,” Cruz said. “Really proud of him doing what he did. It was great.”

As Hamilton dealt, his teammates began to chip away at the plate. Kyte McDonald drove in two in the fifth. Treyton Rank followed with a sac fly. Max Johnson’s two-out, two-run single in the following inning got Rice back within one run. All of a sudden, Rice trailed 7-6 with three innings to play.

An inning later, Rice trailed 8-6 but had the winning run on second base with no outs and the heart of the order at the plate. One run came in on a fielder’s choice before a groundout from Pierce Gallo ended the Owls’ season one run short of a thrilling comeback.

“Being down 6-0 and coming back and making it a ballgame, I’m pretty proud of the guys for just fighting all the way,” Cruz said.” That was the goal, just to fight for those 27 outs, and we did.”

This game marks the end of the 2024 Rice baseball regular season. Thanks to everyone who has followed along with us this year and read our content. There’s plenty more on the way. Make sure you’re subscribed on Patreon for deep dives on the pitching staff, lineup and more in the weeks to come. If you’d like to send us a one-time token of appreciation, you can donate here. Thanks for joining us on the journey. Next season can’t get here soon enough.

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