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Rice Baseball: 2025 MiLB 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

Tristan Gray (White Sox) is off to a strong start to the season, slashing .278/.338/.500 through his first 37 games, all of which would represent his highest marks as a professional at any level. That should help make his case for a promotion at some point this year.

Evan Kravetz (Reds) was moved the development list in mid-May after an up-and-down beginning to his 2025 season. He holds a 9.39 ERA in 7.2 innings of work, primarily as an opener. He’s struck out eight while allowing opposing batters to hit .395 against him, a mark well above his career norms.

More on Rice Baseball: Latest from the MLB Owls

Glenn Otto (Astros) signed with the Astros this past offseason but has yet to appear in any competitions for the organization across any level. He’s been on the injured list with the Space Cowboys since March.

Matt Canterino (Twins) was released and subsequently resigned by the Twins to a minor league contract after injuries forced him to miss the entirety of the 2025 season. He remains on the full-season injured list.

Roel Garcia (Rays) was promoted to AA this week after making nine appearances at the AA level this season, striking out 16 batters in 15.2 innings of work.

Double-A

Trei Cruz (Tigers) has truly found his groove in his fifth season as a minor leaguer and could be on the cusp of another promotion soon if he keeps up his 2025 pace. His .849 OPS is the highest of his career and through 39 games, the sample size is starting to grow.

Single-A

Hayden Durke (Diamondbacks) has been red-hot to begin the year, sporting a jaw-dropping 0.89 ERA through 15 games with five saves in five opportunities. He’s struck out 36 batters in just 20.1 innings of work.

Justin Long (Braves) has impressed in his early work this season, earning a 1.42 ERA in six appearances, all in relief. He’s allowed just four hits in 6.2 innings.

Rookie

Parker Smith (Astros) made his first professional appearance last week, pitching 1.2 innings in his debut, allowing two hits and one run while striking out two and walking one.

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Rice Athletics Roundup: May Subscriber Q&A

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Rice Football transfers, Rice baseball offseason and updates on The Roost Podcast make up this month’s edition of our subscriber Q&A.

The whirlwind of Rice Athletic events hasn’t slowed down with as the academic calendar comes to a close. Rice football is adding transfers and Rice baseball is beginning a very important offseason. This month’s Q&A focuses on those two areas as well as providing a quick update on plans for The Roost Podcast this summer.

Questions were edited briefly for clarity. Want to get your questions answered? Subscribe on Patreon for our monthly mailbag.

For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Special features like this are reserved for our subscribers. Have questions? You can get those answered in our monthly Q&As and get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

Q: Any sleepers on the new transfer signings?

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“So Many Things to Address”: Rice Baseball and David Pierce Embark on Crucial Offseason

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Months removed from his midseason start, Rice baseball head coach David Pierce will finally get his first chance to step back and assess his new program.

For better or worse, Rice baseball head coach David Pierce has just endured the most chaotic months of his coaching career. When the spring began, he was an assistant at Texas State. A few short months later he was at the helm of a program someone else had built and which was careening toward a lost season.

That Pierce was able to right the ship and get this team to the postseason was remarkable in itself. That the Owls were sent home winless from the AAC Tournament further demonstrates how much more work still needs to be done.

Pierce began his closing remarks in Clearwater on Wednesday following the Owls’ elimination at the hands of Florida Atlantic with a sense or earned pride. “At the end of the day, I feel like this program’s gotten better he said,” adding later that he was “really proud of our team.”

In the same breath, the list of to-do’s was already on the top of his mind.

More: 59 Minutes — David Pierce Challenges Rice baseball to grow

“There’s just so many things that we just gotta address,” he said, looking ahead to what promises to be a crucial offseason, his first with the program as its head coach.

“We’ve got to address the structure of how we run some things within the program. We’ve got to address just our team itself, keep building our culture, understanding the standard. And then we got to look at a lot of options with the portal, potentially, because it’s available. And then we gotta get on the recruiting trail , start camps, recruit, the thing that happens at this time of the year.”

The list goes on and on. There’s so much to do.

But as Pierce embarks on that list, it’s worth reflecting on the work already done.

Rice had a .190 winning percentage before Pierce arrived this season. Pierce finished with a .361 winning percentage and went .500 across his last 20 games, which included four losses to top-seeded UTSA in the span of six days.

Pierce rediscovered the vintage form of Davion Hickson that had gone dormant through the first three months of the year. He salvaged cast-off bullpen piece Jack Ben-Shoshan and turned him into the most reliable reliever on the team. On the shoulders (and bats) of five freshmen, Pierce discovered a viable offensive identity. He got this team to believe again.

More: Jack Ben-Shoshan’s circuitous path to the top of the Rice Baseball bullpen

That belief is what Pierce and the Rice administration was banking on when they made the perhaps unprecedented decision to implement a midseason hiring, a shotgun wedding on the diamond which all parties hoped would produce a lasting romance between this once great program and a coach who remembers those glories days and who yearns to bring them back.

But at that podium in Clearwater, Pierce wasn’t thinking about those aspirations, not yet.

“This is my least favorite time of the year,” he admitted. “The first three weeks of transition from the end of the season, moving into the off season, it’s really kind of a tough transition. It is because you just put so much into it, you’re drained. You’re always working off adrenaline, and then you gotta switch gears.”

