Owls Meet Texas Longhorns Tuesday Night In Austin

Apr. 21 (Tues.), 6 pm, Rice at Texas

The Rice baseball team, 27-10 overall and in sole possession of first place in Conference USA standings with an 11-4 league record, travels to Austin to meet the University of Texas on Tuesday (April 21). First pitch with the Longhorns (29-8) is set for 6 pm at UT's UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Not only is the clash the lone outing for the Owls this week, it's the team's last game for eight days while Rice University enters its final exams period for the spring semester... The baseball team returns to action with a home game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on April 29 at Reckling Park.

Audio Broadcasts • Catch The Owls On KTRU The Rest of the Season
Note that every Rice baseball game for the rest of the season will be broadcast live on the radio in the Houston area on KTRU (91.7 FM). Every Rice baseball game is also broadcast live around the world on the Internet at RiceOwls.com and KTRU.org. A direct connection to the audio feed is provided at the above link. J.P. Heath has the call from the pressbox for the Owls this season.

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 either the Rice Athletics front page, the weekly series preview or the baseball schedule page.

National Ranking Update • Rice No. 2 by Rivals.com, Baseball America
At press time the latest polls from Rivals.com and Baseball America both had the Owls as the No. 2 team in the nation. Five different polls all have Rice in the Top 6. The 2009 national ranking roll call is as follows....
Rivals.com 2nd
Baseball America 2nd
NCBWA 5th
USA Today/ESPN Coaches 5th
PingBaseball.com 6th
Collegiate Baseball 8th
PG Crosschecker.com 9th
Why so high? The polls are paying attention, that's why. Rice is 8-2 against ranked teams, including four wins against foes that were in the Top 10 at the time. Two wins were against teams that were rated No. 1 in the nation at the time (Texas A&M and Texas). The Owls have also defeated a host of quality opponents that played in the NCAA Tournament last season - East Carolina (twice), Houston (twice), Dallas Baptist (twice), Southern Miss (twice) and UCLA... A closer look at the team's 10 losses is also in order. Two of the losses were on the road on the opening weekend of the season against a Cal Poly team that is now ranked among the nation's Top 25 teams. Three other losses were to nationally-ranked Texas A&M, San Diego and East Carolina, and another two were to '08 NCAA Tournament teams Oral Roberts and Sam Houston State. Four of the team's losses were by a narrow two (or-fewer) runs.

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 18th season at Rice... In the 4-3 win over Southern Miss in Hattiesburg on March 20th, Coach Graham reached another career milestone. He won his 800th game at the helm of the Rice program... He is now 814-309 with the Owls (498-106 at home, 243-158 in road games and 73-45 at neutral sites). His Rice winning percentage is .725, the best in school history. Another way of looking at Graham's .725 win percentage is that it is the equivalent of a major league team winning 117 games in a single year - then winning 117 games a year for 17+ years in a row... Graham's record against Texas is 21-30 (10-11 home, 5-15 road, 6-4 neutral), including a 6-3 victory over the Longhorns on March 17 of this season... Under Graham, the Owls clinched another postseason bid in 2008, making 14-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, 2007 and 2008, as well as the C-USA tournament championships in `06 and `07. Rice has advanced into the NCAA tournament in 1995-96-97-98-99-00-01-02-03-04-05-06-07-08... 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 and `08... Rice has seven appearances in the NCAA College World Series under Graham (1997, '99, `02, `03, `06, `07, `08)... 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; ninth year), David Pierce (Houston, 1988; seventh year), Patrick Hallmark (Rice, 1995; fourth year)... The program's "new dads" coach the bases on game-days: Taylor coaches at third base this year while Hallmark coaches at first base.

1,389 Wins • A Baseball Odyssey
Wayne Graham owns 814 career wins at Rice, but his career victories tally to 1,389 when you include his 11 years at San Jacinto North College where he won five national championships. Graham's overall collegiate record is 1,389-422 in a 28-year career that began in 1981.

One More Thing To Consider
To help place Coach Graham's achievements in perspective, consider that Rice started its baseball program in 1913 and in the 76 seasons where there are verified won-loss records (Rice is missing a few W-L totals from those early days), the Owls won a total of 838 games. In the 17+ years since 1992 when Graham was named the head coach, the Owls have won 814 games. It's only taken Graham 17+ years to accomplish what it took the program more than three-quarters of a century to do before he got here.

Keeping Pace
Rice has matched its record (27-10) through this point in the season (37 games) that it had in each of the previous two years. The 2009 Owls are off to the same quick start that the previous two teams ('08, '07) had before they eventually went on to play in the College World Series in Omaha.

