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Rice baseball swept at home, drops battle of Owls to FAU

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In a battle of Owls, Rice Baseball was swept at home by Florida Atlantic over the weekend, outscored by their visitors 24-10 in the three-game series.

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

A hot start early on in conference play has seemingly cooled off for Rice baseball, who dropped their fifth consecutive contest on Sunday as a three-game series against FAU resulted in a sweep. Going winless at your own ballpark is never fun, and Rice will have plenty to work on as they prepare for a tough road trip to Ruston, LA next weekend. But first, a few takeaways from the weekend.

1. Scoring output stumbles

The Rice bats haven’t been the problem in recent weeks. Even when they weren’t exploding for double-digit outputs, they still seemed to consistently reach six or seven runs, giving their pitching staff support and giving the team a chance in almost every game. Against FAU, Rice scored just 10 runs in three games.

FAU is in the bottom third of the conference in team ERA, and although they’ve pitched fairly well of late, this probably wasn’t the most dominant set of hurlers Rice baseball will see this season. They managed to do a number against the Owls.

Last Time Out: Ninth inning rally comes up short for Rice baseball vs TAMUCC

Perhaps this was just an off weekend, but it was telling that Rice baseball head coach Cruz Jr. opted to empty the benches on Sunday and put Jack Ben-Shoshan and Cullen Hannigan in the starting lineup for the first time in a long while.

He tried to shake things up and provide this lineup a spark. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. As the pitching staff struggles. the bats will continue to be relied upon to win Rice games. When they’re quiet, it’s going to make for long days at the ballpark.

2. Defense is picking up

It wasn’t that long ago where it seemed like Rice was due a three-error or four-error game every weekend. Keeping track of the baseball wasn’t something this team did well, that is, until the switch was flipped in late March and they became a stronger fielding team.

“I think our infield is starting to look really good defensively,” Cruz Jr. said, making note of the return of Hal Hughes to the lineup. Hughes made his season debut on Tuesday against Texas A&M Corpus Christi after missing the first half of the season with an injury.

Rice committed just two errors on the weekend, and although there were a few bad hops that some of the Owls’ defenders would have preferred to make, the focus is definitely better. That’s a plus, and a much-needed sign of growth for the program as a whole.

3. Pitching staff in progress

Had anyone offered Cruz Jr. a pair of two-pitcher games to open this weekend series he would have taken it in a heartbeat, especially against one of the best hitting teams in the conference. FAU leads Conference USA in hits, and although they picked up several against Rice, the Owls top end of the staff was competitive enough to be trusted with deep outings, even in the bullpen.

Weeks ago Cruz Jr. talked about finding a reliable corps to throw in the most high-leverage of situations. Even though the Rice bullpen gave up runs this weekend, it seemed evident some combination of Garret Zaskoda, Roel Garcia, Dalton Wood, David Shaw, Tom Vincent and Cristian Cienfuegos are going to the first guys to get the call just about every weekend from here on out.

More: Rice Baseball Midseason State of the Program

The shortlist has been built. What remains to be seen is which pitchers can make the adjustments and start to limit the damage against some of the deeper lineups in Conference USA. Matthew Linskey has been darn near perfect, but he can’ throw every day, not if he wants to maintain that level of effectiveness. No, it’s going to take another step up by a few more guys. Now it appears the staff knows who they’re looking for.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | FAU 9 – Rice 4

The series started out on a rocky note for Rice baseball starter Cooper Chandler who gave up four runs in the first two innings including a few very hard-hit balls. To his credit, he dug in and fought his way to the sixth inning. Cruz Jr. noticed his grit, saying Chandler “pitched really good”, casting his major complaints upon the Rice offense, which did little to support their Friday night guy.

Rice scored once in the first inning on a groundout. Guy Garibay pulled Rice within one run on a two-run blast in the fifth inning that made the score 4-3 in favor of FAU. The visitors tacked on five more runs after that, nickling-and-diming Chandler and Zaskoda as the Rice bats watched on, resulting in a 9-4 win for FAU.

