Rice University Athletics
Owls Begin Rugged Road Stretch Tuesday At Texas State
3/27/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 27, 2006
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Owls Begin Rugged Road Stretch Tuesday At Texas State
The sixth-ranked Rice baseball team, 20-8 overall and 2-1 in Conference USA action, plays the first of five-consecutive road games on Tuesday night (Mar. 28) at Texas State. The Owls face the Bobcats at 6:30 pm in San Marcos to begin a five-game road swing. The team then plays a three-game C-USA weekend series at Tulane (Mar. 31-Apr. 2) followed by a road game at Texas A&M on Apr. 4... Rice's rugged road stretch continues quite a bit after a brief homestand next week. Ten of the Owls' next 13 games through Apr. 18 are on the road.
Game Times
Tuesday's first pitch at Texas State is slated for 6:30 pm at Bobcat Field... The start times for Tulane (17-9, 2-1) are 6:30 pm on Friday, 2 pm on Saturday and 1 pm Sunday. The Tulane series will be played in at Zephyr Field Metairie, La., home of the New Orleans Zephyrs of the Pacific Coast League.
Broadcast Information
Rice athletics is broadcast live around the world on the Internet at www.KTRU.org. A number of Rice games are live on the radio on KTRU (91.7 FM). The next two KTRU games are Friday (Mar. 31) and Sunday (Apr. 2) at Tulane. A direct link to the audio feed is provided at the above link. Mike Pede, Matt McCabe, Dan Perez and Ryan Black, are mic-side for the baseball action this season.
Watch Friday's Game On CSTV
College Sports Television, the first 24-hour college sports network and fastest growing independent cable network, will broadcast Friday night's Rice-Tulane game live. Carter Blackburn and former major leaguer Kevin Stocker will call the action... Rice has had games nationally televised by CSTV in each of the past two seasons.
National Ranking (Mar. 27): Sixth
Rice is sixth in the latest national rankings by Baseball America (Mar. 27)... The Owls are seventh in both Collegiate Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association (NCBWA) poll. The Owls were tabbed as the nation's top team by the NCBWA on Feb. 27 and remained there until Mar. 13... The Owls are eighth in the Mar. 27 Sports Weekly/ESPN/ABCA coaches poll... Rice is sixth according to the Internet site The Rosenblatt Report. The Blue and Gray was number one by The Rosenblatt Report to start the season, dropped to number two on Mar. 13 and reclaimed the top spot on Mar. 20... The Owls are ranked high after backing up some lofty preseason rankings with steady play. The preseason rankings were on the strength of 20 lettermen returning from the 2005 squad that won the Baton Rouge Regional and came within four outs of reaching the College World Series. Polls will continue through June 30, 2006.
Check out the respective national polls on-line....
Baseball America
Sports Weekly/ESPN/ABCA coaches poll
the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association (NCBWA)
Collegiate Baseball
The Rosenblatt Report
Head Coach Wayne Graham
Two-time national coach of the year and Texas Sports Hall of Fame inductee Wayne Graham (Texas, 1970) is in his 15th season at Rice. He is 647-265 with the Owls (402-91 at home, 188-140 in road games and 57-34 at neutral sites). His overall winning percentage is .709, the best in school history. Another way of looking at Graham's .709 win percentage is that it is the equivalent of a major league team winning 115 games in a single year... Graham is 33-7 against Texas State (24-5 home, 8-2 road, 1-0 neutral) and 6-3 against Tulane (3-0 home, 3-3 road)... Under Graham, the Owls clinched another automatic postseason bid in 2005, making 11-straight seasons for Rice to earn an NCAA appearance. The 2003 bid culminated with the Owls' first national championship. Rice played in the 1994-95-96 Southwest Conference tournaments (winning the final league title in '96), won the 1997-98-99 WAC tournaments, shared the 2000 WAC title with San Jose State before winning the 2001-02-03-04-05 titles outright, and advanced into the NCAA tournament in 1995-96-97-98-99-00-01-02-03-04-05... Graham was named the WAC coach of the year in 1998, '99, '02 and the co-coach of the year in '03... Rice has made four appearances in the NCAA College World Series under Graham (1997, '99, '02, '03)... Graham has led the Owls to number-one rankings for seven weeks during the 1999 season, for six weeks during the '01 campaign, two weeks in '02, six weeks in 2003 (the last of which established some staying power), three weeks in 2004 and two weeks in 2006... Graham's San Jacinto Gators dominated the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Colo., in the 1980s, winning five national titles in six years (1985-86-87, 89-90)... The Austin American-Statesman named Graham its SWC coach of the year in '95 after he led the Owls to their first NCAA tournament appearance... Collegiate Baseball was especially cognizant of Graham's efforts at San Jac. He was named the newspaper's coach of the decade for all levels in the 1980s after winning those five junior college national titles, and CB tabbed him the NJCAA coach of the century... One of the few current collegiate coaches to have played in the major leagues (N.Y. Mets in 1963, Philadelphia in 1964), Graham is aided by assistant coaches Mike Taylor (Prairie View A&M, 1997; sixth year), David Pierce (Houston, 1988; fourth year), Patrick Hallmark (Rice, 1995; first year)... Graham will coach at third base. Taylor will be at first base.
