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Rice Baseball: Previewing the Rhode Island series

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Who’s ready for a weekend at Reckling Park? Rice baseball returns on Friday with a three-game series against the visiting Rhode Island Rams.

Listen online // Watch Friday (CUSA TV) // Watch Saturday (CUSA TV) // Watch Sunday (CUSA TV)

For baseball fans, there are few words sweeter than opening day. Rice gets to experience that return to the diamond on Friday, Feb. 15 through Feb. 17 as the Owls kick off a long homestand to begin the Matt Bragga Era at South Main. Here’s what to expect from their first opponent: Rhode Island.

Projected Pitching Matchups

Friday: Matt Canterino vs Tyler Wilson
Saturday: Addison Moss vs Vitaly Jangols
Sunday: Jackson Parthasarathy vs Nick Robinson

Rhode Island Pitching

Tyler Wilson is the Rams’ ace and as such, crucial to the road team’s hopes of a series win. Last season the senior lefty had a 3.59 ERA and averaged 8.63 K/9, a top 10 mark in the A10 conference.

Wilson is a proven commodity among a pitching staff that will be extremely green. Vitaly Jangols started eight games last season, tallying 31 strikeouts and 10 walks with a 4.75 ERA. Righty Nick Robinson (14 appearances, 5.30 ERA) and lefty Jake Walker (11 appearances, 7.99 ERA) both have some starting experience and could challenge for a spot in the rotation early on this season.

Senior Mark Silvestri (18 appearances, 5.48 ERA) will anchor the Rams’ bullpen and could be in line to take over the closer role from last year’s anchor Nick Johnson.

Rhode Island Hitting

Rhode Island loses a lot of experience pitching and will turn to relatively untested arms. The same won’t be true of their lineup. Jackson Coutts was a revelation for the Rams’ offense in 2018. He led the team in batting average and RBI as a true freshman. Also returning are Sonny Ulliana and Greg Cavaliere, the only other Rams with a slugging percentage of .350 or better.

Nobody on the lineup is particularly threatening from a power standpoint. Rhode Island totaled just 11 home runs all of last season and tended to strike out, a lot. Senior Lawerence Hill led the team with 50 whiffs, somewhat offset by a team-high 23 runs scored and 10 stolen bases.

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Baseball: Breaking down the 2019 offensive lineup

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Rice baseball expects to return to contention in Conference USA under the new direction of Matt Bragga. To get there the Owls’ will need to find consistent offensive production.

Although pitching is expected to take the forefront in the upcoming season, Rice baseball will bring a solid mix of offensive weapons to the plate in 2019. Matt Bragga, renowned as an offensive whisper during his time at Tennessee Tech, should be able to get the most out of the Owls’ bats.

Here’s how the main position players set up entering the spring:

C – Collins
1B – DiCaprio
2B – Edwards
SS – T. Cruz
3B – Corneaux
OF – Cox, Beaulaurier, Brewer, A. Cruz, Gneiting
DH – Duluc, Dunlap

The proven commodities

Braden Comeaux (.319/.429/.412) and Andrew Dunlap (.260/.368/.435) were two of the more reliable bats in the lineup last season and both guys return in 2019. Comeaux has the potential to lead Conference USA in hits after finishing fourth last year. Dunlap took a step back from a career-best season in 2017, but has the experience and situational awareness to be a big asset at the plate.

Catcher Justin Collins could be the most important piece, though. After showing flashes as a freshman he’s started to pick things up this offseason. During the fall exhibitions, he blasted a grand slam against Sam Houston and was near perfect Texas A&M, going 4-for-5 with a double. He’ll be asked to be a consistent run producer in the middle of the lineup in 2019.

Who else steps up?

It remains to be seen how Matt Bragga will deploy the rest of the lineup. There are an array of guys who could fill the outfield spots. Trei Cruz and Bradley Gneiting both had their moments and will be counted upon to be more or less everyday players again this season.

Dominic Cox and Dominic DiCaprio are both wildcards to watch. DiCaprio brings some pop, provided he can make enough consistent contact to earn a spot in the starting nine. The same goes for Cox who appeared in 50 games last season despite holding a .182 average.

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Baseball: Breaking down the 2019 pitching staff

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The spring is here and so is Rice baseball. The new era under Matt Bragga will begin with some familiar names led on the mound by Matt Canterino.

Matt Bragga’s first season as the head coach for Rice baseball will be underway very soon. The Owls are expected to be led by a strong presence on the mound. Here’s how the starting rotation and the bullpen project entering the 2019 season.

The Rotation

Friday: Matt Canterino (2018: 7-5, 3.06 ERA, 116K, 22BB)

There are few preseason awards which omitted the Owls’ ace. Canterino was named the CUSA Preseason Pitcher of the Year as well as an All-American by Baseball America and the National College Baseball Writer’s Association. D1 Baseball tabbed him as their CUSA Preseason Pitcher of the Year, too.

Saturday: Addison Moss (2018: 2-4, 2.43 ERA, 53K, 16BB)

Moss and Canterino could establish themselves as one of the best 1-2 punches in Conference USA. Moss didn’t earn the same preseason recognition as Canterino, but the junior hurler returns from a sophomore campaign in which he allowed 2.3 walks per nine innings and held the best ERA on the team.

Sunday and midweek starters:

Roel Garcia underwent Tommy John surgery this winter, opening the door wide open for the Sunday and midweek starting roles. Coach Bragga will have several options to choose from and we could see several guys get a shot before the rotation begins to solidify itself.