SATURDAY | FAU 6 – Ricc 5

Filling for Parker Smith who left his start last weekend early, Alex DeLeon delivered a gritty four-run, five-inning effort in Game 2 with two of those runs unearned. Behind 3-0 in the fourth, Rice slugger Austin Bulman delivered an equalizing three-run shot down the left field line to breathe new life into the Rice dugout.

Both teams traded runs in the fifth inning to set the score at 4-4. Again in the sixth, single tallies from each side made it 5-5. FAU would take the lead for good in the eighth with a leadoff home run against Roel Garia following which Rice would send the minimum to the plate in the final two half innings.

SUNDAY | FAU 7 – Rice 1

Things were shaping up to be a close game on getaway day, until they weren’t. Rice took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI double by Austin Bulman. FAU tied the game in the third, then jumped in front in the fourth. Trailing 3-1, the game still felt in reach until FAU delivered the gut-punch 4-run finisher in the sixth inning.

Podcast: Rice Owls’ Voice JP Heath talks baseball, basketball, broadcasting

Rice reliever David Shaw left with two runners on and one out, setting the table for Tom Vincent, who struggled to get out of the frame. He gave up three hits and allowed a run to score on a hit by pitch as Rice fell behind 7-1. They would not recover, tallying just four hits in the series finale.

ON DECK | Rice baseball vs Houston Baptist (Tues), at Louisiana Tech (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball: Ninth inning rally comes up short vs TAMU CC

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Rice baseball dropped a slugfest to Texas A&M Corpus Christi, the Owls’ first loss to the Islanders in 21 games between the two programs.

For the first time in program history, Rice baseball fell to Texas A&M Corpus Christ on the diamond. The Owls pushed the Islanders to the brink, but were unable to keep pace with the visiting bats, falling by a final score of 12-10.

It was apparent from the start it wasn’t going to be smooth sailing for either pitching staff. Texas A&M Corpus Christi would use eight pitchers. Rice used six. Of those 14 hurlers who took the mound at Reckling Park on Wednesday night, only five left without at least one earned run charged to their ledger.

Texas A&M Corpus Christi struck first with one run in the second. Rice responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning to take the lead. Then the Islanders took it back as the seesawing began.

Last Time Out : Rice baseball clinches first series win, takes 2-of-3 at Marshall

From the bottom of the fifth inning through the top of the eighth, at least one run was scored in each consecutive half inning. Both teams traded leads through that period before Texas A&M Corpus Christi broke things open with a five-run eighth inning which featured four extra-base hits.

Despite the five-run deficit, Rice would threaten in the ninth before a double-play ball stranded the tying run on second base.

What it means | Paging the pen

It’s hard to fault the bats for not doing enough on a night when they managed 10 runs on 13 hits. The Rice defense played relatively well too, committing one error as they welcomed surehanded fielder Hal Hughes back to the lineup for the first time this season. The pitching, however, continues to be an adventure.

More: Rice Baseball Midseason State of the Program

Brandon Deskins was productive, working 3.2 innings of 2-run ball, allowing his first home run of the season. Outside of that and a 1-2-3 inning from Reed Gallant in the ninth, Rice struggled to get outs, even when they handed the ball to their most reliable relievers.

Tom Vincent, Cristian Cienfuegos and David Shaw combined to allow nine hits and seven earned runs in 2.0 innings of work. Bad days happen for every pitcher, but stringing three bad days together is usually indicative of a bigger problem. If Rice wants to be competitive in Conference USA, they’ve got to find more consistency on the mound.

ON DECK | Florida Atlantic

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Rice baseball wins first C-USA series, 2-1 over Marshall

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Rice Baseball took their first weekend series of the season, winning the opening two games against Marshall on the Owls’ first C-USA road trip.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice baseball wins series 2-1

A one-run defeat on Sunday must not be allowed to sully what was an impactful first Conference USA series win for Rice baseball head coach Jose Cruz Jr. and his team. The Owls held nothing back, pressing every button they could to ensure they didn’t fly back to Texas defeated.