1,222 Wins
Wayne Graham owns 647 career wins at Rice, but he also has 1,222 victories in his collegiate coaching career. Graham's career record is 1,222-378 in a 25-year career that began at San Jacinto College in 1981.
McDaniel To Start Tuesday
Wayne Graham has named sophomore right-hander Will McDaniel as the Owls' probable starting pitcher for the Texas State game. This season McDaniel is 1-0 with a 2.03 ERA. The Houston native from Bellaire Episcopal High School has worked 13.1 innings in five appearances, including two previous road starts against nationally ranked Texas in Austin and at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi... McDaniel has excellent control, allowing just three walks in 13.1 innings, and he has held 47 hitters faced to composite .255 batting average... In his previous start against Texas (Mar. 22), McDaniel scattered three hits without any walks while striking out three in 4.2 innings. He won his first career game in his first career start at TAMUCC (Mar. 12) where he surrendered one earned run in 5.0 innings and struck out four.
Previous Game: Owls Shut Out East Carolina In Series Finale, 5-0
Rice pitchers Joe Savery and Bryce Cox combined for a 5-0 shutout win over visiting East Carolina in the finale of a three-game C-USA series Sunday afternoon at Reckling Park. With the win the Owls claimed the weekend series over the Pirates two games to one... The teams were locked in a scoreless pitchers duel for six-and-a-half innings before Rice rallied for two runs in the bottom of the seventh and three more in the eighth. Savery scattered six hits and two walks over a season-long eight innings of work. He struck out five on the day and improved his record to 4-1 while lowering his season ERA to 1.68. The Pirates managed to reach third base a total of three times, in the first, seventh and eighth, but Savery worked his way out of each situation without allowing any runs. With a five-run lead in the ninth, Cox pitched the final inning to preserve the team's third shutout win of the season... ECU starting pitcher Brody Taylor matched the shutout effort for six innings. In the seventh the Owls posted a pair of runs when junior Danny Lehmann led off with a single to left and freshman Aaron Luna sacrificed him over to second base. Sophomore Tyler Henley punched a ball through the right side to score Lehmann and he advanced to second on the throw home. The next batter grounded out third to first, but Henley displayed his base-running skills by taking third base on the play. He opportunistically came home when the throw to get him at third sailed wide and the Owls were up, 2-0... In the eighth, two singles and a walk loaded the bases with no outs for right fielder Chad Lembeck. The junior from Lakewood, Col., doubled off the corner of the left field wall to score a pair and give the Owls a 4-0 lead. A one-out single by Derek Myers brought home the final run to stretch the margin to 5-0... With the win Rice improved to 20-8 on the season and 2-1 in C-USA action. East Carolina fell to 17-9 overall and 1-2 in league play.
C-USA Play Underway
Rice is tied for third place in Conference USA after league play began last week. The Owls trail both Southern Miss and Houston for the top spot in the standings by one game. USM and UH completed three-game sweeps of UAB and Marshall, respectively. Rice lost the opener to East Carolina 4-3, but battled back to take the weekend series with an 8-5 win Saturday and 5-0 victory Sunday. The Owls share third place with Tulane. The Green Wave won its C-USA series opener at Memphis two games to one.
Here's Who's Hot
Sophomore left fielder Jordan Dodson went 6-for-12 (.500) in the East Carolina series with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored. Dodson is also 13-for-30 (.433) in the eight games since he sat out against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Mar. 12), which also happened to be his 20th birthday... Sophomore shortstop Brian Friday was 5-of-12 (.417) in the ECU series, but he also drew a walk and a hit by a pitch for a .500 on-base percentage... Sophomore center fielder Tyler Henley went 4-for-11 (.364) with two runs and two RBI against the Pirates... Senior second baseman Greg Buchanan was 3-fo-8 (.375) with two RBI, two runs and a sacrifice bunt in his last two games. Defensively, Buchanan has not made a fielding error in his last 50 chances in the field and he has turned or started six of the team's nine double plays in that span.
