Owls Host Home-Opener Today At 4 PM
2/25/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 25, 2008
Game Notes pdf
Rice Ticket Page
Tuesday: vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 4 pm (Central Time)
Watch the game live on OwlVision
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Wednesday: vs. Houston, 4 pm (Central Time)
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(features activate at game time)
Rice Opens 2008 Home Schedule With Games Tuesday & Wednesday
The sixth-ranked Rice baseball team, 1-2 on the young season, plays its first two home games of 2008 at the dramatically enhanced Reckling Park on Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb. 26-27). The Owls host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday and crosstown rival Houston on Wednesday. The first pitch for both games is set for 4 pm (Central).
Reckling Park Now Even Better Than Before With Recent Renovations
Rice baseball fans, who have made Reckling Park one of college baseball's preferred settings since it opened in 2000, will enjoy an enhanced game day experience in 2008, thanks to a number of off-season improvements to the facility. The Owls players have already enjoyed the benefits a massive renovation of the playing surface last fall. The new drainage system and playing surface were installed, as were padded walls on the outfield fences along with a new warning track. The centerpiece of the improvement for the fans will be the new video board and message center that was installed over the past month in right field. Manufactured by Capturion Network, the high-definition video display measures 17 feet high by 35 feet in width. It handles all video, playback, scoring, timing and statistical information during the game. Also included in the message center is a new static scoreboard display. Fans will also be treated to a totally revamped concession offerings as Prince's Hamburgers, a Houston tradition, has taken over as the concessionaire for the facility. In addition to the traditional ballpark fare offered in the grandstand concession stands, Prince's will expand the offerings at Reckling with "The Roost," a tented area located along the left field line of the stadium. The Roost is open to any Owl fan, 21-years or older, and will remain open until the end of the seventh inning of each game. On selected weekend games,
Owls Head Way Downtown This Weekend To Compete In Houston College Classic
After the two home games during the midweek, Rice meets three Big 12 powers this weekend at the annual Houston College Classic Tournament, Feb. 29 to Mar. 2. The tournament is downtown at Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros. The Owls face Oklahoma at noon on Friday, Texas at 7 pm on Saturday and Texas Tech at 2:30 pm Sunday. Tickets to the event are available at the Rice Ticket Office or may be purchased on-line at the above link.
Did You Know?
At 1-2 Rice has the exact same record to start the season that it did a year ago. Last season the Owls began the year 1-2 and finished as a College World Series semifinalist with a 56-14 overall record.
96th Season Since The Start; 93rd Season On The Field
The 2008 season marks the 96th year since Rice played baseball for the first time. Only one semester after Rice opened its doors for higher education for the first time in the fall of 1912, Rice Owls baseball made its debut in the spring of 1913. The 2008 season is, however, only the Owls' 93rd season on the diamond. The school did not field a baseball team for three years (1933-35) during the Great Depression. Rice returned to the diamond in the spring of 1936 and has been playing ever since.
Audio Broadcast
Every Rice baseball game is broadcast live around the world on the Internet at RiceOwls.com and KTRU.org. A direct link to the audio feed is provided at the above links. The Friday's contest against Oklahoma is the next baseball game slated for a radio broadcast in the greater Houston area on KTRU (91.7 FM). Now in his fourth season mike-side for Rice baseball, veteran broadcaster Matt McCabe has the call for the Owls.
Selected Home Games On OwlVision
A host of home games at Reckling Park are slated for a live broadcast on OwlVision. OwlVision is a subscription-based service which matches the play-by-play audio with a video feed to create a television-like broadcast on the Internet (either live or in an archived format). The service has proved to be very popular with fans and alumni living throughout the world. Information about the service and subscription prices are available here.
Live Stats On GameTracker
Live play-by-play text and statistics from every Rice game will be posted on RiceOwls.com. Look for the GameTracker links on the Rice home page, baseball schedule page and the top of each game-advance update.
National Ranking Update • Rice As High As No. 6
There's a pretty wide range of views from the different college baseball media outlets across the nation on how the national rankings should look. The most-recent poll from Rivals.Com has the Owls as high as sixth in the nation. The most-recent national ranking roll call is as follows....
