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Rice Baseball 2020: Texas A&M outlasts Owls at Reckling Park

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Rice baseball led No. 22 Texas A&M early, but couldn’t seal the deal, falling to the Aggies in their final game before conference play begins.

The early innings breezed by as Rice baseball traded three scoreless frames with Texas A&M (14-3) in a crucial midweek game. The Owls were hosting the No. 22 Aggies looking for their Tuesday victory of the young season.

Rice took a one-run lead in the fourth. Texas A&M responded quickly, pounding out back-to-back doubles in the fifth inning to take their first lead of the night. Rice leveled the score in the bottom half of the inning, holding the score at 2-2 before Texas A&M jumped ahead 3-2 in the seventh. The Aggies would add a decisive three additional runs in the eighth before winning 6-2.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Pop, pop

Entering Tuesday’s game Rice baseball was dead last in C-USA in home runs. The Owls have several players in their lineup with power — they ranked fifth in doubles with 28 — but those big hits weren’t leaving the yard.

Justin Collins and Rodrigo Duluc each blasted their first home run of the season against Texas A&M. Collins put Rice ahead in the bottom of the fourth with a solo shot. Duluc followed an inning later, tying the game on a solo bomb of his own after the Aggies had moved ahead in the top of the fifth.

The bullpen at their best …. and their worst

Rice has been at their best this season when their starting pitching led the way. Rather than ride one arm as long as he could, Matt Bragga opted for a bullpen game, trusting a slew of relievers to be at their best against a dangerous Texas A&M lineup. Things started out well enough but trusting eight pitchers to all be at their best proved untenable.

Brandon Deskins and Kel Bordwine threw four hitless innings to start the game. Matthew Santos and Cristian Cienfuegos had scoreless frames. Garret Zaskoda was okay. Caleb Burgess barely scraped together three outs. Josh Larzabal allowed three hits before Andrew Kane came on and surrendered what felt like the backbreaking 2 RBI single in the eighth inning.

Dealt a tough hand, Kane’s short outing ended with a 6-2 Rice deficit. The bullpen which seemed thin entering the game lived up to that expectation. Rice has a few really good arms, but there’s a lot of work to be done in terms of consistency and pitchability.

Thank goodness for conference play

The 2020 series has been a series of heartbreaks for Rice baseball. Sitting at 2-10 prior to the Texas Tech series, Rice was incapable of holding on to a pair of 5+ run leads. They could have won that series. They could have won a few more games here and there. But from a macro-level view, Rice did not pass their brutal nonconference test. They open conference play 2-14.

The Owls have a half dozen proven arms and about that many trustworthy bats. The rest of the pitching staff and lineup could get there, but the rigors of games against Texas, UC Irvine, Texas Tech, Texas A&M and others were akin to a trial by fire. Everything is a bit singed.

Conference USA play marks a fresh slate. As disappointing as the first month has been, Rice baseball has plenty to play for, starting this weekend against Marshall.

Up Next | Marshall (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball 2020: Houston takes Game 1 of Silver Glove Series

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Rice baseball dropped the first game of the Silver Glove Series on Wednesday night, falling to Houston 6-4 at Reckling Park.

Wednesday night’s narrow loss was the latest in a series of tough blows to a Rice baseball program still in search of consistency. Rice held Houston off the board in the first, but allowed the Cougars to score in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings. Despite leading 2-1 after two frames, Rice fell behind 5-2 and was unable to rally.

The Rice loss put Houston ahead 1-0 in the battle for the Silver Glove. Rice won the series in 2019.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Lineup TBD

Matt Bragga has said on multiple occasions he’d prefer to pick one lineup and stick with it. Wednesday was far from that ideal, but that’s what happens when previous lineups fail to get the job done. Freshman catcher Cullen Hannigan got his first career start (and first collegiate hit).

The outfield consisted of Dominic Cox, Antonio Cruz and Aaron Beaulaurier, almost a complete 180 flip from the trio of Beaulaurier, Daniel Hernandez and Bradley Gneiting who started the first game of the Missouri State series. Hernandez did not appear, while Gneiting moved to first base, shifting Austin Bulman to third as Braden Comeaux remained out of the lineup.

Starting Pitching TBD

The midweek starting spots are still up for grabs. First, the Owls are still working to settle in on a weekend rotation that will include Roel Garcia when he’s back to full strength. Beyond that, the Owls haven’t had anyone come in and seize the job or force themselves into the conversation for a Sunday start.

