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Texas A&M outlasts Rice Baseball in marathon midweek game

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Rice baseball and Texas A&M played a marathon midweek game into the late hours of Tuesday night which went the way of the Aggies when it finally wound down.

It was clear from the start this wasn’t going to be a quick midweek reunion for two Lone Star state rivals. The last time Rice baseball and Texas A&M had met at Reckling Park had been their final game of the 2020 season before COVID-19 shut the sports world down later that week. Both teams made up for the long break with a four-hour, 27-minute ballgame, the longest of the season for the Owls.

Rice opened the scoring in the bottom of the first, courtesy of a wild pitch that allowed Austin Bulman to score from third, but not until seven Owls had come to the plate and Texas A&M had made a pitching change. Texas A&M would answer in the next frame, scoring four and forcing Rice to make a pitching change of their own.

The first two innings alone lasted more than an hour. Things wouldn’t speed up too much after that. Both squads would combine for four home runs, 23 total runs, 25 hits and 13 walks, providing plenty of traffic on the basepaths and very few short innings. 15 combined pitchers appeared in the nine-inning game.

For about half an hour, it felt like Texas A&M had broken things open with a fourth-inning grand slam that gave the visitors an 8-2 lead at the time. Despite the deficit, Rice baseball resolved to keep chipping away

Last Time Out : Takeaways from 2-1 Series Loss to UAB

The Owls scratched across a pair across to start the bottom half of the fourth inning. Then Nathan Becker delivered a bases-clearing double to get Rice within one. Benjamin Rosengard drove in the equalizer on the next at bat. Two and a half hours after they’d started, it was a brand new ball game.

Texas A&M would gain further margin down the stretch, tacking on six more runs over the course of the next two hours of action. Rice threatened on several occasions but was unable to produce a second six-run rally, falling at home by the final score of 15-8.

What it means | Rice can hang

Rice baseball doesn’t have the luxury of throwing out the first month of the regular season, but it’s abundantly clear they aren’t letting the rocky start linger. The Owls did enough over the course of the past week to prove they’ve got what it takes to turn things around start winning some baseball games. During Tuesday’s marathon, they proved they belonged.

Texas A&M came to Houston fresh off a weekend series win over No. 8 LSU. The Aggies aren’t a perfect team by any means and midweek bullpen games can get squirrely — this one did — but after Rice erased a six-run deficit and hung around with a variety of bullpen arms, it sure felt like the Owls were every bit the equal of the team visiting from College Station.

Rice spotted Texas A&M four runs after loading in the fourth, allowing the Aggies to load the bases without a hit, then ceding a grand slam. They dropped multiple balls in the outfield, although only one counted as an error. Even still, it wasn’t until Texas A&M put up a three-spot in the eighth to extend their lead to 14-8 that things truly felt somewhat secure.

For the better part of four hours, Rice baseball hung around. And if Rice can hang with Texas A&M, they can hang with Marshall, FAU and everyone else on their schedule.

ON DECK | Marshall

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Hot hitting continues as Rice Baseball blasts SHSU

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Rice baseball has its first winning streak of the season, taking down SHSU at Reckling Park the night following a blowout win over SFA.

Following a 19-run outburst on Tuesday night against SFA, the Rice baseball bats were quick to prove it wasn’t a one-night show. The Owls were kept off the scoreboard in the first inning against Sam Houston on Wednesday before the offense started to heat up in the second frame.

Both Rice and Sam Houston would scratch across single runs in the second before Rice took a decent lead with a three-run fourth highlighted by an RBI triple from Nathan Becker. Sam Houston would sneak back one run in the fourth and another in the fifth, but Rice starter Thomas Burbank was largely able to work around opposing base runners. He finished with 4.2 innings pitched, three runs (two earned) on nine hits and three strikeouts.

Last Time Out : Pair of slams propel Rice baseball over SFA

Burbank would be relieved by Tom Vincent who got Rice out of the fifth with the lead, then the bats went back to work. The offense exploded for five runs, turning a close 4-3 game into a one-sided 9-3 affair. Sam Houston would get two back in the seventh against Alex DeLeon but Rice regained the six-run lead in the bottom of the eighth courtesy of two out RBI singles from Johnny Hole and Pierce Gallo.