Rivals.com 6th
NCBWA 9th
PingBaseball.com 10th
Collegiate Baseball 11th
Baseball America 14th
USA Today/ESPN 4th (from preseason)
Rice has six starters returning to the regular lineup as well 11 experienced pitchers. The newcomers making their Rice debut in 2008 were tabbed as among the best recruiting classes in the country by a host of baseball publications.
Head Coach Wayne Graham
Four-time national coach of the year and Texas Sports Hall of Fame inductee Wayne Graham (Texas, 1970) is in his 17th season at Rice... He is 741-286 with the Owls (454-96 at home, 220-149 in road games and 67-41 at neutral sites). His Rice winning percentage is .722, the best in school history. Another way of looking at Graham's .722 win percentage is that it is the equivalent of a major league team winning 117 games in a single year... Graham's record against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is 6-0 (3-0 home, 3-0 road). His record against Houston is 52-23 (29-7 home, 23-16 road)... Under Graham, the Owls clinched another automatic postseason bid in 2007, making 13-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. He won the C-USA regular season crowns in 2006 and 2007, as well as the C-USA tournament championships in `06 and `07. Rice has advanced into the NCAA tournament in 1995-96-97-98-99-00-01-02-03-04-05-06-07... Graham was named the WAC coach of the year in 1998, '99, '02 and the co-coach of the year in '03. He was named the Keith LeClair C-USA Coach of the Year in `06, his first year in the league, and again in `07... Rice has made six appearances in the NCAA College World Series under Graham (1997, '99, `02, `03, `06, `07)... 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, 12 weeks in 2006 and five weeks in `07... 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... He was named the 2007 Division I college coach of the year by FieldTurf... 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; eighth year), David Pierce (Houston, 1988; sixth year), Patrick Hallmark (Rice, 1995; third year)... Graham has coached at third base every season he has been at Rice. Mike Taylor will coach first base.
1,316 Wins • A Baseball Odyssey
Wayne Graham owns 741 career wins at Rice, but he also has 1,316 victories when including his 11 years at San Jacinto North College where he won five national championships. Graham's overall collegiate record is 1,316-399 in a 27-year career that began in 1981.
Home Openers Under Wayne Graham
The Owls are 15-1 in their home-opener under coach Graham.
Probable Rice Pitchers
Coach Graham announced the Owls' probable starting pitcher for the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi game as senior Jonathan Runnels, a left-hander from Pasadena, Tex. Runnels (0-0, 0.00 ERA) is in his second year with the program after transferring to Rice from San Jacinto College. The Tuesday outing would mark his second appearance of the year after working 1.1 innings in relief of Ryan Berry last Friday at Long Beach State. The start for the 6-foo-t-1 Runnels would be his first at the Division I level... Coach Graham announced the Owls' probable starting pitcher Wednesday's game against Houston as sophomore Mike Ojala, a right-hander from Kingwood, Tex. The game would be Ojala's first appearance of the year and the start would be the first of his Rice career. Last season Ojala went 2-0 with a 4.38 ERA in nine outings for the Blue & Gray.
Matt Langwell Named C-USA Pitcher of the Week
Rice junior Matt Langwell has been named the Conference USA Pitcher of the Week for the opening weekend of the 2008 season, the league office announced Monday (Feb. 25) from its headquarters in Irving, Texas. UCF shortstop Dwayne Bailey was named the C-USA Hitter of the Week. Langwell earned the Rice pitching staff's first win of the season on Sunday (Feb. 24) at nationally-ranked Long Beach State. The 6-foot-3 right-hander from College Station, Tex., fired 6.2 innings of three-hit ball, striking out eight and walking two to give the Owls a 3-1 victory in the third game of a series dominated by pitching. It is the first time in Langwell's career for him to earn C-USA Pitcher of the Week honors. Bailey was 10-for-15 (.667) as UCF swept Florida A&M over the weekend. He scored seven runs in the series, had two doubles, a triple, two walks and two RBI, while stealing three bases.