Take A Closer Look
The Owls have eight losses, but a closer look at that figure is in order. Seven of the team's eight losses were to teams that made the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Six are to teams that were ranked when Rice faced them and four of the losses are to the two most-recent NCAA champions... Each of the team's last four losses have all been by just one run. In those four one-run losses, the Owls surrendered the winning run in the opponents' final inning three times. Close out the last four one-run losses and the Owls are suddenly 24-4 and winners of 11 games in a row.
Our New Address In Conference USA
After nine seasons as a member of the Western Athletic Conference, Rice Athletics made the dramatic move to Conference USA for all varsity sports on July 1, 2005. The move has been a success with the Owls posting C-USA championships in soccer and women's cross country... Rice helps make C-USA's highly-regarded baseball league even better. In 2005, four C-USA teams earned NCAA regional bids. Fellow league newcomer Central Florida has averaged 41 wins for the past two years.
C-USA Coaches Pick Rice To Win 2006 League Crown
With Conference USA preseason player of the year selection Joe Savery leading the way, Rice was the unanimous pick of the league's nine head baseball coaches to win the 2006 conference title. Rice baseball competes in C-USA for the first time in 2006 but the Owls' reputation precedes them. The team is ranked as high as fourth in the nation in preseason polls after posting a 45-19 record and NCAA Super Regional appearance. Junior righthander Tim Bascom of fellow first-year C-USA member UCF was named as the league's preseason pitcher of the year.
Predicted Order of Finish
1. Rice (nine first place votes)
2. Tulane
3. Southern Miss
4. Houston
5. UCF
6. East Carolina
7. UAB
8. Memphis
9. Marshall
Player of the Year - Joe Savery, Rice (So., p/if)
All-America Candidates
Rice senior Eddie Degerman, junior Josh Rodriguez and sophomore Joe Savery were selected to Collegiate Baseball's 2006 Louisville Slugger preseason all-America teams... Savery was named to the publication's preseason all-America first team as a utility player for his multiple skills as a hitter, first baseman and pitcher. Rodriguez was named second-team all-America at shortstop and Degerman was tabbed as a starting pitcher on the all-America third team. Savery and Rodriguez were also 2006 preseason all-America honorees by the NCBWA... Savery was a consensus all-America pick as a true freshman and the national freshman of the year by Collegiate Baseball. The Houston native from nearby Lamar High School led the Western Athletic Conference in hitting with a .382 average and he was second in the league with a 2.43 ERA in 19 starts on the mound... Rodriguez moved from second base to shortstop midway through the 2005 season with no drop off in play on either side of the ball. The former South Houston High School star batted .345 with a team-leading 11 home runs and 54 RBI in 63 games started. Rodriguez also maintained a .555 slugging percentage with 48 runs scored and nine stolen bases. Defensively, he started or turned 45 of the Owls' 67 double plays... Degerman is a veteran right-hander who went 8-1 with a 3.28 ERA a year ago. The Granada Hills, Calif., native opted to return for his senior season in 2006 despite being selected by the defending world champion Boston Red Sox in the 2005 major league draft. In one start last season, Degerman struck out 16 batters in just 7.1 innings. He averaged 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings of work.
Two Owls On Clemens Watch List
Rice senior Eddie Degerman and sophomore Joe Savery are among a list of 40 pitchers who have been named to the initial watch list for the 2006 Roger Clemens Award, which honors the top pitcher in college baseball... The Roger Clemens Award is named after major league great Roger Clemens. As a professional, Clemens has won 341 games (ninth-best in history), fanned 4,502 hitters and been honored with seven Cy Young Awards as the top pitcher in his league. The Roger Clemens Award is the only award of its kind, honoring the finest pitchers in college baseball... Savery, the national freshman of the year in 2005, is a preseason all-America selection for 2006. The left-hander from Houston was 8-5 with a team-best 2.43 ERA in 19 starts last season. Savery, who also starts at first base when not on the mound, posted 129 strikeouts and just 37 walks in 118.2 innings... Degerman is a veteran right-hander who went 8-1 with a 3.28 ERA for the Owls last season. The Granada Hills, Calif., native opted to return for his senior season in 2006 despite being selected by the defending world champion Boston Red Sox in the 2005 major league draft. In one of his starts last season, Degerman fanned 16 batters in just 7.1 innings of work. He averaged 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings... The watch list is comprised of all Division I pitchers who were named as pre-season all-America by either Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball or the NCBWA. Additional pitchers will be added each week when honored as National Pitchers of the Week by the NCBWA and after the NCAA releases its statistical rankings during the college baseball season... The third Clemens Award will be presented to the nation's top college pitcher at the conclusion of a gala dinner in Houston in July. All Division I head baseball coaches will take part in the voting for the honor, in addition to a selected panel of national media... For media information on The Roger Clemens Award, please contact Chuck Pool (832) 244-6476... The Owl trio of Jeff Niemann, Wade Townsend and Philip Humber were all nominated for the first award in 2004.