The man who just poured his heart and soul into a team assembled by someone else is finally going to sit down and put his own stamp on things. He mentioned changes to baserunning, defense, their approach at the plate, the short game and the program’s pitching philosophy. All things better suited to groom in the fall, not in the middle of a season.

Yes, for Rice baseball and David Pierce, the offseason has arrived. The first wave of chaos has subsided, and the next storm is brewing on deck. He and everyone invested in this program are banking on smoother waters next spring and a new, better tomorrow for a program that’s been long searching for that brighter tomorrow and believes it finally has the right captain to get it there.

** Photo credit: Maria Lysaker **

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Rice Baseball season ends with AAC Tournament loss to FAU

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Rice Baseball started fast but couldn’t hang on to an early 4-0 lead, falling 8-6 to Florida Atlantic and seeing their 2025 season come to an end.

With their season on the line, Rice baseball came out on the offensive, loading the bases in the first inning, taking a 1-0 lead. Rice added another run in the second and two more in the third and looked to be in command with a 4-0 lead in their elimination game against FAU as JD McCracken returned to the mound for his third inning of work.

McCracken recorded two quick outs before issuing back-to-back walks. A long fly to center field should have ended the threat, but the ball glanced off the webbing of Colin Robson’s glove, allowing two runs to score. A home run by John Schroeder in the next at-bat leveled the score turning one pivotal miscue into a game-changing inning.

“You’re in such a groove, everything’s going right and you’re feeling your pitches, then things don’t go your way,” Rice baseball head coach David Pierce said of McCracken’s fateful inning. “He did a really nice job of regrouping and continuing to pitch for us.”

After escaping the remainder of the third without further damage, McCracken would retire seven FAU batters in a row until Schroeder returned to the plate. He opened the sixth inning with a solo home run, putting FAU in front for the first time on the afternoon. Another solo home run in the seventh drove McCracken from the game and put Rice in a two-run hole.

More: Jack Ben-Shoshan’s circuitous path to the top of the Rice Baseball bullpen

For a few moments, Max Johnson looked to be the Owls’ unlikely hero. The senior delivered a bases-loaded bloop single with two outs in the the top of the eighth, driving in the two runs Rice needed to even things up. FAU would answer with haste with another home run in the bottom half of the inning, this one a two-run blast from Brando Leroux to retake the lead.

Rice would threaten in the ninth — bringing the go-ahead run to the plate with two outs — but could not complete the rally. The Owls season ends with a 17-40 overall record and a long road ahead for Pierce in his first offseason as the helm of the program.

“At the end of the day, I feel like this program’s gotten better,” Pierce said. “Our guys are bought in. The culture is going to continue to get better.”

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Rice Baseball falls to UTSA in AAC Tournament Opener

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Rice Baseball faces elimination after taking an eighth inning lead against UTSA but failing to hold on, falling to the Roadrunners for the fourth time in the past six days

For Rice baseball, things looked rather dire rather quickly in the opening game of the AAC Tournament against UTSA. After the Owls failed to score in the opening half inning, staff ace Davion Hickson gave up a solo home run and allowed two runners into scoring position, an inauspicious start against a team that had scored 33 runs in three games against the Owls this past weekend.

Hickson would rebound, though, recording a strikeout to escape the jam. From there, Hickson was locked in, retiring 14 batters in a row before UTSA got their next hit of the game in the bottom of the sixth inning. By that time, the Rice bats had done enough to give the team a chance.

More: Jack Ben-Shoshan’s circuitous path to the top of the Rice Baseball bullpen

A perfectly executed squeeze bunt by Colin Robson tied the game in the fifth. An inning later, Paul Smith roped a two-out single just past a diving second baseman to give Rice their first lead of the afternoon.

Staked to a one-run lead, Hickson worked through traffic but kept compiling outs. Hickson navigated between a pair of singles in the sixth and a one-out double in the seventh. A strikeout started the eighth, but a hit batter and a double put runners on the corners with one out in a pivotal moment.

Head coach Davide Pierce called a meeting on the mound to the set the defense and talk strategy. There was no intention of pulling Hickson from that game at the time with the skipper opting to trust his best arm. This time, Hickson couldn’t escape. A double to the gap in right center plated two, giving UTSA the lead and knocking Hickson from the game.

“I thought he pitched outstanding,” Pierce said of Hickson after the game. “Really did a great job staying ahead in counts. He didn’t walk anyone. He hit one guy.”

That guy would come around to score, souring what will likely be Hickson’s final collegiate outing. After he was lifted, Garrett Stratton allowed another run to score, sending Rice to the ninth inning facing a two-run deficit from which they would not recover. UTSA held on to win the opening game 4-2.

Even when accounting for that final at-bat, Hickson was rock solid, striking out seven through 7.1 innings of work and giving his team a chance. It was always going to be a tough ask to expect two runs on two hits to be enough against the conference’s top team.

With the loss, Rice heads to an elimination game against Florida Atlantic tomorrow. Pierce will take some time with his staff this afternoon to gameplan his pitching approach, but he knows the level of urgency they’ll have to operate with the next time they take the diamond.

“You can’t afford to extend a guy if we’re living on the edge. I’d like to see someone go out there and really pitch like Davion did today,” he said. “No matter what, we just gotta have everybody ready.”

Up Next: Wed, May 21 at 1:00 pm CT vs Florida Atlantic (Elimination Game)

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