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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: 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 season ends with AAC Tournament loss to ECU

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The fifth time was not the charm for Rice baseball, falling to ECU once again as the Owls’ AAC Tournament run came to an end on Friday.

For the second time this week and the fifth time in the last nine days, Rice baseball and East Carolina met on the diamond. The Owls had been swept in a three-game series in Greenville last week before falling to the Pirates in a heartbreaker on Tuesday to begin their AAC Tournament play. The Owls’ almost unprecedented fifth chance to take down the league’s top team did not get off to a good start.

The magic Rice had captured in their near-upset earlier in the week appeared to have run out as Rice starter Tucker Alch was lifted one batter into the second inning after allowing ECU to score three times in the first. With the season on the line, head coach Jose Cruz Jr. went to JD McCracken in a rare relief appearance, but the veteran didn’t have the same level of control this time around, allowing an inherited runner and three more runs to follow.

Rice found themselves with a lot of work to do. Trailing 6-0 after two innings and Manny Garza out of the game with an injury, Tyler Hamilton took the mound and gave his team a chance. Apart from allowing an inherited runner to come around, Hamilton dazzled with one run allowed on three hits, tossing five incredibly important innings.

“It was just really personal. He left it all out there and gave us all he had,” Cruz said. “Really proud of him doing what he did. It was great.”

As Hamilton dealt, his teammates began to chip away at the plate. Kyte McDonald drove in two in the fifth. Treyton Rank followed with a sac fly. Max Johnson’s two-out, two-run single in the following inning got Rice back within one run. All of a sudden, Rice trailed 7-6 with three innings to play.

An inning later, Rice trailed 8-6 but had the winning run on second base with no outs and the heart of the order at the plate. One run came in on a fielder’s choice before a groundout from Pierce Gallo ended the Owls’ season one run short of a thrilling comeback.

“Being down 6-0 and coming back and making it a ballgame, I’m pretty proud of the guys for just fighting all the way,” Cruz said.” That was the goal, just to fight for those 27 outs, and we did.”

This game marks the end of the 2024 Rice baseball regular season. Thanks to everyone who has followed along with us this year and read our content. There’s plenty more on the way. Make sure you’re subscribed on Patreon for deep dives on the pitching staff, lineup and more in the weeks to come. If you’d like to send us a one-time token of appreciation, you can donate here. Thanks for joining us on the journey. Next season can’t get here soon enough.



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Rice Baseball edges UAB for first-ever AAC series win

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Rice Baseball narrowly missed a series sweep, settling for two wins over the weekend against UAB, their first-ever AAC series victory.

FRIDAY | Rice 4 – UAB 2

The Rice bats wasted no time on Friday night, staking staff ace Parker Smith to an early lead. RBI singles from Treyton Rank and Pierce Gallo put the Owls in front 2-0 in the first. Rank drove in another run when he was hit by a pitch in the second inning.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball tops TAMU-CC in midweek action

Leading 3-0, Smith cruised through six innings. He briefly ran into trouble in the fourth, allowing the Blazers to score twice, but was otherwise unscathed. Jacob Devenney added an insurance run on an RBI double in the sixth. Tom Vincent took over in the seventh and bridged 1.1 innings to closer Davion Hickson, who earned the save.

SATURDAY | Rice 4 – UAB 3 (15 inn.)

JD McCracken delivered a quality start in Game 2, his lone blemish coming via an unearned run when a defensive error allowed the Blazers to get on the board in the third inning. McCracken avoided having a loss tacked on his ledger when Devenny delivered a sac fly in the eighth inning to tie the game. That would be the last run for quite a while as the game entered extra innings and stayed deadlocked at 1-1 until the twelfth.

UAB went in front with two runs in the top of the inning and it might have been more had the potential third run not been tagged out at the plate. That proved to be significant soon after as Rice tied the game in the bottom of the inning with a single and a sac fly. Level at 3-3, Eric Correa provided the final dramatics, delivering a walk-off double to right field to clinch the series.

SUNDAY | UAB 4 – Rice 3

The two sides traded runs in the early innings, completing the third inning tied at one and the fourth inning tied at three before UAB went out in front in the fifth, 4-2. Rice starter Tucker Alch was lifted for the tandem of Garrett Stratton and Mauricio Rodriguez, who combined to throw five scoreless innings, giving the offense a chance to claw back.

Rice got one run in the eight on a two-out, RBI single from Ben Dukes. They then had a golden opportunity to tie the game in the ninth, but squandered a leadoff triple from Jack Riedel, failing to get him home. With the running run 90-feet away, the Owls fell by one run.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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1. It’s Time for a Devenny/Dukes Dialogue

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ON DECK | at USF (Fri-Sun)



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