Owls Top Memphis 6-4 Thursday Night In Series-Opener

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Baseball

vs Northwestern

Feb 13

6:35 pm

Houston, Texas

Baseball

vs Northwestern

Feb 14

4:05

Reckling Park

Baseball

vs Northwestern

Feb 15

12:05 pm

Houston, Texas

Baseball

vs Louisiana

Feb 17

6:35 pm

Houston, Texas

Baseball

vs Purdue

Feb 18

6:35 pm

Houston, Texas

Baseball

at USC

Feb 20

8:35 pm

Los Angeles, CA

Baseball

at USC

Feb 21

4:05 pm

May 17, 2007

Box Score

HOUSTON -- The Rice tandem of Tyler Henley and Diego Seastrunk both slugged three hits each to lead the second-ranked Rice baseball team to a 14-hit night, and late-inning heroics on the mound by reliever Bobby Bramhall preserved a hard-fought 6-4 Conference USA win over visiting Memphis in the opening game of a three-game C-USA series Thursday evening at Reckling Park in Houston. The victory was Rice's 16th-straight win as well as the Owls' 24th in the last 25 games.

Rice posted double-digit hits for the 29th time this season, but Memphis was able to keep pace with 13 hits. The Owls built an early lead but had to hang on in the final innings to improve to 43-11 on the season and 20-2 in C-USA action.

Rice put a pair of runs on the scoreboard in the top of the first. Brian Friday drew a walk to lead it off and Jared Gayhart punched a single through the right side. Henley singled up the middle to score Friday while Gayhart advanced to second. A two-out single by Seastrunk brought him home for an early 2-0 lead.

Memphis answered with a run in the top of the third. Michael Murray lined a come-backer to the mound for a base hit and Bill Moss doubled to the wall in left field. Adam Amar lifted a sacrifice fly to right to score Murray to cut the margin to 2-1.

The Tigers tied the game in the fifth. Murray hit a one-out ground-rule double into right and advanced to third on a ground out to the left side. Kyle Norrid singled him home for his second RBI in as many at bats to make the score 2-2.

The tie didn't last long. Rice batted around in the bottom of the frame, scoring four runs on four hits. Gayhart drew a leadoff walk and Henley blasted a home run to right-center with his second hit of the night to make the score 4-2. Seastrunk hustled for a one-out double on his third hit and he scored on single by Aaron Luna. Luna moved to scoring position on a walk to Danny Lehmann and scored on a two-out double by J.P. Padron that extended the lead to 6-2.

Memphis came right back with single runs in each of the next two innings. Josh Irvin started the sixth with a double to left and advanced to third when Chris Kirkland reached on a Rice fielding error with one away. Irvin scored on an infield ground out that could have been the third out of the inning. The run was unearned, but made the score 6-3. Adam Amar connected for a solo home run in the top of the seventh trim the margin to two, 6-4.

After working 6.1 innings where he allowed 10 hits and a pair of walks with six strikeouts, starting pitcher Ryan Berry left with the lead to give way to Bramhall. The Tigers tried to rally in the final two frames but the junior left-hander was up to the task.

With runners on second and third and no outs in the top of the eighth, Rice shortstop Brian Friday corralled a line-drive for the first out. Bramhall then struck the next batter and got a ground-out to end the threat. In the ninth a Rice fielding error and Tiger single put two men on base with one away. Bramhall calmly got an out on a shallow fly ball followed by ground out to first to end the game. Bramhall earned his fifth save of the season with 2.2 scoreless innings. He didn't allow a walk and struck out four. Berry improved to 9-2 on the year.

Memphis fell to 33-21 on the season and 12-10 in conference. The Owls have just two more home games to close out the regular season. The second game of the Memphis series is set for 7 pm Friday. Saturday's series finale is slated to begin at 2 pm.

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