Cox On Stopper Watch List
Senior right-hander Bryce Cox is among a group of 30 pitchers listed on the preseason watch list for the second annual NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award. Cox was selected by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the 13th round of the Major League Baseball Draft last June, but chose to return to Rice for his senior season. In 2005, he appeared in 17 games, going 1-2 with a 3.86 ERA and three saves. Cox averaged 11.6 strikeouts-per-nine innings, second-best on the staff and held the 66 batters that he faced to a composite .182 batting average. This will be the second time that the nation's top reliever is honored by the NCBWA.
Savery On Wallace Watch List
Sophomore Joe Savery was an early selection to the watch list for the Brooks Wallace Award, an honor presented to the national college baseball player of the year by the College Baseball Foundation in Lubbock. The Wallace Watch will be trimmed to 12 semifinalists in late May and narrowed to three finalists at a press conference in Omaha prior to the College World Series. The 2006 Wallace Award will be presented after the conclusion of the College World Series.
27,134 In Attendance
There were 27,134 fans in attendance at Minute Maid Park for the Owls' Feb. 11 game against tenth-ranked Texas. It's the fourth-largest crowd for a regular season college game in NCAA history. Rice's games at Minute Maid also drew 11,512 for the Feb. 12 game against TCU and 10,193 for the opening game of the tournament against Texas Tech.
The "K" Train
Rice pitchers have registered a total of 288 strikeouts in 28 games, an average 10.4 per contest. The staff has fanned 10 or more hitters in a game 17 times. Seven different Owls have more strikeouts than innings pitched this season. Four Owls, Eddie Degerman, Joe Savery, Cole St.Clair and Craig Crow rank among the C-USA top ten in strikeouts... Degerman fanned a team-best 11 in his start against Oklahoma (Feb. 17)... St.Clair has 50 K's in 33 innings of work, an average of 13.6 per nine innings... Crow struck out the side in his Division I debut against McNeese State (Feb. 7), helping the staff post a season-high total of 17 Ks for the game. The 17 strikeouts was approaching some lofty historic totals. Rice pitchers notched 21 strikeouts in a single game in 2005. The Owls fanned 19 against SMU in 1919 and 18 at McNeese State in April of 2000.
Draft Dodgers
Owls Eddie Degerman and Bryce Cox were selected in the 2005 Major League Baseball draft (June 7-8) but opted to return for their senior season. Two other Rice juniors and two seniors were drafted and signed. A former Owl who was not on the 2005 team, Wade Townsend, was the eighth player taken in the first round.
2005 Rice Draftees Rnd Pick MLB Team
Josh Geer 3rd 98th San Diego
Lance Pendleton 4th 139th New York (A)
Bryce Cox 13th 403rd Los Angeles (A)
Adam Rodgers 25th 770th St. Louis
Eddie Degerman 41st 1245th Boston
Adam Morris 47th 1420th St. Louis
Quick On The Opposition
Tuesday's game against Texas State is the second of three games between the teams this season. The Owls won the first meeting on Feb. 26 at Reckling Park by a score of 3-2. Rice took advantage of four TSU fielding errors and got a strong seven-inning, nine-strikeout, outing from Joe Savery to win the final game of the Rice Invitational Tournament. The Bobcats enter Tuesday's contest with a 12-17 record and an 8-4 mark in Southland Conference games. Texas State bats a composite .258, averages 4.6 runs per contest and has converted on 37-50 stolen base attempts. TSU sophomore right-hander Steven Siers (0-0, 0.00) is scheduled to start Tuesday.