DeLeon would bounce back with two strikeouts in the eighth, ceding to closer Matthew Linskey in the ninth. Linskey slammed the door, striking out the side and clinching the 13-5 victory. It marks the first time this season Rice baseball has won back-to-back games.

What it means | Back-to-back-to-back-to-back

Turning baserunners into run has been one of the biggest challenges Rice baseball has faced this season. The Owls have finished close enough in the hit column in many of their games, but a combination of messy fielding and minimal clutch hits have turned those games into uncompetitive contests.

One need to look no further than their 10-1 defeat to Texas Tech in which the Red Raiders collected nine hits to the Owls eight or even their 15-1 loss to Texas in which Texas had 10 hits and Rice had six. Four hits shouldn’t be the difference in 14 runs, but it was more often than not early on in the season. That’s what makes this shift seem so dramatic.

In the fifth inning against SHSU, four consecutive Rice batters collected an RBI. The final two batters did so with two outs, including an RBI double from Dustin Woodcox and an RBI single from Guy Garibay. Rice seemingly couldn’t get hits with runners in scoring position for weeks. On Wednesday they collected them in droves and had 10+ hits in back-to-back games for the first time this year.

It’s not all going to change overnight, but we’ve now got a few games in a row as evidence this team can get those big hits. Next, they’ll focus on doing so consistently.

ON DECK | UAB

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Rice Baseball: Pair of grand slams highlight win over SFA

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The offense exploded and the pitching was crisp for Rice baseball as the Owls cruised to a comfortable midweek win over SFA.

Rice baseball wasted no time in their first of two midweek games this week, taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning off a Jack Riedel RBI single. The Owls’ opponent, SFA, would answer with a pair off runs from a pair of extra-base hits in the second inning, but that was their only real offensive contributions of the evening against Rice starter Brandon Deskins

Deskins would go 4.0 innings, allowing just two hits and two runs while striking out seven. His command wasn’t perfect — three walks, one hit by pitch, and one wild pitch — but he didn’t have to be with how the Owls were swinging the bats behind him.

Last Time Out : Takeaways from Rice Baseball 3-0 series loss to Texas Tech

Guy Garibay gave Deskins plenty of breathing room with a Grand Slam in the bottom of the second inning. Garibay had another RBI on a single to right field in the fourth, followed by an Aaron Smigelski homer to give Rice a 9-2 advantage.

From there, Deskins would give way to Mark Perkins, who would do his part in keeping SFA at bay. Meanwhile, the offense added eight more runs in the fifth to break the game wide open, including the Owls’ second Grand Slam of the night, this time courtesy of Nathan Becker. By the time the dust settled, Rice had a runaway, 19-3 victory.

What it means | Getting right

Even though Rice baseball lost all three games against Texas Tech this past weekend, head coach Jose Cruz Jr. could sense a change in his ball club. “The last couple days have been different,” he said, referring to the two final games against the Red Raiders, both of which were well within reach following a one-sided Fright night affair.

“Everything is starting to fall into place at the right time,” Cruz Jr. continued. “Especially since conference is about start.”

Rice wouldn’t even have to wait for conference play, thumping SFA in their most decisive victory of the season. The offense was great. The pitching was great. Even the defense, which had just turned in its first error-free game of the season on Sunday, was sturdy. Everything was in sync.

One win won’t guarantee the Owls anything. There was no magic button pressed or formula concocted. But they do look different. They feel different. Perhaps something has clicked and they’ve found that missing component that will enable them to play better baseball. That makes the next few days all the more interesting with Sam Houston and UAB up next.

ON DECK | Sam Houston, UAB

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Rice baseball shows fight despite sweep by Texas Tech

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Rice Baseball dropped the series, but put together two quality games against Texas Tech, boosting morale as conference play nears.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice baseball drops series 3-0

There were parts of the weekend when Rice baseball looked every bit a worthy adversary for No. 15 Texas Tech. The Owls pitching dueled it out with the Red Raider arms and the bats came through in a few key moments to keep things interesting. Fielding woes were the most debilitating part of the series for Rice, but that alone wasn’t the difference between these two Lone Star programs.

“The last couple days have been different,” head coach Jose Cruz Jr. set in retrospect. Rice pushed Texas Tech to the wire in both games, suffering too many errors on Saturday and watching a ball ricochet awkwardly off third base on Sunday in a pivotal moment.