Previous Outing: Owls Clip Long Beach State 3-1
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Junior Matt Langwell gave the Rice baseball team a solid starting effort on the mound and junior reliever Bryan Price helped make it stand up as the Owls defeated nationally-ranked Long Beach State on the road by a score of 3-1 Sunday afternoon at Blair Field in Long Beach, Calif.
Three Rice pitchers, Langwell, Price and freshman Matt Evers, combined to hold the Forty-niners to just a run on four hits while striking out 12 to notch the team's first win of the season. The Owls also pitched well in the team's first two games of the season-opening series at LBSU, but dropped a pair of one-run games including the season-opener 1-0 in extra innings and Saturday's second game by a score of 3-2.
Sunday's finale was again well pitched by both teams, but the Owls had just enough offense for the victory. Langwell allowed just three hits and two walks over 6.2 innings while striking out eight in his first outing of the season. He worked out of a bases-loaded situation and Price later did the same, striking out a career-high four Long Beach hitters in 2.1 frames for his first save of the year.
Rice took its first lead of the weekend series with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth. Freshman Chad Mozingo reached base on a Long Beach fielding error to lead off the inning and Diego Seastrunk laced a double to the right-center to put men on second and third. Aaron Luna followed by sending a long fly ball to left field. It wasn't enough to leave the yard, but it was enough to advance both runners with Mozingo scoring on a sacrifice fly. Seastrunk came home from third on an RBI ground out and the Blue & Gray were up 2-0.
The Owls added a run in the fifth. Adam Zornes led off with a single to center and he moved into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt by Jordan Dodson. Zornes was able to move up another 90 feet on a Long Beach balk. He scored on a sacrifice fly by Jimmy Comerota to stretch the margin to 3-0.
The Forty-niners answered with a run in the bottom of the inning. Right fielder Zach Barger slugged a one-out home run to right-center to cut the lead to 3-1. LBSU was looking for more runs with a man on base, but Langwell ended the threat with a pair of strikeouts. The College Station, Tex., native finished with eight and was just one from his season high nine K's set last season at the C-USA Tournament.
Rice survived some fireworks in the bottom of the sixth. Espinosa knocked a two-out double and Shane Peterson walked. Devin Lohman followed with an single up the middle that Owl freshman shortstop Rick Hague made a diving stop at the edge of the infield dirt behind second base. Espinosa was already more than halfway home, but had to retreat back to third when Hague kept the ball from leaving the infield. Espinosa made it back to third on a close play, but the bases were now loaded for Barger, the Fort-niner who hit the home run the inning before. Langwell worked out of the jam with a short fly ball to left and the inning was over.
Rice survived another bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the seventh. After two quick outs, LBSU put runners on every station with a single and two walks. Price entered the game and ended the inning with a strikeout. He retired six in a row after that. The Owls are now 1-2 to start the season while Long Beach State suffered its first defeat to move to 2-1.
Three Owls On Golden Spikes Watch List
DURHAM, N.C. - Rice Owls Cole St.Clair, Aaron Luna and Ryan Berry are among a prestigious group of only 75 collegiate players on the official watch list for the 2008 Golden Spikes Award, USA Baseball announced. The Golden Spikes Award, which honors the year's top college baseball player, is sponsored by Major League Baseball. The 2008 season marks the 31st installment of the award. The initial watch list, the first ever of its kind for the Golden Spikes Award, features 75 of the nation's top collegiate players from across the country. Three candidates is the most any one school placed on the watch list and Rice is one of just six schools with that distinction. The watch list is only a starting point for the season. Candidates can play their into consideration for the award over the weeks ahead... St.Clair is a left-handed pitcher and 2007 major league draft pick who passed on turning pro in order to return for his senior year at Rice. In 16 appearances for the Owls last season, St.Clair posted a 1.91 ERA with nine saves. He threw 28.1 innings, allowing six earned runs on 22 hits, while striking out 26 batters and walking just eight. The Santa Ana, Calif., native held opposing hitters to a composite .214 batting average. St.Clair earned All-America honors in 2006 and he enters the 2008 season as Rice's career leader in saves with 22... Luna was a third team All-American and the most valuable player of the All-Conference USA Tournament last season. The slugger from Southlake, Tex., batted .315 and led the Owls in home runs (13), RBI (66), walks (48), slugging percentage (.570) and on-base percentage (.447). Luna has clubbed 29 homers in his first two seasons in an Owls' uniform, a total that has him tied for ninth place on the school's all-time list... Only a sophomore, Berry produced a remarkable rookie campaign for the Owls in 2007. He earned National Freshman Pitcher of the Year from Collegiate Baseball Magazine in addition to C-USA Freshman of the Year and first team all-conference. Berry finished the season with an 11-3 record and 3.01 ERA. The standout from Humble, Tex., struck out 125 batters and walked just 34 in 122.2 innings. Berry tied the Rice record for victories by an Owl freshman, a mark set by former first round draft picks and eventual major leaguers Matt Anderson (1995) and Philip Humber (2002)... The 2008 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award will be presented nationally July 16 on an award show via live telecast from New York at MLB Advanced Media studios. Recent Rice nominees for the Golden Spikes Award have included some of the school's all-time greats like Lance Berkman, Jose Cruz, Jr., Damon Thames and Joe Savery to name a few.