Last Time Out: Rice baseball falls to Texas A&M in marathon game

The pair of wins gives Rice five victories in their last nine games. As modest as that may seem, playing .500 baseball following a 2-9 start represents a significant step-change in the trajectory of this program.  But first, a few takeaways from the weekend.

1. Finding the few

As Cruz Jr. mentioned earlier this week, finding a core group of pitchers he could trust in key situations was one of the Owls’ most pressing priorities. The picture might not be crystal clear right now, but things look much better after this weekend than they have at any other point this year.

On Friday, Rice was able to use one reliever (David Shaw) in between a quality outing from starter Cooper Chandler and a shutdown performance from closer Matthew Linskey. Getting one inning from Parker Smith on Saturday wasn’t the plan, but nice relief outings from Roel Garcia, Tom Vincent and Garret Zaskoda turned things around for the Owls before the day was through.

Vincent and Shaw reprised their performances was good Sunday appearances as well. At a minimum, it appears Chandler, Smith, and Garcia are reliable starting options, with DeLeon quality depth and a viable Sunday guy. Shaw, Vincent, Zaskoda and Linskey have also done enough to be trusted. Rice will still need a few more guys to enter that important circle of trust, but the foundation has clearly been laid.

2. Sharing the success at the plate

Early on in the season, the vast majority of the offensive production seemed to be coming from the contingent in the middle of the order. That group was typically comprised of Guy Garibay, Austin Bulman and Aaron Smigelski. That core has grown to include the red-hot Nathan Becker in recent weeks, but it’s been the productivity from top to bottom of the lineup that has been the most encouraging.

Piere Gallo, who has hit in the bottom third of the lineup for most of the season, is fourth on the team with 15 RBI. He has 11 RBI in his last eight games. And he’d have more if he hit even a few spots higher. Johnny Hoyle had big hits this weekend. So did Connor Walsh. It’s starting to feel like someone new is contributing every other night and the offensive production is reflecting that.

3. Weekend win

For the first time this season, Rice baseball has won a weekend series. The ascent has been slow. Things started out rocky. But Rice does appear to be rounding into form at the right time. Errors are down (just four total on the weekend). Runs are trending up (Rice outscored Marshall 17 – 12) and the pitching is becoming more well-rounded and reliable. Opponents are putting up fewer crooked numbers.

Part of that is the break from playing teams like Texas and Texas Tech in three-game series. That certainly plays a factor. But just watching the team that took the field this weekend makes it abundantly clear that something has changed, they’ve grown. They’re gotten better. And that makes what comes next all the more intriguing.

More: Rice Baseball Midseason State of the Program

Cruz Jr. was intent not to “promise the moon” upon his arrival. A few good weekends of baseball should be cause for anyone to offer major course corrections when it comes to those expectations. But it’s clear that should Rice string a few more positive weekends together, they’ll officially be a competitive team that has the ability to go toe-to-toe with anyone in their conference.

If the Owls can do that, they’ll have done more than enough to earn a passing grade for Cruz Jr,’s first campaign. From there, the limits aren’t predetermined. This team still has the potential to be as good as it believes it can be.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | Rice 7 – Marshall 2

Pierce Gallo put Rice baseball out in front in the top of the second inning with a solo shot down the right field line. Austin Bulman followed in the third with a home run of his own with the Owls tacking on one more to take a 3-0 lead. Marshall would tally two runs on solo shots of their own in the bottom of the third, but that would be all they were able to do against Rice pitching that afternoon.

Rice starter Cooper Chandler breezed through six innings, allowing just those two earned runs on four hits with seven strikeouts. He gave way to David Shaw and eventually Matthew Linskey who stifled the Marshall bats while the Rice offense tacked on additional insurance runs in the fifth, seventh and ninth, winning by the final score of 7-2.

