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Rice Baseball: 2022 MiLB Owls late-May update

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While several Rice Baseball alums are producing at the highest level, others are working their way up the ladder. Here’s the latest on the MiLB Owls.

Triple-A

Jon Duplantier (Dodgers) has made six appearances out of the pen so far this season, dazing with a 1.04 ERA. He’s allowed just one run so far and did not surrender a hit in five of his six outings, the longest of which lasted two innings.

Tristan Gray (Rays) started has gotten off to a slower start through the first 17 games of the 2022 season. He’s hitting .180, a good clip below his lifetime .238 MiLB average, but he has hit four home runs and driven in 11 runs.

Ford Proctor (Rays) has been right by Gray in the Durham Bulls’ lineup with a modest .236 average and a .348 on-base percentage. Both marks are on the lower end of his career MiLB averages.

Double-A

Matt Canterino (Twins) made the jump from High-A to AA to start the season and has fit right in at the higher level. He’s started four games as an opener, never going longer than three innings while compiling a 2.79 ERA. Opposing batters are hitting .152 against him this season.

Dane Myers (Tigers) is pummeling the baseball through the first few weeks of the year. He’s hit eight extra-base hits in 17 games, helping lead to a .935 slugging percentage. Myers’ .323 average leads the Erie Seawolves by a wide margin. None of his teammates are hitting better than .294.

More on Rice Baseball: Latest from the MLB Owls

Ricky Salinas (Reds) has made four long relief appearances through the young MiLB season, striking out 11 batters in 11.1 innings pitched. He owns a 3.18 ERA, which would be the best mark of his MiLB career.

Single-A

Trei Cruz (Tigers, High-A) rose from rookie ball to High-A in his first pro season and that’s where he begins his sophomore campaign. Through 15 games he’s hitting .224 with a .764 OPS, a positive step after an inconsistent start at the plate last season. He has drawn 14 walks, pushing up his OPS to .397.

Evan Kravetz (Reds, High-A) jumped through several teams last season but has found a home in Dayton with the Reds’ High-A affiliate to start the season. He’s appeared in four games with one start and has a 4.38 ERA with 18 strikeouts in 12.1 innings pitched.

Addison Moss (Rays, High-A) has gotten off to a masterful start in his third minor league season. He’s appeared in three games so far, not allowing an earned run in 5.0 innings pitched. In addition to a sterling 0.00 ERA, Moss has surrendered just four hits.

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Rice Baseball: 2022 MLB Owls update – Apr 27

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The 2022 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.

Anthony Rendon – Los Angeles Angles

Rendon’s bat has started to heat up. After sporting a .118 average through five games, Rendon has hit .278 over his last 10 contests, including his second home run of the season and three doubles. Meanwhile, his glove remains as amazing as ever.

Through April 27, Rendon is hitting .226 with five extra-base hits, 10 walks and 13 strikeouts. His OPS is .750 and he’s collected six RBI.

Tyler Duffey – Minnesota Twins

Duffey’s first outing of the season was rocky, but he bounced back quickly, putting together much better appearances over the course of the next few weeks. Duffey has allowed two earned runs in his last five appearances, whittling his season ERA down from 18.00 to 6.00. He picked up his first win and his first hold of the season during that time.

Through April 27, Duffey has a 6.00 ERA with a 1.500 WHIP. He’s averaging 9.0 strikeouts per nine innings.

Lucas Luetge – New York Yankees

Luetge has been busy over the last few weeks. Since April 13, he’s appeared in five games, three of which were spotless, one inning relief appearances in which he allowed no runs. He picked up his first hold of the season in that span as well.

His last outing was more tenuous. Luetge allowed three runs to the Orioles in 0.2 innings. Fortuantely for him, the Yankees still won 12-8.

Through April 27, Luetge has a 6.00 ERA with a 1.500 WHIP. He’s averaging 12.0 strikeouts per nine innings.

J.T. Chargois – Tampa Bay Rays

Shortly after his first appearance of the season, the Rays were forced to play Chargois on the injured list with an oblique injury. Manager Kevin Cash told reporters this week Chargois has begun playing catch, but there does not appear to be an official timetable for his return.

Through April 27, Chargois has a 0.00 ERA with a 0.000 WHIP. He’s averaging 13.5 strikeouts per nine innings.

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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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Rice baseball: Sunday fireworks avert weekend sweep vs UTSA

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Rice Baseball salvaged a Sunday win against UTSA, snapping a nine-game C-USA losing streak as the back end of the season approaches.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice baseball drops series 2-1

Rice baseball dropped a conference series for the third consecutive weekend, this time falling to UTSA 2–1 at Reckling Park. The Owls pitching staff was worn down throughout the weekend, but the Rice bats were able to answer with some power of their own in a runaway Sunday win. Here are a few takeaways from the weekend.

1. Ouch

Rice baseball gave up 36 runs in its three-game series with Texas earlier this season. At the time, that was largely excused as early-season jitters on an opening weekend against a college baseball superpower.

From there, the run totals against the Owls started to dissipate, albeit slowly. Lamar scored 26 runs in three games. Tech scored 20. UAB had 26 runs and FAU pushed across 22. Then UTSA came into Reckling and put up 31 runs, but somehow only managed to win two of the three contests.

Last Time Out: Rice baseball sweeps season series over SHSU with midweek win

UTSA is second in the conference in batting average, third in on-base percentage and fourth in slugging percentage. The Roadrunner bats have been just as lethal elsewhere. But it still stings a bit to give up an average north of 10 runs per game over the course of a weekend, regardless of how good the opponent is thought to be at the time.