Last Time Out: Rice baseball drops first game of Silver Glove Series to UH

Rice baseball won’t have much time to regroup. They have two midweek games in the coming days before opening up conference play next weekend. But before we get there, more on what we learned from this series and what’s next for Rice baseball.

1. Baseball 101: Don’t drop it

Errors have been an unbelievably extensive issue for Rice baseball through their first few weeks of the season. Following a five-error outing on Friday night, the Owls had committed four or more errors in three of their last seven games.

With the three-game series against Texas Tech now in the books, they’ve still yet to play a full nine innings without committing an error this season. For context, Rice had 22 error-free games last season, keeping a zero on that part of the box score in 42 percent of their games.

Jack Riedel’s diving grab in shallow right-center field to open the third game was proof the Owls do have the capacity to play great defense in spurts. Right now they’d settle for just taking care of the routine plays. If they can do that, they’ll be in line to win more than their Sunday games.

2. Pitching performs

Coming into this weekend, Texas Tech had scored 12 first-inning runs this season. They scored one (unearned) run in their three first-inning at-bats against Rice. After struggling to get their starting rotation going early on this season, the Owls’ front-line arms were outstanding over the three-game slate.

And it wasn’t just the starters, the Rice bullpen put together some incredible outings as well. David Shaw went two scoreless on Saturday. Tom Vincent and Matthew Linskey were both extremely effective on Sunday. Even though they gave up some runs, Thomas Burbank and Garret Zaskoda both made big pitches on Friday night.

Texas Tech averaged 9.2 runs per game prior to their three-game series with Rice baseball. They averaged 6.7 runs against the Owls, but only 4.6 earned runs. Holding this offense that far below their average should have been enough to win some games. It’ll get there if all phases start firing at the same time.

3. Hitting … TBD

Rice baseball is roughly a month into its season and there are still plenty of unknowns regarding who is going to be hitting (or attempting to hit) the baseball for the Owls. Aaron Smigeliski, Guy Garibay, Austin Bulman and Connor Walsh have essentially inked their names into the lineup card, but most everyone else seems to remain on a game-to-game basis.

Fortunately for the Owls, those players that have been cycling through the lineup have started to find their stroke. “It was contributions from a lot of people in different parts of lineup,” Cruz Jr. said. “Which is what it’s going to take for us to be successful.”

It took the bats a while to get going, but they did come through with some big hits with runners in scoring position this weekend. They’ll need some more of that if they’re going to turn close losses into wins against a quality opponent like Texas Tech, but the bones are there if Rice can get just a little bit more from the back end of the lineup, too.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | Texas Tech 10 – Rice 1

Whether it was chilly weather or superb pitching, both teams came out of the gate slowly on the opening night of the series. As the game progressed into the fifth inning with Rice trailing 2-1, the Owls looked every bit the part of a quality opponent for the Red Raiders. Then the bottom fell out on the fielding side and the bats simply weren’t potent enough to overcome the shift.

The Rice defense committed five errors, the first of which set up the big four-run fifth inning that redefined the game. Rice pitchers struck out 10 but walked eight. Further amplifying the defensive woes. Texas Tech out-hit Rice 9-8 and would tack on additional runs following their 6-1 fifth-inning lead as the Owls went quietly down the stretch.

SATURDAY | Texas Tech 3 – Rice 2

Rice spotted Texas Tech an unearned run in the first inning on Saturday. Then they handed them another in the fourth inning. In fact, the Red Raiders didn’t score an earned run until an RBI double in the ninth inning. The Rice pitching was simply better.

In what was one of his best outings of his career at Reckling Park, Roel Garcia struck out nine batters in four innings with one walk and one extra-base hit allowed. David Shaw called with two scoreless innings of no-hit ball with Alex DeLeon working three strong frames, despite allowing the go-ahead hit. The Rice offense picked up some clutch hits two even the score at 2-2 in the eighth, but there wasn’t enough juice to hold on.

SUNDAY | Texas Tech 7 – Rice 1

Both teams picked up right where they left off when they arrived at the ballpark for the series finale. Rice struck first, taking their first lead of the weekend on a first-inning sacrifice fly from Aaron Smigelski. Texas Tech would tie it in the third before Rice came through with two RBI singles in the fourth to take a 4-1 advantage.