Fun At The Old Ball Yard
No baseball season would be complete without a full slate of promotional dates, and the 2008 Rice season is no exception. Each Sunday of the home season, the Owls will offer a special Family Pack, which allows a family of four to buy four General Admission tickets, and receive vouchers for four drinks and four food items from the Prince's concession stands for just $40. Also on Sunday's, another Rice tradition will continue, as all kids in attendance will be able to take the field with the Owls for the National Anthem, as well as run the bases after the game. For the ninth consecutive year, the Owls will allow their young fans to take over the job of running Reckling Park for a day when they host Kid's Take Over The Park Day on April 13. Among the other promotions on the slate are Senior Citizens Day (March 15), Little League Day (March 30), National PB&J Day (April 2), Local Heroes Day ( April 12), Big Brothers Big Sisters Day and National Jugglers Day (April 18), and Senior Day (May 11). Additional promotional dates will be added during the season.
The C-USA Favorites
Led by junior Aaron Luna and sophomore Ryan Berry as the 2008 Conference USA player and pitcher of the year, respectively, the Rice baseball team was ranked first in a preseason poll of the league's nine head coaches, the C-USA office announced on Jan. 30. Luna and Berry are among four Owls named to the league's all-preseason team, the most from any school. The C-USA coaches picked Berry as the pitcher of the year and senior Cole St.Clair as the league's preseason reliever. Luna, the preseason player of the year, was joined by catcher junior Adam Zornes, a 2007 major league draft pick, to round-out the Owls' 2008 honorees. Since 1996 the Blue & Gray has won 12-consecutive conference championships spanning three different baseball leagues.
2008 PRESEASON BASEBALL COACHES POLL
(as selected by C-USA's head coaches)
PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH
1. Rice (8) 80
2. East Carolina (1) 61
3. Southern Miss 57
4. Tulane 52
5. Houston 38
PLAYER OF THE YEAR - Aaron Luna, Rice (Jr., of/dh)
PITCHER OF THE YEAR - Ryan Berry, Rice (So., rhp)
ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM P Ryan Berry So. Rice
P T.J. Hose Sr. East Carolina
P Shooter Hunt Jr. Tulane
RP Cole St.Clair Sr. Rice
C Adam Zornes Sr. Rice
IF Stephen Batts Jr. East Carolina
IF Jimmy Cesario Jr. Houston
IF Brian Dozier Jr. Southern Miss
IF Trey Sutton Sr. Southern Miss
IF Kiko Vasquez Jr. UCF
OF Tyson Auer Sr. UCF
OF K.K. Chalmers Sr. Memphis
OF Harrison Eldridge Sr. East Carolina
DH Aaron Luna Jr. Rice
Mid-Semester Additions
The Owls had two additions to the team after the end of the fall 2007 semester. Junior left-handed pitcher Lucas Luetge of Industry, Texas, and San Jacinto College enrolled in school for the spring semester and joined the Owls for the upcoming season. Luetge went 11-3 with a 3.56 ERA in two seasons at the junior college level. He's been drafted by major league baseball twice in his career, including his prep playing days at Bellville High School where he was a teammate of junior infielder Jess Buenger. Luetge, in fact, has already been a teammate of six different Owls on the current roster... Rice freshman Michael Fuda joined the team at the semester break after playing for the Owls' football team in the fall. The versatile Fuda was an all-state infielder at Katy High School just west of Houston. He was a wide receiver and special teams player for the football team under Rice head coach David Bailiff. "Michael was on the football team in the fall, so don't know that much yet except that he was all-state in high school and he can run like the dickens," said Wayne Graham. "He's an extremely talented athlete."
