Longhorns Take Close One Against Owls 2-1
No surprises were to be found in the way the matchup between Texas and Rice played out on Friday night at Minute Maid Park, the first of three games Rice will play in the Houston College Classic. With Rice's ace, sophomore southpaw Taylor Wall, squaring off against sophomore right-hander Taylor Jungmann, considered by many experts, including Rice's Head Coach Wayne Graham, to be the best pitcher in the nation, runs and baserunners would prove to be valuable commodities.
Throughout the game, it appeared to be Texas who was high on good fortune. Junior shortstop Rick Hague drove a pitch just feet short of the left field bullpen that appeared to be good for at least a stand-up triple, only to be robbed by a circus catch from center fielder Connor Rowe, who tripped over left fielder Kyle Lusson in the process. Later in the game, Rowe had another web gem courtesy of a ball smashed to center field by junior right fielder Chad Mozingo, running up Tal's Hill to rob Mozingo of an RBI double that would have put the Owls ahead.
But it wasn't all defense that dominated the game. Wall and Jungmann both kept their fair share of batters from even making contact, with Wall pitching his best game of the year, striking out eight and allowing two runs in 7.1 innings of work. Jungmann had eight K's as well, allowing four hits and one run in 7.2 innings of work. Wall was able to get his off speed pitches working very quickly, while Jungmann relied on his 6-6 frame and overpowering fastball to stymy the Owls. Once again, Rice failed to take advantage of the fastballs that were not dealt at top speed, instead choosing to let the bat rest on their shoulders on several good opportunities. Unfortunately, the Owls chose to swing at very few first pitches, even when Jungmann's pitch count escalated in the later innings. While Wall simply outpitched the Longhorns' lineup save for a few poor pitches that went for hits, Rice appeared intimidated at the plate by Jungmann in a few cases.
The Longhorns finally broke through in the sixth, fed up with the Owls consistently driving balls deep to the outfield for long outs. After Wall foiled a poor sacrifice bunt attempt by first baseman Tant Shepherd, throwing out second baseman Jordan Etier at second. Shortstop Brandon Loy drove a hard grounder to sophomore third baseman Anthony Rendon, advancing Shepherd to scoring position. With two outs, catcher Cameron Rupp, arguably UT's best power hitter, took a pitch straight up the gap between second and short, scoring Shepherd. Wall was able to escape without further damage.
The Owls answered in the eighth, courtesy of junior first baseman Abe Gonzales two-strike blast that drove in sophomore pinch-runner Daniel Gonzales-Luna with one out. However, Gonzales' was thrown out at second, which proved to be a fatal error, as freshman second baseman Michael Ratterree drove a double off the left field wall (just inches short of being a round tripper) against UT's Chance Ruffin, which would have scored Gonzales to put Rice ahead.
Rice's celebration was short lived, as Wall chose to stay in to face Loy after a mound conference with Wayne Graham. Loy proceeded to double to score Shepherd from first, ending Wall's time on the mound. Freshman Tyler Duffey came in to continue the superb pitching he has brought to the mound all season, retiring the next two Longhorns.
Unfortunately, Ruffin appeared to have figured out the Owls lineup after allowing two balls to be hit deep in his previous inning of work, striking out the side in the ninth to end the game.
Rice (5-5) will look to rebound against Texas Tech at 7 p.m. tonight. The Red Raiders lost 11-2 to Texas Christian University on Friday.
Owls Beat the Cougars in First Crosstown Rival Baseball Game
The Silver Glove Trophy Series has started! The first of five games against Houston (2-5) took place this afternoon at Reckling Park, and Rice (4-4) captured an 8-2 victory. Senior pitcher Jared Rogers picked up the win, his first of the season.
The Owls stumbled coming out of the gate this season, losing their first four games against Stanford and Lamar. But in the Rice Invitational last weekend and today’s game against the Cougars, Rice has rebounded and evened its record at 4-4.
Here are some notes from today’s game and the current winning streak:
- Redshirt sophomore Michael Fuda, who has started each of Rice’s eight games, came into today’s game as the team’s leading hitter and proceeded to extend his hitting streak to 12 games.
- The pitching has thankfully improved over the short course of this season. In Rice’s first four games, the pitching staff forfeited 6, 14, 7, and 13 runs. The second four? 2, 3, 2, and 2.
- Freshman second baseman Michael Ratterree has just about been as good as advertised. He is hitting .258, has started all eight games, and leads the team with three homers. And he’s not the only freshman to find success. Chase McDowell is hitting .400 in five games and has two bases-loaded hits.
Rice travels to Texas State tomorrow—to make up for the rained-out game last week—and then this weekend will play in the Houston College Classic Tournament at Minute Maid. The Owls face the University of Texas on Friday at 7 p.m., Texas Tech University on Saturday at 7 p.m., and Texas Christian University on Sunday at 6 p.m.
Rice Baseball Media Day
Yesterday, members of the media were invited over to Tudor Fieldhouse for the first ever Media Day for Rice baseball. The highlight of the hour was Coach Wayne Graham, who was eager to share his thoughts on the upcoming season, some of which are enumerated below.
