Owls Rally For 12-11 Win Over Western Carolina

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Baseball

at Louisiana

Oct 11

1 PM

Baseball

vs McClennan JC

Oct 26

Noon

Reckling Park

March 8, 2008

Box Score

HOUSTON -- Senior outfielder Derek Myers went 2-for-5 with the game-winning RBI double in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Rice baseball team to a 12-11 come-from behind victory over visiting Western Carolina in the early game of the Rice Invitational presented by Academy Sports & Outdoors Saturday afternoon at Reckling Park in Houston.

The Owls staged a two-out rally in the bottom of the ninth to break an 11-11 deadlock. The victory also snapped a three-game losing streak heading into Sunday's final day of the annual round-robin tournament at Reckling Park. Rice next meets Creighton, a winner over Michigan State in Saturday's late game by the score of 15-1, in the tournament finale at 1 pm on Sunday.

Western Carolina scored the first of its 11 runs in the top of the first innning. Barrett Shaft and Brent Greer singled with one out and a Rice passed ball allowed the runners to advance. The miscue turned into an early run as J.C. Lyons lifted a sacrifice fly to center for 1-0 lead.

Rice bounced right back to tie the game with its first batter of the game. Myers led off the bottom of the inning with the first home run of his collegiate career, a solo shot over the wall in left field.

A Rice miscue led to three more unearned runs in the top of the second. A base hit and hit batsman put Catamount runners on first and second with two away. An Owl fielding error that should have ended the inning loaded the bases, and a Shaft single to center field scored two. A Greer base hit scored one more for a 4-1 lead and WCU added three more in the top of the third on just two hits. The big blow was a three-run home run to center field by Tyler Kirkpatrick that stretched the margin to 7-1.

The Owls began to piece together a comeback with seven runs in the middle innings. Diego Seastrunk and J.P. Padron singled and Jared Gayhart walked to load the bases in the bottom of the fourth. Aaron Luna laced a base hit up the middle to score two and a sacrifice fly by Adam Zornes made the score 7-4.

WCU catcher Blake Murphy knocked a home run to straight-away center field in the fifth to make the score 8-4, but the Blue & Gray rallied to tie the game. Chad Mozingo singled, took third on a base hit by Seastruk and scored on a fielder's choice by Gayhart. Padron punched a hit through the left side and Luna doubled to the gap in left-center make it an 8-6 game. Padron and Luna both scored on a single by Zornes and it was a new game at 8-8.

In the top of the seventh, the Catamounts' J.C. Lyons reached on an error and Murphy made it sting with his second round-tripper of the day. The new 10-8 lead didn't last long. Rice charged back with three runs in its half of the seventh to move ahead for the first time, 11-10. Luna drew a two-out walk and he scored all the way from first on a double down the line by Zornes. Two more walks loaded the bases and a single up the middle by Jimmy Comerota drove in two more.

Western Carolina would not go away so easy, In the eighth Jason Haynes walked and stole second to move into scoring position. He scored on a two-out single on Shaft's third hit of the day and the game was knotted-up at 11. The Catamounts threatened for a run in the top of the ninth but some steady defense erased the threat. A two-out triple and a walk put runners at the corners against Rice pitcher Cole St.Clair, a preseason candidate for the 2008 Stopper of the Year Award. WCU put down a bunt on the left side to try and bring the go-ahead run home, but St.Clair charged to the ball and fired a throw to first that was just in time for the third out.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth freshman Rick Hague was hit by a pitch to get on base in front of Myers. The standout from nearby Bellaire High School knocked a 2-0 pitch to right-center and, because there were two away, Hague was sprinting on contact. WCU made a dive for the ball, but both Owl runners were in play. Hague scored the final run of the slugfest that saw 23 combined runs on 26 hits by the two teams.

Myers made the most of his first start of the season, driving in a pair of runs with the game-winning double as well as his first home run. Seastrunk had three hits to tie a season-high and Zornes finished with four RBI on a pair of hits. Rice improved to 7-5 on the season. Western Carolina fell to 4-7.

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