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Rice Baseball 2024: MLB Owls Update – May 16

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The 2024 MLB season is underway and Rice baseball alums are busy on the mound and at the plate. Here’s the latest from the MLB Owls.

Tyler Duffey – Kansas City Royals

Duffey has appeared in six games over the past month with the Royals, allowing three earned runs across those 4.2 innings pitched with one hold and one win over that span. He’s struck out more batters (five) than allowed hits (four) in that time.

Through May 16, Duffey has a 4.32 ERA with a 1.320 WHIP. He’s averaging 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings.

Dane Myers – Miami Marlins

Myers has been a regular for the Marlins since being called up in late April. In the month of May he’s made three starts and appeared as a pinch hitter and/or defensive replacement in five other games. Even with limited plate appearances he’s managed to reach base safely or score in five of his last eight games.

Through May 16, Myers is hitting .273 with one extra-base hit, four walks and 10 strikeouts. His OPS is .748 and he’s collected five RBI.

Injured List

J.T. Chargois – Miami Marlins

Chargois was moved to the 60-day injured list on Sunday after initially beginning the season on the 15-day injured list. He won’t be eligible to return until late May at the earliest and hasn’t pitched in the minors since April 26 in a rehab stint.

Anthony Rendon – Los Angeles Angels

Rendon is expected to miss a lengthy amount of time after suffering a partial tear in his left hamstring in late April. There is no timetable for his return as of yet, a frustrating development after a red-hot end of the month prior to suffering the injury.

Through May 2, Rendon is hitting .267 with three extra-base hits, six walks and 15 strikeouts. His OPS is .632 and he’s collected three RBI.

Glenn Otto – San Diego Padres

Prior to the beginning of the season, Otto was placed on the 15-Day Injured List on March 19 with a right teres major strain.

Knocking on the Door

The following Owls began the season in AAA:

  • Matt Canterino – St Paul Saints (Twins)
  • Tyler Duffey – Omaha Storm Chasers (Royals) *promoted
  • Jon Duplantier – Syracuse Mets (Mets)
  • Tristan Gray – Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Marlins)
  • Evan Kravetz – Louisville Bats (Reds)
  • Lucas Luetge – Worcester Red Sox (Red Sox)
  • Dane Myers – Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Marlins) *promoted
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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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AAC Baseball: Lots on the line in final weekend

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Every team is alive in the AAC Baseball conference tournament hunt and the regular season title remains up for grabs in the final weekend of the season.

SCHOOL CONF OVERALL NEXT

Notable storylines results

1. Pirates and Roadrunners and the battle for first place

Things couldn’t be much closer at the top of the conference.  UTSA has a one game leader over UTSA, but the Roadrunners took the conference series over the Pirates, giving them the tiebreaker. If ECU sweeps Rice, they take the conference crown. If they fail to win three more, that opens the door for UTSA and other possible permutations. ECU has lost four straight AAC games entering the final weekend.

2. Memphis a longshot

Memphis does have two series wins, but one of them (over Tulane) is irrelevant because of how far ahead the Green Wave are over the Tigers in the standings. The head to head over Rice might be pivotal, though, depending on how these next three games go. They have be far the most tenuous path to the postseason and would need help, most likely from Rice and USF, to advance to Clearwater.

3. Who has tiebreakers over who?

As this league has already seen in men’s and women’s basketball in recent months, tiebreakers get extremely complicated when we’ve got three or four (or even more) teams tied with identical records. From there, the tiebreaker rules stipulated best records in the tied pair and get more complicated from there.

Rather than try and spell out every scenario — that’s a lot to type — here’s a brief rundown of the series each team has won this year. Read this as the team before the parenthesis has the head-to-head tiebreaker over the subsequent teams.

ECU: UAB, FAU, Charlotte, Wichita State, Memphis, USF
UTSA: ECU, Tulane, Charlotte, Memphis, UAB, USF
Tulane: USF, FAU, Wichita State, ECU
Wichita State: UAB, Rice, FAU, UTSA, Charlotte
FAU: Charlotte, Memphis, USF
UAB: Tulane, Charlotte, FAU, Memphis
Charlotte: USF, Memphis, Rice
Rice: UAB, USF, UTSA, FAU
USF: Memphis, Wichita State
Memphis: Rice, Tulane

4. Series to watch

Rice at ECU and UTSA at FAU are both fascinating matchups. One side of the pairing is playing for their postseason lives. The other can win the league outright if things go well. Then add the extra dynamic of Rice owning the head-to-head tiebreaker over FAU, taking two of three from the other Owls this past weekend.

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Rice Baseball wins battle of the Owls over Florida Atlantic

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Rice Baseball took two of three from FAU in their final home series of the weekend, taking one step closer to a berth in the conference tournament.

FRIDAY | Rice 5 – FAU 4

Parker Smith and Davion Hickson combined to pitch nine innings of four-run ball in the series opener with Hickson taking over for Smith with two away in the sixth and going the rest of the way. Hickson’s lone blemish was a leadoff home run in the ninth which allowed FAU to tie the game 4-4.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball splits season series with Lamar

With the threat of extra innings looming, Manny Garza, who had already delivered a go-ahead home run, led off with a single. Jacob Devenny got the runner to third with a double down the line. The tying run scored on the next play when Rank hit a high hopper to shortstop who tried unsuccessfully to turn two, allowing Rice to win the game in walk off fashion.

SATURDAY (AM) | FAU 6 – Rice 5

After trading a run apiece in the early innings, FAU jumped in front with three runs in the third, forcing Rice starter JD McCracken from the game early. Tyler Hamilton came through with 3.1 clutch innings out of the pen, striking out four without allowing a hit. He handed the ball to Jackson Blank, who was tagged for two more runs in the seventh.

Facing a five-run deficit, Rice did all they could to make things interesting in the final frame. The Owls loaded the bases for Pierce Gallo who launched a grand slam over the right field fence. Eric Correa doubled to get the tying run to second, but he was stranded there, leaving Rice just run short of a thrilling comeback.

SATURDAY (PM) | Rice 5 – FAU 4

Tucker Alch delivered a gem in the second half of Saturday’s doubleheader, throwing 5.1 innings of one-run ball, allowing four hits with four strikeouts. A two-out RBI single in the second inning was the lone blemish on his resume, but even that run came after he’d been staked to a 2-0 advantage. Those runs, both unearned, came courtesy of multiple FAU errors in the first inning and a sac fly from Jack Riedel.

More: Jose Cruz Jr. and the trajectory of Rice Baseball

Both sides traded zeroes for quite a while after those early runs to open the game until the bats woke up in the bottom of the sixth inning. Rice scored three in that frame. FAU answered with three of their own in their next two trips to the plate, setting up a pressure-packed ninth inning which ended with a strike ’em out, throw ’em out double play.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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1. Manny Garza heating up

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ON DECK | vs Texas Southern (Tues), 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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