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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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Rice Baseball goes winless in Puerto Rico Challenge

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Rice Baseball might have enjoyed the cultural experience, but the results on the field were lacking: an 0-3 start to the season at the Puerto Rico Challenge.

FRIDAY | Villanova 10 – Rice 6

Davion Hickson worked through four scoreless innings on Friday evening, seeing his outing cut short with command issues that yielded five walks and 20 batters faced despite no runs across. Von Baker took the baton and worked a scoreless fifth before Villanova got to him for four runs in the sixth, putting the Owls in comeback mode.

Down 5-1, the Rice bats would respond in earnest the following inning Luke Smith and Treyton Rank each tallied RBI hits to level the game before freshman Blaine Brown put Rice in front, 6-5, with a screaming single to center field in the eighth. Villanova would ambush closer Garrett Stratton in the ninth, scoring five runs, rendering the Owls’ comeback moot and handing them a crushing Opening Day defeat.

SATURDAY | Michigan 5 – Rice 2

Rice baseball got a career day from Robert Fernandez in his start against Michigan, where he hurled six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and striking out four. He left the game in line for the win courtesy of a go-ahead RBI single from Brown in the first inning. The Owls would tack on an insurance run in the eighth on an RBI ground out from Hiram Bocachica.

Leading 2-0, the bullpen faltered again. Blank allowed the first three batters to reach in the eighth, leaving the game with two on and a 2-1 Rice lead. Tom Vincent was saddled with the loss, throwing a wild pitch to advance both runners and allowing a single on the only batter he faced. Brown took over and allowed four runs, primarily from inherited runners, as the Owls fell 5-2.

SUNDAY | Virginia 7 – Rice 0

A steady trickle of Virginia runs made for a long finale to the Puerto Rico Challenge. The Hoos scored three in the second charged to JD McCracken, three more across the fifth and sixth innings charged to Austin Eppley and one final run on a sac fly against Matt Zatopek, tallying seven scores in eight trips to the plate.

More: 2025 Rice Baseball Season Preview

That ninth trip wasn’t necessary for Virginia because Rice would be shut out. Virginia pitching held Rice bats to three total hits and six base runners, making any hopes of a comeback against the No. 2 team in the nation short-lived.

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: Bullpen

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The bullpen made improvements as the 2024 Rice baseball season progressed, turning into a dependable unit by season’s end.

It was a rocky start for the Rice baseball bullpen. It took a few weeks for the staff to figure out who they could trust in the most high-leverage moments and for the players put into those positions to feel comfortable in their own shoes. Once everything came together, though, this pitching staff really excelled, providing plenty of backing for the starting pitching and give the Owls a shot to win some ballgames. For the purposes of this discussion, we focused on players who through at least 20 innings this season.

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