SATURDAY | Rice 6 – Marshall 5

Things started out poorly for Rice baseball in the middle game of the series. The Owls committed two errors in the first inning and fell behind 4-1. Starter Parker Smith would last just one inning as the Owls’ were hurled into comeback mode. Marshall added another run in the second, stretching their lead to 5-1 before Rice would mount a counteroffensive.

The Owls sent six men to the plate in the fourth inning, scoring three times, the final two runs coming from an RBI double from Austin Bulman. That put Rice back within reach, trailing 5-4. Roel Garcia delivered a masterful three scoreless innings out of the bullpen, keeping things tight before Guy Garibay and Nathan Becker could tack on RBIs in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively to give Rice a 6-5 win.

SUNDAY | Marshall 5 – Rice 4

Marshall scored first for the first time in the weekend, jumping out in front of Rice 3-0 as Alex DeLeon battled through 4.1 contested innings. He would leave after 4.1 innings, charged with four runs, the same total as the Owls’ hard scored in his defense. Rice scored all of their runs in the fourth and fifth innings, leveling the game at 4-4 before both teams went quiet for several at bats.

Podcast: Rice Owls’ Voice JP Heath talks baseball, basketball, broadcasting

It was Marshall that broke the quiet, delivering an RBI double against Thomas Burbank in the eighth to steal the game and avert the series sweep.

ON DECK | Rice baseball vs Texas A&M Corpus Christi (Wed), vs FAU (Fri-Sun)

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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: Struggles continue as Owls drop series to Harvard, 3-1

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Rice Baseball averted the sweep, but still turned in a rather poor outing against Harvard in the Owls’ second home series loss of the season.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice baseball drops series 3-1

Perhaps someone just needs to whisper “It’s Sunday” into the Rice baseball dugout every day. Two of the Owls’ three wins this year have come in the final game of their weekend series with the other coming in a midweek tilt at Houston Baptist. Rice picked up its third win of the year this weekend, but it came with a tangible cost — three more painful losses. What did we learn from the 1-3 weekend and what’s next for Rice baseball?

1. Mayday, offense

It wasn’t until the shadows started to creep across the diamond at Reckling Park late Saturday afternoon that the Rice offense even began to consider showing up for the week. Rice was blanked 9-0 by Baylor on Wednesday. On Friday night, Harvard skunked the Owls 3-0. Then Rice failed to scratch across even a singular run through five innings on the first half of Saturday’s doubleheader.

Even when accounting for the nine-run outburst on Sunday afternoon, Rice accumulated 12 runs in fives games this week dating back to the Baylor disaster. That’s an average of 2.4 runs per game. While there are days when a team can get away with that low of a run total, more often than not, you’re going to need more oomph to win college baseball game these days, you just are.

Last Time Out: Baylor blanks Owls in midweek tilt

Head coach Jose Cruz Jr. did what he could on Sunday to spark the sluggish unit. He flipped up the batting order and shuffled names around. That did help, but the bulk of the production still came from the core of Guy Garibay, Austin Bulman, Connor Walsh and Nathan Becker, four guys who were likely to be in the lineup in some capacity anyway.

Whether it’s improved approaches, better plate discipline or all of the above, the task in the batter’s box has reached critical levels of importance.

2. Starting pitching might be coming around

For the first weekend this year, Rice baseball had more decent outings from the bulk of their starting rotation. Cooper Chandler went 5.0 innings and allowed two earned runs with six strikeouts, by far his best outing of the season. On Saturday, Roel Garcia went four scoreless frames. More length would have been a bonus for both of them, but leaving the game midway through without putting the team in a large hole is a win for now.

Thomas Burbank was really the only starter who had a “bad” outing. His 3.0 inning, three-run performance will be colored by the double he surrendered on his final pitch which allowed two to score and staked Harvard to an early 3-0 lead. At that point in the series, Rice simply had to try someone else to attempt to salvage a split.