It would be Texas Tech’s turn after that. The Red Raiders broke through against Reed Gallant and Christian Cienfuegos in the middle innings, taking a 6-4 lead through six innings. Texas Tech would retire 15 straight Rice batters and tack on one more run, winning 7-4.

ON DECK | Rice baseball vs SFA (Tues), Sam Houston (Wed), UAB (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball drops first Silver Glove matchup vs Houston

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Shaky defense soured a productive evening for the Rice baseball offense as the Owls fell to Houston in Game 1 of the Silver Glove Series.

The recent string of strange, painful games accumulated by Rice baseball this season continued on Tuesday night. Amidst a backdrop of errors and missed opportunities, Parker Smith delivered a strong performance, eventually be saddled with five runs, although only three were earned.

The drama began on what should have been a routine fly-ball hit to left fielder Jack Ben-Shoshan in the first inning. Instead of out number two, the ball bounced off his glove and put two runners in scoring position. Both would come in to score, spotting the visiting Cougars to a 2-0 lead.

Last Time Out : Takeaways from Rice Baseball 3-1 series loss to Harvard

Rice would leave the bases loaded in the second before loading them once more in the third inning, despite not tallying any hits. Aaron Smigelski would take care of that evasive base knock, delivering a two-run double to spot Rice to a 3-2 lead. That advantage would last mere minutes before Houston found the equalizer in the fourth when a would-be base stealer would score from second on a pair of errors.

Soon after, Rice found themselves trailing 5-3 and began to chip away. Rice scored would engineer runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, tying things up with Houston 6-6 after the Owls allowed another unearned run following another outfield mishap.

On the mound, Garrett Zaskoda was extremely effective after taking the reigns from Cooper Chandler in his first relief appearance of the season. Zaskoda tied a career-high with four strikeouts, giving the team a fighting chance in the middle innings which they’d hold until an RBI double scored the winning runs against Zaskoda’s replacement, Brandon Deskins, in the eighth.

What they’re saying | Fix the fielding

Head coach Jose Cruz Jr. was quick to praise the strong outings on the mound, giving nods to several individuals including Chandler, who essentially threw his midweek bullpen session in the game. The critical comments came when addressing the fielding woes. “I don’t know how you can possibly have five errors and win a game,” he said. “That’s just something that we’re going to have to fix. The amount of errors we’ve had in so many games is just unacceptable.”

Cruz Jr. went as far as to say he’d consider moving players to the bench if they couldn’t hold on to the baseball. At this point, everything is on the table as he and the rest of the coaching staff work to assemble the best starting lineup to win games.

“We had three errors in the outfield today and that’s crazy town. I mean, that doesn’t happen,” Cruz Jr. said. Indeed, it hasn’t happened for Rice baseball since an eight error game against Arizona in 2019, spread across a host of different position players.

What it means | Offense waking up?

Seven runs against anyone is a particularly important milestone for a team that’s struggled at the plate early this season. Tuesday was proof the Owls can get the bats going. Now they just need to do it consistently.

They might start working on a bust of Aaron Smigeliski to keep in the Rice baseball dugout. After pinch hits in his first two appearances of the season, Smigelski earned his spot in the regular lineup where he stayed until being hit by a pitch in the Sunday finale against Lamar. That injury kept him out of the lineup against Baylor and through the weekend series against Harvard.

He made his return to the order on Tuesday, walking in his first plate appearance to earn an eight-game on-base streak. He one-upped that accolade in his second plate appearance, blasting a double to the alley in right-center, turning a 2-1 Rice deficit into a 3-2 Rice lead. It was the Owls’ only hit of the first three innings, but it was the biggest. He also added a productive out to advance a runner in the seventh.

At a time when the bats around him were struggling, Smigelski made every trip to the plate count, going 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. In all seriousness, it’ll take more than a good couple of weeks to earn some tangible hardware. But in a season filled with lows for Rice baseball, Smigelski has been a bright light.

Jack Riedel also earned a mention. Despite not starting the game and coming in as a defensive replacement in the fourth inning he finished a triple short of the cycle, mashing his first career home run along the way.

ON DECK | Texas Tech

The extended Rice baseball homestand marches on this coming weekend with a three-game set against Texas Tech. First pitch for Friday is set for 6:30 p.m. The series will be the Owls’ final non-conference weekend slate before opening up conference play the following weekend against UAB.

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