Winners In 12-of-last-15
The Owls have won 12 of their last 15 games. The Blue & Gray is hitting .330 as a team and averaging a steady 8.6 runs per game during the recent stretch. Rice has also clubbed 22 home runs for a .529 slugging percentage and stolen 27 bases in the recent 15-game tempest.

Sole Possession, Again
Rice moved into sole possession of first place in the Conference USA standings over the weekend with a two-games-to-one series win over Marshall. The Owls have won 11-straight C-USA series dating back to last season. Since its first Conference USA baseball season in the spring of 2006, Rice's regular-season record in C-USA league games is 76-11 (.874).

Kind of Like Home Run Derby
On Saturday (April 18), six of Rice's first nine hits in the 10-3 win over Marshall were home runs. Not only did the six homers snap a season-long four-game drought where the team did not hit any round-trippers, it was the most by an Owl squad since clubbing six against Memphis in the semifinals of the 2007 C-USA Tournament. Shortstop Rick Hague hit two of the team's six home runs while Michael Fuda, Brock Holt, Anthony Rendon and Steven Sultzbaugh all got into the act with homers of their own in an 11-hit night.

"O" The Places You'll Go
On the same Saturday night when the Owls the six home runs, junior right-hander Mike Ojala started on the mound and picked up his third win of the season without a loss. "O" needed only 5.0 innings of work before leaving with the lead. This season the Kingwood, Tex., native is 3-0 with a 1.69 ERA and has struck out 51 in 42.2 innings of work. Ojala's strikeouts-to-walks ratio this season is a commanding 3.4-to-1.

Here's Who's Hot
Junior second baseman Brock Holt is batting .550 (11-for-20) over the last five games with a home run and a double for a .750 slugging percentage. He also has four runs scored, three RBI and three steals in the five games. Holt is an outstanding leadoff batter who has drawn four walks for a .625 on-base percentage in the last five games... True freshman Craig Manuel has worked his way into a regular starting role as either the catcher or designated hitter. Manuel is hitting at a .409 pace (9-for-22) over his last seven games with nine RBI and five walks for a .519 on-base percentage... Not only did true freshman sensation Anthony Rendon hit at a .400 clip last week by going 6-for-15, the young star from Houston's Lamar High School smashed two more home runs and a double for an .867 slugging percentage. He's scored five runs in his last three games... Sophomore shortstop Rick Hague is 4-for-his-last-11 (.364) with two home runs and three walks. Hague has also been sensational on the defensive side, playing error-free and helping turn or start six of the team's 10 double plays last week... Sophomore outfielder Michael Fuda had a solid C-USA series against Marshall over the weekend, going 4-for-6 with a home run and a triple. He also drew four walks for an .800 on-base percentage and scored four times.

Jordan Rogers On Stopper of the Year Watch List
IRVING, Texas - On April 16 Rice senior right-hander Jordan Rogers was named to the 45-man midseason watch list for the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award as the nation's top collegiate baseball reliever. Rogers has emerged as the stopper for the nationally-ranked Owls. The Dayton, Tex., native leads Conference USA in saves with seven and shares the Rice lead in victories with five. In 20 appearances, Rogers is 5-2 with a 3.65 ERA. He has struck out 40 batters and walked just 15 in 37.0 innings pitched... At the end the regular season, the Division I leader in saves and four other relief pitching standouts will be selected as the award's finalists. These finalists will be released on Wednesday, June 3, just prior to the beginning of NCAA regional play. From the list of finalists, the NCBWA's All-America Committee will select a winner. The fourth annual winner will be announced on Saturday, June 13, just prior to the beginning of the College World Series.

Freshman Home Runs
Rookie Anthony Rendon hit two home runs in the Marshall series for his team-leading 11th and 12th home runs of the season. It also moved him into a tie for third place on an impressive list of Owl freshman who have hit at least 12 home runs in their debut season at the Division I level... The Rice freshman home run leaders are: Aaron Luna (2006-2008), a ninth-round draft pick by the St. Louis Cardinals last summer. Jose Cruz, Jr., who had 13 homers as a freshman in 1993 and went on to play a dozen years in the major leagues is second on the list. The third-place Owl on the frosh homer list, Bubba Crosby, ended up (like Cruz, Jr.) being first-round pick in the MLB draft who reached the major leagues. Rendon has now passed Vincent Sinisi's redshirt freshman season in 2002 when Sinisi hit 11 round-trippers. A year later Sinisi helped lead the Blue & Gray to the NCAA National Championship... Rendon has twice hit two home runs in a single game. Here are the Rice frosh leaders for four-masters.
1. Aaron Luna 16, 2006
2. Jose Cruz, Jr. 13, 1993
3. Bubba Crosby 12, 1996
3. Anthony Rendon 12, 2009
5. Vincent Sinisi 11, 2002