Bragga has tabbed Jackson Parthasarathy (3 starts, 6.28 ERA) and Evan Kravetz as the top two guys entering the season. Kendal Jeffries (5 starts in 2018, 4.06 ERA) and Missouri transfer Drake Greenwood could get a chance, too.

The Bullpen

This is where things get interesting. Rice should have a deep crop of arms for the staff to deploy in a variety of ways. Brandon Deskins and Zach Esquivel are both quality relief options with the latter two putting on impressive showings in the Owls’ final fall scrimmage against Texas A&M. The duo each have some tricky movement on their stuff which makes them tricky to hit provided they can stick it in the zone.

On the back end, Garrett Gayle has the arm to cement himself as the team’s primary closer this season. He posted a stunning 0.45 ERA in the Cape Cod league this summer and has topped 97 MPH on the gun. Gayle finished second on the team to Canterino in strikeouts last year.

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Rice Athletics 2018: A Year in Review

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Rice athletics produced some memorable moments in 2018. Here’s an overview of how the Owls faired on the court, the field and in the gym over the past year.

Baseball

The Wayne Graham era at South Main came to an end this year. Graham’s 27-season tenure at Rice included 1,173 wins, 23 NCAA Tournament appearances, seven College World Series appearances and one National Championship in 2003. He owns the best winning percentage in school history (.689). Following the season, new head baseball coach Matt Bragga was introduced as the Owls’ next manager.

Basketball (men’s and women’s)

The men have a  roster filled with young players who have fought through growing pains in 2018. The Owls won seven games last season and enter CUSA play with five wins already under their belt.

After making it to the second round of the WNIT last March, the women’s team started strong again in the 2018-2019 season. The squad went 8-3 in non-conference play with one game remaining on Dec. 29 and has aspirations of a CUSA Title and an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Football

2018 was an important year for Rice football. Mike Bloomgren earned his first win regular season win and first conference win as a head coach against Prairie View and Old Dominion, respectively. Owls’ star running back Trevor Cobb was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. The team finished the year by signing 17 players during the early signing period including Jake Bailey, a Top 15 recruit in Conference USA.

Tennis (men’s and women’s)

The women’s team earned an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament, dropping a heartbreaker to Texas A&M in the Austin Regional. The men failed to make the NCAA Tournament, but Eric Rutledge and Sumit Sarkar were awarded All-CUSA First Team honors in doubles. Rutledge was named to the first team for singles. Sarkar was named to the second.

Soccer (women’s)

The team hung in through a tough 2018 campaign. Needing a tie in their final regular season game to clinch a spot in the CUSA Tournament, Rice topped Charlotte in the finale. The Owls finished the regular season at 4-5-1 before a loss in the conference tournament. There were a couple close calls with a 3-0 shutout of Louisiana Tech marking the top performance of the year.

Swimming (women’s)

Rice ended their year with a bang. The Owls finished second out of 31 scoring teams at the CSCAA National Invitational in March. Kaitlyn Swinney broke the school record for the 400-IM at the meet.

Volleyball

It was a banner year for the Owls’ volleyball squad. They set a program-best winning streak, reeling off 15-straight victories on their way to a Conference USA regular season championship. They’d add a CUSA Conference Championship too, thereby securing their fourth NCAA Tournament berth in school history.

Nicole Lennon, Lee Ann Cunningham and Grace Morgan were named to the CUSA First Team while Anota Adekunle and Carly Graham were selected to the CUSA All-Freshman team.

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Rice Baseball: Owls drop fall scrimmage to Texas A&M at Reckling Park

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Rice baseball donned their blue and gray at Reckling Park, hosting Texas A&M in a fall exhibition game on a brisk October evening.

Rice hosted their first home exhibition of the fall against Texas A&M. On a cool night at Reckling Park, the Owls fell to the Aggies 9-6 in 12 innings.

Texas A&M struck first, putting up four runs on a flurry of fourth inning hits against Rice pitcher Evan Kravetz. The Aggie pitching staff held the Owls in check for much of the early action, but the home team broke through with a crooked number of their own in the sixth.

Rice designated hitter Khevin Brewer mashed a bases-clearing double down the left field line. A bases-loaded walk tied the game at 4-4 entering the seventh. Texas A&M pushed a pair of unearned runs across in the seventh and Rice answered with singles in the seventh and eighth to tie the game at 6-6.

The game stayed deadlock through the next three innings before Texas A&M pushed across two runs in the 12th. Rice had one last chance to answer in the bottom half of the frame but wasn’t able to fight back.

The result is somewhat trivial in a scrimmage atmosphere, overall the night gave the young guys some valuable experience and gave the coaches a chance to see their players in action.

Offensive player of the game – Justin Collins, catcher

Justin Collins was seeing the ball well off just about every pitcher he faced. He picked up the Owls first hit of the night with a double in the second inning. He followed that up with singles in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings.

It was Collins who delivered for the Owls in their exhibition against Sam Houston last week, mashing a grand slam to give Rice a commanding lead. He hit .265 with 12 extra base hits in 2017 and will be trusted for more this season.

Pitcher of the game – Addison Moss, pitcher

With Matt Canterino on the shelf, resting from a busy fall that included the Cape Cod league and Team USA appearances, the Owls turned to Moss to start their tilt against the Aggies. He faced seven batters, allowed one hit and struck out one, throwing 16 strikes on 24 pitches.

Moss wasn’t perfect, but he kept a potent Aggie lineup from making much hard contact. He’ll be a piece of the starting rotation for the Owls once again this spring.

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