Legends Of The Fall
Wayne Graham liked what he saw of the Owls' practices from the fall of 2007. "The main thing (in fall practice) is we're looking to evaluate what we have and to help players improve," Graham said. "We expect guys who were here last year to be better, hitting and pitching. Aaron (Luna) came back hard and ended up leading us in RBI, runs scored and batting average (with J.P. Padron). Of the players who were here last year J.P. was the most improved and he was far and away our best at getting on base (.500 OB%). Jared (Gayhart) looked good last year (.339 batting average starting in 43 games), and he looked like he has the potential to be even better in 2008. Diego Seastrunk will be a force." Typical of the team's depth and balance through 20 Blue-Gray scrimmages held during the fall, 10 games were determined by two runs or less. "Adam Zornes looked good," Graham added. "He may have been unlucky in the beginning (while the Reckling Park playing field was being renovated) but once we moved back he hit well. We're working hard with the young catchers. Everything indicated the pitchers learned a lot from last year," Graham said.
Cooled By A Draft
The Rice baseball team tied a collegiate record last season without even playing a game or stepping on the field. On June 7-8, the Rice had no less than 14 members of its baseball program selected in the 2007 Major League Baseball Draft. Junior Joe Savery was selected in the first round and he was the 19th player taken overall. A total of 13 more Owls were drafted by the event's final selection. The 14 picks ties the mark set by Arizona State in 1982. Cal State Fullerton matched the selection total in 2005. Ten Owls signed with the pros but four, Cole St.Clair (7th round, Cleveland), Adam Zornes (24th, Cleveland), Jonathan Runnels (29th, Toronto) and Chris Kelley (34th, Oakland), returned to the team for 2008.
Quick On The Opposition
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi enters Tuesday's game with a 1-2 record. The Islanders opened the season playing two Southland Conference rivals at the Pan American Tournament in Edinburg, Tex., but none of the games were tabbed as official league action. TAMU-CC lost its first two games of the year (to Lamar 8-3, and UT-Pan American 9-3) before defeating Stephen F. Austin 7-6 on Sunday. The Islanders are under new leadership with head first year head coach Scott Malone. Freshman right-hander Trey Hernandez (0-0, 0.00) has been named as the starting pitcher against Rice.
Houston is 2-1 after taking its season-opening weekend series from Pacific. The Cougars scored 16 runs in the three games and already have five home runs. UH pitchers held the opposition to a composite .240 batting average and struck out 29 hitters in 27 innings. Sophomore left-hander Donnie Joseph (0-0, 0.00) has been named the starting pitcher for Houston on Wednesday
The 2008 Silver Glove Series
Like the big rivalries in college football, the city of Houston's top two college baseball programs play for a coveted prize (the Silver Glove Trophy) as part of their annual series. Rice has won nine of the ten series with Houston since play for The Glove began in 1998. The Owls won the trophy in its first two years and have held the hardware now for seven years in a row (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007).
Rice-Houston Series History
The Silver Glove has only been around for a decade. The Owls and Cougars have a long-standing rivalry that dates back to 1948. In 140 games played since the first meeting between the two schools in 1948, Rice leads the all-time series with Houston 73-67. The teams became Southwest Conference rivals when UH joined that league in the 1970s. The teams renewed the conference rivalry in 2006 as C-USA foes. There have been 43 one-run games in the series. In 2003 the teams played eight times.