Against The Wall
Freshman left-handed starting pitcher Taylor Wall has had some solid outings in his debut season at the Division I level and he certainly has been improving as of late. In his last five starts over the past month, Wall is 3-1 with a 3.13 ERA. During the current stretch, the Houston native and Westside High School star has averaged a steady 6.1 innings per start with an eye-opening 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings. For the season Wall now leads the Rice staff in wins (5, with Jordan Rogers), strikeouts (54) and games started (9). He's held all opposing batters to a composite .256 batting average.

Six Owls In "The Show" This Season
Congratulations to six former Owls who made the Opening Day rosters of major league teams. The 2009 Rice alums in the majors include David Aardsma (Mariners), Lance Berkman (Astros), Tim Byrdak (Astros), Philip Humber (Minnesota), Paul Janish (Cincinnati) and Jeff Niemann (Tampa Bay).

The C-USA Favorites
IRVING, Tex. - Led by the junior tandem of Ryan Berry and Diego Seastrunk and sophomore Rick Hague, the Rice baseball team was ranked first in a preseason poll of Conference USA's nine head coaches, the league office announced on Jan. 28. The three preseason honorees are the most in the conference from any one school. Last season Berry was an all-conference pitcher who led the team in strikeouts (86), starts (16) and innings (104). The 6-foot-1 right-hander from Humble, Tex., has been the ace of the Rice staff since he earned freshman all-America honors in 2007. Hague earned freshman all-America honors last season as the starting shortstop for the Owls' College World Series team. The standout from Spring, Tex., batted .348 in his Division I debut and .379 in the Blue & Gray's run through the NCAA Tournament. Seastrunk is such a respected switch-hitter around the league that the C-USA coaches voted him to the preseason all-conference team even though the former third-baseman is projected to start at a completely new position (catcher) in 2009. A year ago the Channelview, Tex., star led the team in hitting (.353) and finished among the C-USA's best in hits, doubles, RBI, total bases and sacrifice flies.

2009 PRESEASON BASEBALL COACHES POLL
(as selected by C-USA's head coaches)

PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH
Rank, School (First Place Votes) Pts.
1. Rice (9) 81
2. East Carolina 67
3. Southern Miss 62
4. Tulane 55
5. Houston 49

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Nate Lape, Marshall (Sr., Outfielder)

PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Seth Maness, East Carolina (Soph., Righthander)

ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM
P Ryan Berry Jr. Rice
P Seth Maness So. East Carolina
P Wes Musick Jr. Houston
RP Chase Dempsay So. Houston
C Diego Seastrunk Jr. Rice
IF Brian Dozier Jr. Southern Miss
IF James Ewing Sr. Southern Miss
IF Rick Hague So. Rice
IF Seth Henry Sr. Tulane
IF Adam Yeager Sr. Marshall
OF Stephen Batts Jr. East Carolina
OF Brint Hardy Jr. UAB
OF Nate Lape Sr. Marshall
DH/UT Rob Segedin So. Tulane

Cooled By A Draft
A total of 11 Owls were selected in the 2008 Major League Baseball amateur draft, including junior right-hander Bryan Price as a first-round supplemental pick (the 45th player taken overall)... Bryan Price was taken by the Boston Red Sox organization in the supplemental round, the so called "sandwich" round between the draft's official first and second rounds. He was the first pitcher taken by the Red Sox, the defending World Series champions. Price was also the 13th right-handed pitcher taken overall. Six Rice juniors and four seniors were drafted last June... The total of eleven drafted players was three-off the Owls' school record of 14 draftees the team had taken in 2007.

Rnd Player Pos MLB Team
1A Bryan Price RHP Boston Red Sox
7 Cole St.Clair LHP Los Angeles Dodgers
7 Adam Zornes C San Diego Padres
9 Aaron Luna OF St. Louis Cardinals
11 Matt Langwell RHP Cleveland Indians
12 Jared Gayhart OF Detroit Tigers
18 Bobby Bell RHP Toronto Blue Jays
21 Lucas Luetge LHP Milwaukee Brewers
24 Chris Kelley RHP Washington Nationals
29 Jonathan Runnels LHP Los Angeles Dodgers
44 J.P. Padron 1B Washington Nationals

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