Owls Blank Tulane 6-0 Thursday Night In New Orleans

Thursday, May 15

New Orleans, La.

6:00 PM

Rice University

40-11, 19-3

Tulane

36-16-1, 13-7-1

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Rice	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	6	7	0
Tulane	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1

<b>Ryan Berry was named 2008 Preseason All-America.</b>

Owls Blank Tulane 6-0 Thursday Night In New Orleans

5/15/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

May 15, 2008

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS, La. -- It may not have looked like a pitcher's duel from the 6-0 final score, but the Rice tandem of Ryan Berry and Matt Evers combined for a three-hit shutout to out-duel the Tulane staff on the way to a Conference USA victory in the opener of a three-game baseball series Friday evening at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium in New Orleans.

Berry worked out of some early jams then looked sharp on the way to allowing no runs for 8.0 innings before a rowdy crowd of 3,541. The sophomore right-hander from Humble, Tex., allowed three hits and three walks while striking out seven to earn his seventh win of the season. Evers retired each of the three men he faced in the final frame to keep the shutout intact. The Owls posted their third shutout of the season for their 40th win of the year and improved to 19-3 in C-USA games.

With 9-1 Shooter Hunt on the mound for Tulane in the other half of the night's pitching matchup, any early runs would be critical to the outcome. In the top of the first inning, Rice slugger Aaron Luna continued his hot hitting that earned him the most-recent Conference USA Hitter of the Week honors with a shot that would later prove to be all the Owls would need. With a man on base Luna blasted a fly ball to the opposite field in right. With no shortage of precision, the ball came down on the top of the padded outfield fence, striking the gold homerun line. The ball then bounced up into a net behind the fence before landing back in the field of play. The umpires signaled Luna to touch 'em all for a two-run homer, the 38th round-tripper of Luna's collegiate career.

The Owls came back with another run in the top of the second. Rick Hague led off with a double to the gap in left-center and moved to third on a wild pitch. He scored on a sacrifice fly by Adam Zornes to extend the Rice lead to 3-0.

By the end of the second Berry had already survived two similar situations of two men on base with just one out. A double-play grounder helped him get out of the first and a strikeout and come-backer to the mound helped him get out of a bases-loaded threat in the second.

"Ryan started off slow and he was very fortunate early to get two double plays," said Rice head coach Wayne Graham. "He wasn't pitching that well early, but then he got very good late. That's what good pitchers do."

Both starting pitchers then proceeded to fire matching, scoreless innings for the next five frames. Hunt retired 13 in a row at one point while Berry set down 18-of-20 to deliver the duel as promised. Rice was able to add an insurance run in the top of the eighth and two more in the ninth. Jared Gayhart drew a leadoff walk and J.P. Padron followed with a text-book bunt. He beat the throw to first for a base hit, but the ball sailed wide to the Green Wave first baseman. Gayhart kept sprinting around the bases and scored all the way from first on the error to stretch the lead to 4-0.

With Hunt out of the game in the ninth, Hague drove a pitch toward the corner in left for a leadoff double. Zornes then knocked a pitch over the wall in left to make the margin 6-0 with his team-leading 10th home run of the year. Rice won its eighth game in a row, the team's 20th victory in the last 21 games. The Blue & Gray also clinched their 14th-straight season with at least 40 wins.

""Ryan had a good performance and we had a good defensive game with timely hits," Graham said. "I thought our approach was good. We were ready to hit the fastball early. We got through a couple and that doesn't always happen that way. Hunt's got great stuff. He's going to be a first-rounder, and to score some runs, that's a good deal. It was one of those games where we had everything go for us."

The three-game series continues Friday, but is set up a little differently from the traditional C-USA schedule the league has used all season. Both games will be played Friday as a split double-header. The start times are set for 1:06 pm and 7:21 pm on the Tulane campus. Both games Friday are slated for a live television broadcast by CBS College Sports.