Rice University Athletics
Rice University
14-6
Louisiana-Lafayette
6-12
Owls Thump Louisiana 17-6 Wednesday Night At Reckling Park
3/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 19, 2008
HOUSTON -- The outfield tandem of Jared Gayhart and Chad Mozingo both drove in four runs each as the 11th-ranked Rice baseball team posted a season-high 17 runs and tied a season-high with 17 hits to defeat the visiting Louisiana Ragin Cajuns' 17-6 Wednesday night at Reckling Park.
The Owls won their sixth game in a row with a football-looking score, and the offense did some hitting that would make any gridiron team proud. Rice matched its season-high hit total that it had tallied just three days before. Nine different players hit safely and six had two or more in the game. All but three of the 17 hits on the night were with runners on base and the team batted a composite .556 with runners in scoring position.
With the offense in gear, the Blue & Gray improved its record to 14-6. Rice also matched its longest win streak of the early season at six games.
Louisiana came out firing and struck for a run in the top of the first inning. Leadoff batter Josh Logan singled and moved to second on a base hit by Nolan Gisclair. Logan scored on a hit up the middle by Scott Hawkins.
The Ragin' Cajuns' 1-0 lead was short-lived. Diego Seastrunk drew a two-out walk and clean-up batter Aaron Luna followed with a home run blast to straight-away centerfield. Luna's second homer in as many games put the Owls in front 2-1.
Louisiana answered with two runs in the top of the second, aided by a pair of Rice miscues that allowed the first two batters in the inning reached base. The first was on a wild pitch after a strikeout and the second was on an Owl fielding error. Both runners scored on back-to-back singles by Logan and Matt Goules to put the Cajuns back on top, 3-2.
Rice came back in the bottom of the frame with four runs to take regain the lead and stretch the margin to 6-3. Freshman Rick Hague led off with a double to left and he scored on a base hit to right-center by J.P. Padron. Jimmy Comerota drew a walk to put runners on first and second for Gayhart. The junior from Katy, Tex., slapped a double off the wall to score both men and give Rice the lead for good. Gayhart then scored on a hit by Mozingo to push across the game's ninth run after the first two innings of play.
In the fourth the Owls batted around with six hits and three walks to score seven runs. The big blow was the team-leading tenth double of the year by Seastrunk that scored two. Louisiana put two runs on in the fifth and another in the sixth that made the score 13-6, but the Owls came back with four more in the sixth. In the sixth Mozingo tripled to left field for his third base hit of the game as well as drive in the final two runs of the contest.
Junior left-hander Lucas Luetge started in the game and struck out five in 4.1 innings. He was relieved by Will McDaniel, Mark Haynes, Jonathan Runnels and Bryan Price, who combined to hold the Rajin' Cajuns to just one run for the final 4.2 frames. Louisiana fell to 6-12 on the year.
Rice next opens Conference USA action on the road at Marshall starting on Friday (Mar. 21). The three-game league series will be played at Appalachian Power Park in Charleston, W.Va., the minor league home of the Milwaukee Brewers minor league affiliate in the South Atlantic League.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: McDaniel, Will (1-0)
L: Cook, Michael (0-0)
Batting:
2B: Hawkins, Scott 1 ; Griffen, Thad 1
HR: Hicks, Matt 1
RBI: Logan, Josh 1 ; Goulas, Matt 1 ; Hawkins, Scott 2 ; Hicks, Matt 2
SH: Logan, Josh 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Logan, Josh 1 ; Goulas, Matt 1 ; Hawkins, Scott 1 ; Hicks, Matt 1 ; Benzel, Tyler 1 ; Griffen, Thad 1
SB: Logan, Josh 1
Batting:
2B: Gayhart, Jared 1 ; Seastrunk, Diego 1 ; Hague, Rick 1
3B: Mozingo, Chad 1
HR: Luna, Aaron 1
RBI: Gayhart, Jared 4 ; Mozingo, Chad 4 ; Seastrunk, Diego 2 ; Luna, Aaron 2 ; Hague, Rick 1 ; Padron, J.P. 2 ; Dodson, Jordan 1
SF: Gayhart, Jared 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Gayhart, Jared 2 ; Mozingo, Chad 1 ; Seastrunk, Diego 2 ; Luna, Aaron 1 ; Natale, Nick 1 ; Hale, John 1 ; Hague, Rick 2 ; Padron, J.P. 2 ; Dodson, Jordan 2 ; Comerota, Jimmy 3
SB: Padron, J.P. 1