Brandon Deskins got the nod tonight and turned in a serviceable performance. He allowed two runs (one earned) in three innings, one which came on a wild pitch. Looking past that misstep, and considering the lack of proven alternatives, Deskins probably deserves another midweek start at the very least.

Offensive execution continues to be a sore spot

Down 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Rice had a golden opportunity to tie the game. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. They had three opportunities. And they wasted each of them. After Cade Edwards and Trei Cruz had delivered RBI hits to set the table, Austin Bulman, Rodrigo Duluc and Bradley Gneiting struck out in order with runners on second and third.

Not converting with runners in scoring position happens to every team, but it’s happened with far too much regularity with the Owls. There is simply no reason the 3-4-5 hitters in any lineup can’t get the tying run 90 feet with three tries. A bad indiviual at bat happens, but three in a row from the better hitters on the team is a problem. If the approaches in those situations don’t change, it’s going to be hard to trust this team to get hits when the pressure rises even higher.

Up Next | Texas Tech (Fri-Sun)

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Baseball: Two grand slams rocket Owls past Prairie View A&M

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Rice baseball jumped out to a sizable lead letting out their offensive frustrations with a lopsided home win over Prairie View A&M.

Rodrigo Duluc stood on the steps of the dugout with his teammates all season, not once stepping foot in the batter’s box until Wednesday’s game against Prairie View A&M. He looked on as the team dropped midweek contests to Arizona and Texas. He was watching when UC Irvine swept Rice at home, allowing the home team to score just nine runs over the course of the weekend.

Then, finally, after patiently waiting for his turn, Duluc took his place at the plate and let it rip. With the bases loaded two outs in the bottom of the first inning, Duluc deposited a 1-2 pitch over the left field wall. The Grand Slam broke a 13-inning scoreless streak, jumpstarting an offense in desperate need of a spark.

Staked to an early 4-0 lead, Rice would pour on at least one run over the first five innings. The Owls stretched their advantage to 10-2, and although Prairie View was able to creep back with a three-run sixth inning. It wasn’t enough to cause any serious concern, but Rice would put all hopes of a Prairie View A&M comeback to bed in the seventh.

Rice scored 13 runs on 14 hits, coming one batter shy of hitting around, twice. The mashed three home runs within the inning. The final score of 25-5 marked the most runs scored by Rice since a 26-17 victory over UAB in 2017.

Takeaways

1. The offense definitely exists

Rice hit .091 with runners in scoring position over the weekend, converting two opportunities in the span of three games. On Wednesday, Rice not only surpassed their weekend run total, but they also picked up 12 hits with runners in scoring position 20 tries.

In addition to Duluc’s coming out party, Bradley Gneiting and Andrew Dunlap had career-high five-hit games. Trei Cruz had his second grand slam of the season.

Justin Collins, Cade Edwards, Braden Comeaux each had multi-hit games. Prairie View is far from the caliber of pitching staffs the Owls have faced to this point and have on the docket this coming weekend. But, Rice should have scored in bunches against this squad, and they rose to the occasion — and then some. If Wednesday night isn’t proof they’re capable of packing a punch at the plate this season, what not much else will.

2. Kel Bordwine bounces back

Almost two weeks prior, the first win of the Matt Bragga era was made possible by a strong relief outing by Kel Bordwine. He threw the first three extra innings on the Saturday game against Rhode Island, allowing three hits, one walk and striking out two. Although he was charged with the go-ahead run, it was Zach Esquivel who allowed the runner to circle the bases.

His next outing wasn’t nearly as encouraging. Arizona knocked him out of his prior Wednesday start after he allowed six hits and three runs in the first three innings. Which Bordwine is the real deal? A five-hit, no earned run performance through five against Prairie View is a vote in favor of the season-opening version.

3. A complete team win is what this team needed

For whatever the reason, Rice hasn’t really gotten the offense, defense and pitching in sync this season. The Owls are still searching for their first error-free game of 2019, but the rotation and the lineup have each had bursts. Bordwine started the Owls off on the right foot on the mound and the offense was electric. The relief corps had a hiccup before settling down late in the game. The defense, again, wasn’t perfect. And Rice won by 20.

Winning big with some built-in mistakes is a step in the right direction. If Rice wants to contend with the heavyweights of the sport, they’ll need to start combining all phases in the same game. This was definitely a step in the right direction.

ON DECK | vs Texas State (Fri), vs Baylor (Sat), vs TCU (Sun)

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