Much of Coach Graham's speaking time was devoted to pitching. Rice is generally a pitching-heavy program, so there are many questions this year regarding whether this staff will be strong enough. The pitching staff is certainly large, but will enough quality guys step up and perform?
On the extra focus on pitching
"We’re not going to get to Omaha without good pitching. You can’t. We may not have to have great pitching, but we’re going to have to have good pitching. So we’re going to continue to work every day toward that goal, without letting anything else go."
"We’re spending more coaching time in proportion this year than at any other time. We’ve got two people working on it—me half the time and Coach Pierce all the time. And I think it shows, with things like holding runners on, the development of the breaking ball, emphasis on strikes. We kind of converted toward a moving fastball as opposed to the overpowering fastball to try to get outs, put the ball in play, pitch to contact…it takes a lot of work to get that through to everybody. But if there’s any change in the way we coach, that’s it this spring: more emphasis on the things that you need the most."
Recent pitching standouts
"The pitcher that has been pitching better than anybody lately has been [Tony] Cingrani….The other junior college transfer, Boogie Anagnostou—what a name—he’s been pitching well, too, and we expect good things from Taylor Wall and a player that had Tommy John surgery last year, Anthony Fazio, has been pitching real well. Mark Haynes has come back pitching better than he’s ever pitched; there’s a lot of guys that are stepping up."
Having hitting rather than pitching be the strength
"I think we’re going to have to be consistently offense; in other words one through nine [in the batting order] we’re going to have to have quality at-bats because I think this is a team that could be shut out for four innings and then explode. And you’re going to have to have persistence and consistency to be that kind of team."
On freshman second baseman Michael Ratterree
"I think he’s going to get a lot of pitches to hit because right now he’s the leadoff man. Because he’s actually shown a remarkably—cross my fingers—good strike zone for a freshman. Remarkably good."
Strength of the defense
"We've got players that can make plays that, in my opinion, other teams can’t make. [Steven] Sultzbaugh has been outstanding in center field, he can run and he’s calmed down to the point where he never panics and can catch almost everything. And [Chad] Mozingo can run like the dickens, and [Michael] Fuda can run like the dickens. And then you’ve got that left side of the infield that should be outstanding. And Ratterree at second base is an extremely good athlete. And [Jimmy] Comerota’s a shortstop playing first base, enough said."
Like usual, the Owls have a tough schedule this year (starting at Stanford next Friday). There are still uncertainties on the pitching staff, but the offense and defense will be strong enough to overcome a lot. So with the solid intangibles and the wise Coach Graham at the helm, the sky is the limit.
Baseball Preseason Honors
This Friday, the baseball team’s official practices start in preparation for the first series at Stanford Feb. 19. Following a 42-18 season that ended with a Super Regional loss to Louisiana State University, the preseason honors have started to roll in. The Owls hold rankings of fifth and 11th in the preseason polls by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball, respectively. The University of Texas holds the number one spot in both polls.
The reigning 2009 National Freshman of the Year, sophomore third baseman Anthony Rendon, continues to rake in the individual accolades. He was chosen by Collegiate Baseball as a third-team preseason All-America selection, while the National Collegiate Baseball Writers organization picked him for the first team. Rendon also recently won the 2010 Greater Houston Preseason College Player of the Year award, given by the Houston Athletic Committee.
And within Conference USA, Rendon—who won Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year in the conference last year—was picked by the coaches as the 2010 C-USA Preseason Baseball Player of the Year. He joins three of his teammates—junior shortstop Rick Hague, junior outfielder Chad Mozingo and sophomore pitcher Taylor Wall—on the preseason all-conference team. Rice’s four selections tied for the most of any school.
Spring is Coming
In addition to my normal article about Rice football last week, I quickly recapped the baseball team’s exhibition game. The team’s fall ball schedule was cut to one game this year and the team made the most of it, thrashing Texas State 14-6. (Check out the recap here for more details.) And with the beleaguered football team enjoying a bye this week, I figured it was time for the first baseball blog post of the year.
With many people eagerly looking forward to the season, official baseball practice started in early October. 22 players are returning from last year’s team that earned a 43-18 record as well a 15th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament, where it won the Houston Regional before falling to Louisiana State University in the Super Regional.
The Owls lost only one offensive starter, second baseman Brock Holt, who was picked in the ninth round of the 2009 Major League Baseball amateur draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates. The next pick in the draft, held by the Baltimore Orioles, was star pitcher Ryan Berry. So although the two draft losses were major ones for Rice, at least the number was limited. Senior outfielder Steven Sultzbaugh, senior pitcher Mike Ojala, and senior catcher Diego Seastrunk were also drafted but remained with the team.
Rice welcomes 13 new faces to the team this year, two of whom are junior pitching transfers. Boogie Anagnostou hails from Alvin College, while Tony Cingrani comes to Rice after playing at South Suburban College.
As for the freshmen, the strong recruiting class in centered around the Houston-area and stars Michael Ratterree, an infielder from Memorial High School who will take over for Holt at second base. He was named a first team Louisville Slugger High School All-American by Collegiate Baseball and was the first team All-Greater Houston shortstop, selected by the Houston Chronicle.
You’ll have to check back in the Thresher next spring for the rest of the baseball preview, but rest assured that the future is bright.