Lastly, Alex DeLeon earned the win on Sunday with four innings of two-run ball. He only struck out one batter but competed well, giving up one home run in an otherwise quality outing. That quartet was far from perfect, but none of them singlehandedly lost Rice games. That hasn’t been the case in previous weekends to date.

3. It’s going to be a long season

Rice baseball is 3-9 through their first 12 games. It’s true, starting off with No. 1 ranked Texas in Austin was a brutal welcoming to a new era at South Main, but the Owls have played the next nine games at Reckling Park. And if the likes of Lamar and Harvard can reprise the fabled murder’s row of the Yankee greats, how will this team respond to above-average teams. Like, Baylor, perhaps?

This isn’t a call for anyone to throw in the towels, heaven’s no. But it is a sobering reminder that this young team is going to need to develop from the ground up. There’s a ton of talent standing on the grass at Reckling right now. Every piece just isn’t fully in sync with each other.

To his credit, Cruz Jr. didn’t place the bar as high as those outside the program might have initially demanded it. “I’m not going to promise the moon right now,” he said during the lead up to the season. “I will say we will be better than we were the last couple years.”

Rice was 2-14 in 2020 and 23-29-1 last season. This iteration of Rice baseball is already above the 2020 club. They’ve got a ways to go until they’re anywhere in the ballpark of .500. That’s probably okay, but it’s going to have to take some getting used to as they grow and develop in real time.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY | Harvard 3 – Rice 0

Harvard struck first with a leadoff double to set the table in the second inning. They followed it up with a manufactured run via a couple of singles in these second. Despite cobbling together just one hit through three innings, Rice still had an opportunity to answer with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third with no outs. Austin Bulman struck out and Guy Garibay lined out to right field to end the threat.

Neither team would score for the next six innings. Harvard pushed across an insurance run in the ninth courtesy of a Rice error. The Owls went quietly. Rice had three times as many strikeouts (15) as hits (5) for the day. Had it not been for quality outings on the mound from Chandler, Garret Zaskoda, David Shaw and DeLeon, there wouldn’t have been anything positive to take away from this game.

SATURDAY (AM) | Harvard 2 – Rice 1

The offense was equally disappointing in the first end of Saturday’s double header. The Owls sent the minimum to the plate five times in the seven-inning game and scored just one run. That came in the bottom half of the sixth inning which had just seen the Rice defense commit two errors, contributing to Harvard’s only two runs of the game.

Once more, the Rice pitching staff was fine. Garcia had a strong performance. Even though Brandon Deskins was charged with the games’ only two runs, neither was earned and he pitched relatively well. The defense just did not help him out.

SATURDAY (PM) | Harvard 6 – Rice 3

The back end of the doubleheader featured some of the Owls’ more disappointing outings on the mound from the weekend. Burbank was hit hard, giving up three extra-base hits in three innings. Mark Perkins recorded just as many outs as he handed out walks (two apiece) and Dalton Wood’s struggles with the strikeout continued. His three runs allowed in the fifth inning sunk any chance Rice had of mounting a comeback.

Rice got two runs back in the fifth via a fielder’s choice followed by a well-placed double by Bulman. A sac fly from Garibay would make it 6-3 in the seventh, but the hole was just too big to overcome.

SUNDAY | Rice 9 – Harvard 6

Three games’ worth (or more) of frustration boiled over on Sunday as Rice delivered a three-spot in the first inning, two more runs in the second and another in the third. Harvard would score twice against DeLeon, but the Rice bats did not slow down. Rice scored at least one run in five of the first six innings, staking the bullpen to a 9-2 lead and asking them for nine outs.

For the most part, Tom Vincent and Reed Gallant threw strikes. Each walked just one batter in more than one inning of work (2.0 for Vincent, 1.1 for Gallant). While each was credited with two runs, the cushion they were pitching with was sufficient to net Rice the win.

ON DECK | Rice baseball vs Houston (Tues)

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