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Rice Baseball swept at Tulane

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Rice baseball was able to manufacture more timely hits, but couldn’t get enough of them as the Owls were swept in three games on the road at Tulane.

FRIDAY | Tulane 7, Rice 5

Things were going just fine for Rice baseball starter Davion Hickson on Friday… until they weren’t. Hickson breezed through two innings before a leadoff home run to left greeted him in the third and Tulane proceeded to square him up much more often over the next two and a half innings.

Tulane led 3-0 entering the fifth before Rice responded in earnest, driving in four in the top of the fifth to take a 4-3 lead, courtesy of big hits from Hiram Bocachica and Michael Zito. The feeble lead was quickly erased by a Tulane grand slam in the bottom of the inning. Shortly thereafter, Hickson was ejected, forcing Jackson Blank into the game on little notice.

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

Blank did all he could to give Rice a chance, turning in 3.1 scoreless innings in relief, allowing one hit to the 11 Tulane batters he faced. The Owls’ last-ditch effort in the ninth saw the would-be tying run get into scoring position with one out, but Rice would come up two runs short.

SATURDAY 1 | Tulane 10, Rice 3

Tucker Alch drew the start in the first game of the Saturday double-header and despite being staked to a 1-0 early lead on a Tobias Motley home run found himself working from behind following three runs from the home Green Wave across the next two frames. Alch got another dose of run support in the fifth on RBI hits from Blaine Brown and Jacob Devenney before allowing the leadoff man to reach and ceding the mound to Tom Vincent.

Last Weekend: Rice Baseball swept by “three clean games” from ECU

Vince got out of the fifth unscathed but ran into trouble in the sixth and was quickly lifted for Garrett Stratton, who got roughed up a bit as well. Tulane was tally 10 runs against the Owls’ staff in the game, striking 20 hits to the Owls’ 10 base knocks.

SATURDAY 2 | Tulane 6, Rice 5

JD McCracken was competitive in the series finale, but still saw three runs charged to his ledger across 5.1 innings of work. He would depart the diamond with the lead, though, supported by a run scoring double from Aric Anderson in the fifth and two-run home run from Zito in the sixth, the latter followed soon after by a go-ahead single to center by Jacob Devenny three batters later.

Jack Ben-Shoshan entered the game in the sixth with the lead and got through the remainder of the inning and the next without issues before Tulane tied things up with a solo home run in the eight. For a moment, the Owls appeared to have landed a sufficient counterpunch with a go-ahead hit from Bocachica in the ninth, but Tulane walked it off with a two-out, two run shot over the right-field wall.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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Rice Baseball splits weekend series with HCU

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Led by interim manager Parker Bangs, Rice Baseball split a four-game set with Houston Christian this weekend, winning back-to-back games for the first time this year.

FRIDAY | HCU 4, Rice 3 (11 inn)

The pitching tandem of Garrett Stratton and Marco Fuentes delivered a marvelous nine innings of work on Friday night, combining to allows two runs with nine strikeouts, keeping Houston Christian at bay and giving the Owls’ bats every opportunity to make a difference.

More: Jose Cruz Jr. out as Rice Baseball head coach

HCU went in front with an RBI single and a RBI groundout in the fourth. Rice countered with RBI from Trey Duffield and Tobias Motley in the sixth to bring things even. Deadlocked at 2-2, Jack Ben-Shoshan got through the 10th unscathed before HCU struck for two more in the 11th. The Owls would get some traffic on the bases in the bottom half of the inning, but came up one run short.

SATURDAY AM | HCU 6, Rice 2 (7 inn)

In the first seven-inning game of a Saturday double-header, Houston Christian hit home runs in the second and third inning off Rice starter JD McCracken to take a 4-0 lead. Motley got one of those runs back with an RBI single in the fourth, but HCU tagged McCracken for two more runs in the fourth, jumping out to a 6-1 lead.

The shortened game left the Owls without much time to mount a comeback. Although the Huskies wouldn’t score again, another RBI single from Motley in the sixth was all the Owls could muster in response. The defeat marked the 12th straight defeat for Rice baseball.

SATURDAY PM | Rice 7, HCU 4 (7 inn)

The Rice bats finally got going in the second half of the double-header, exploding for seven runs in the first three innings, highlighted by a five-run second and a home run from Trey Duffield. That early onslaught put the Owls in the drivers seat and gave starter Tucker Alch a cushion to work with as the game progressed.