2. All together now

Despite the first two one-sided results in favor of the visitors, Rice and UTSA each tallied 34 hits on the weekend with UTSA committing seven fielding errors to the Owls’ six. Part of the reason Rice came up short in the run column was the lack of synergy the lineup produced in the first two games, especially at the top where the bulk of the Owls’ offensive production has been produced so far this season.

On Friday, Jack Riedel and Aaron Smigelski went hitless while Nathan Becker and Austin Bulman managed a single apiece.

On Saturday it was Guy Garibay’s turn to go 0-for-5 from the field. Smigelski, directly behind him in the batting order, went 0-for-4.

It wasn’t until the Sunday finale the Rice bats started firing in unison. Garibay, Bulman, Smigelski and Becker each reached base at least four times. Pierce Gallo followed behind them with a four-hit, four-RBI day.

It’s unrealistic to expect that kind of production from an entire middle of the lineup day in and day out, but even an extra hit here and there would have helped the Owls extend innings and scratch across a few more runs. On Saturday UTSA outhit Rice 14-10 but won by 11 runs. That’s just too big of a gap. The offense left too many runs on the table.

3. Sundays are for closers

Ironically, Rice closer Matthew Linskey has his worst outing of the season, surrendering four runs in his lone inning of work. But it wouldn’t matter in the end, because the Rice lineup had given him a more the sufficient cushion with a crucial assist from a pair of Rice pitchers.

Thomas Burbank and Brandon Deskins held a lineup that had scored 24 runs in the first 18 innings of the series to two runs across seven frames. Honestly, it was stunning, in the most positive of ways. Rice doesn’t win the game without both men hurling tremendous games, allowing the Owls to race out to such a big lead.

On a weekend where good pitching performances were hard to find, that tandem shone bright and gets a well-deserved shout out here.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | UTSA 9 – Rice 2

UTSA struck early, getting to Rice front liner Cooper Chandler with a four-spot in the second inning before ultimately scratching across two more against him before he left the game, trailing 6-2. Those two Rice runs came courtesy of a Guy Garibay double and would be the only meaningful offensive contribution from the Owls for the remainder of the evening.

The Roadrunners would tack on a few insurance runs in the eighth and ninth innings, rendering a productive 3.2 inning relief appearance from Garret Zaskoda too little, too late. UTSA went on to win 9-2

SATURDAY | UTSA 15 – Rice 4

An error-plagued third inning allowed Rice baseball to take a 3-1 lead against UTSA on Saturday, their first lead of the series. It would not last long. UTSA struck back with six runs in the next half inning, driving Rice starter Alex DeLeon from the game after the frame, but not before the damage had been done.

Trailing 7-3, Rice would never get closer. UTSA would score eight more runs as the Rice lineup went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position, stranding eight runners as any hopes of a rally dwindled by the inning. And that’s before taking into account a bizarre 45-minute delay to check the hat of pitcher Roel Garcia, which would prove fruitless.

SUNDAY | Rice 16 – UTSA 7

Aiming to avoid a sweep, Rice baseball responded on Sunday with one of their most impressive offensive outings of the entire season. The Owls struck for three in the first inning, adding two more in the third and two more in the fourth. Leading 7-3 after four, it felt like a missed opportunity to have only managed a 9-3 lead entering the eighth inning.

Podcast: Rice Owls’ Voice JP Heath talks baseball, basketball, broadcasting

With closer Matthew Linskey on the mound, that didn’t seem to matter, until he allowed an uncharacteristic four runs to put the game very much so back in the balance. Leading 9-7, the offense did the rest. Rice batted around in the eighth, scoring seven runs to put an exclamation point on a long-awaited conference win.

ON DECK | at Southern Miss (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball: 2022 MLB Owls update – Apr 13

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The 2022 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.

Anthony Rendon – Los Angeles Angles

It was a slower start for Anthony Rendon in his return to the diamond after missing extended time last season. He collected his first hit and his first run in his second game. On Monday, he hit his first home run of the season, collecting his first two RBI.

His glove hasn’t missed a step, though. Rendon has flashed leather already several times in the young season.

Through April 13, Rendon is hitting .118 with one extra-base hit, two walks and six strikeouts. His OPS is .505 and he’s collected two RBI.

Tyler Duffey – Minnesota Twins

Duffey has had two very different outings this season. His first came on Saturday, where he blew a save and was saddled with a loss against the Mariners, giving up three hits and two runs in the ninth inning. His second appearance was much better, a scoreless seventh inning with one strikeout on Monday.

Even with that down performance in the ninth, Duffey owns a 1.33 career ERA in the ninth inning, only allowing three earned runs in 20.1 innings of work while striking out 24.

Through April 13, Duffey has a 9.00 ERA with a 2.000 WHIP. He’s averaging 9.0 strikeouts per nine innings.

Lucas Luetge – New York Yankees

Luetge picked up his first win of the season in his first appearance, tossing a scoreless sixth inning against the Red Sox on Saturday with two strikeouts. He saw additional action on Sunday, striking out one in a scoreless seventh inning.

Through April 13, Luetge has a 0.00 ERA with a 0.500 WHIP. He’s averaging 13.5 strikeouts per nine innings.

J.T. Chargois – Tampa Bay Rays

Chargois entered his only game so far on Friday in the fifth inning with a runner on base and one out, tasked with protecting a one-run lead. He did his job quickly, inducing a groundout to second before striking out the next batter to end the frame.

Unfortunately, that might be the last time we see Chargois for some time. He was placed on the injured list on April 12 (retroactive to April 9) with left oblique tightness, something which could sideline him for several weeks depending on the severity.

Through April 13, Chargois has a 0.00 ERA with a 0.000 WHIP. He’s averaging 13.5 strikeouts per nine innings.

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