Last Weekend: Rice Baseball swept by Yale

Houston Christian would get to Alch for four runs in the fourth, but Alch returned to put up a couple of additional zeroes in the subsequent frames. Von Baker entered in the seventh and closed out the game, earning his first save as an Owl and the securing the first win for Rice Baseball since February 23.

SUNDAY | Rice 6, HCU 2

Both sides swapped single runs in the first inning as the pitching staffs navigated some early trouble. Rice baseball settled in quite nicely on the mound when interim manager Parker Bangs went to Reed Gallant who took the ball in the third inning and went to work, mowing down seven Huskies across seven innings of one-run ball.

With Gallant hurling a gem, the bats went to work. Trey Duffield’s solo home run in the fourth put Rice in front. Blaine Brown extended the lead to 3-1 with an RBI single in the fifth. Then Jacob Devenny and Max Johnson went deep in the eighth to stretch the lead to five, giving the Owls’ plenty of breathing room to help them secure the series split.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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2025 Rice Baseball Season Preview

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Rice Baseball is set to enter Year 4 under Jose Cruz Jr with what he believes to be the Owls’ most talented team of his tenure. Can Owls take flight this season?

Head coach Jose Cruz Jr. was quick to not promise the moon when he arrived on campus in the summer of 2021. He spoke then about building things the right way, acquiring talent and developing that talent within the Rice baseball culture. From there, the next step was winning games. It was always a long term plan, at least, that’s how the message was conveyed.

Three seasons in, Cruz and the Rice faithful are hoping enough of a foundation has been laid to turn those aspirational ideals into tangible wins. “We’re getting better every year, we’re getting better. The mentality is better. The athletes are better. The physiques are better,” Cruz said. “Every year we’re just going to keep getting better.”

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Rice Baseball 2024 Season Review: Lineup

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The offense was underwhelming for Rice baseball in 2024, posting the second-lowest OPS in the AAC while leading the league in strikeouts.

Rice baseball took a while to figure out the bats in 2024, but even when the Owls did get things going at the plate, the lineup remained fairly hot and cold. Fortunately for the Owls, having the league’s top home run hitter and some veteran pieces helped keep them competitive at the plate through the hard times. Through it all, there were individual highlights — described in more detail below — but for the most part, it was another challenging year with the sticks.

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Rice Baseball takes series from league-leading UTSA

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Rice Baseball took two out of three from league-leading UTSA, securing their third straight conference win to get back in the mix in the AAC.

FRIDAY | Rice 9 – UTSA 8 (10 innings)

Things were looking up when Tobias Motley and Ben Dukes each delivered two-run home runs in the second inning on Friday night, putting the Owls up 4-1 with Parker Smith on the mound. Smith would run into some trouble in the fourth, but leave the game in the sixth inning having staked Rice to a 7-3 advantage.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball sweeps USF

Tom Vincent and Davion Hickson got Rice to the ninth inning with a three-run lead, but Hickson suffered a rare blown save, allowing UTSA to tie the game in the top of the ninth. Garrett Stratton would come to the rescue, getting out of the ninth without allowing the Owls to fall behind and setting up a walk-off win. Motley led off the inning with a triple and scored on a squeeze bunt by Jacob Devenny.

SATURDAY | Rice 9 – UTSA 3

It was all Owls from the jump on Saturday. Rice loaded the bases with two outs in the first then picked up a pair of clutch hits: a bases-clearing RBI single from Nathan Becker to go up 3-0 and then a two-run home run from Trey Duffield.

As if that wasn’t enough, Rice followed that up with three runs in the second, taking advantage of errant UTSA pitching and an RBI single from Pierce Gallo to go up 8-0 midway through the second.

Handed a commanding lead, JD McCracken bore down and tossed another gem. He made it all the way to the ninth inning before being lifted for Jackson Blank, who picked up the final two outs.

SUNDAY | UTSA 4 – Rice 2

Seemingly out of nowhere, a pitcher’s duel broke out in the series finale. Rice’s Tucker Alch squared off with UTSA’s Ulises Quiroga for the better part of six innings with neither man ceding much to his opposition. Ben Dukes was able to sneak a two-run home run just inside the right-field foul pole in the third, but that was the only score either starter yielded on the day.

More: Jose Cruz Jr. and the trajectory of Rice Baseball

Rice maintained a slim 2-0 lead from that point onward, keeping the game in check until UTSA broke through with a four-run rally in the top of the eighth. The Roadrunners struck six hits in the frame, including a go-ahead two-run home run off Garrett Stratton. That would prove to be the deciding swing.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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