Owls Turn On The Power, Crush Houston 24-3

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1 PM

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vs McClennan JC

Oct 26

Noon

Reckling Park

May 27, 2010

Box Score

By MOISEKAPENDA BOWER

Presented the opportunity to boast on his prodigious power and that of his talented teammates in the aftermath of an absolute demolition of rival Houston Thursday night, Rice sophomore third baseman Anthony Rendon opted instead to prove that he is the quintessential team player.

According to Rendon, the reason behind the Owls' offensive onslaught against the Cougars had everything to do with the detailed scouting report compiled by the Rice coaching staff. Despite the thunder present in their righthanded-heavy lineup, the Owls were just 8-9 against southpaw starters prior to their meeting Houston lefty William Kankel.

Rice slugged that statistic over the left-field wall at Cougar Field, chasing Kankel in the first inning while bashing six home runs en route to a 24-3 Conference USA Baseball Championship win shortened to seven innings.

Rendon crushed a grand slam to left-center off Houston righthander Matt Creel to cap the Owls' 11-run first, a frame that included five consecutive Owls reaching against Kankel (3-7) with one out. By the time Creel entered to face right fielder Chad Mozingo, the 20th-ranked Owls (37-20) led 5-0. One walk, one fielding error on Houston shortstop Blake Kelso and one hit batsman later, Rendon put the contest on ice.

"Only thing I can think of is the scouting report," Rendon said of the sudden success against southpaws, including Wednesday's 11-3 win over East Carolina lefty Patrick Somers. "We got (to Rice) at about 3:45 and we watched film for a good 30, 45 minutes. And then the next thing you know we knew that he (Kankel) liked to throw changeups, and that's what we hit the first inning."

Rice swept the five-game Silver Glove Series against the Cougars (25-31) during the regular season, and with Houston one win over Rice away from clinching a spot in the tournament final on Saturday night, the Owls quickly squashed those upset aspirations. Rick Hague, Jeremy Rathjen, Rendon, Diego Seastrunk and Michael Ratterree alternated singles and walks against Kankel, with Rendon plating Hague and Ratterree scoring Rathjen and Rendon. When Michael Fuda and Steven Sultzbaugh, both righthanded hitters, laced back-to-back singles against Kankel later that inning, Houston coach Rayner Noble went to his bullpen to slow the surge, as the Rice righties were 5-for-6 with a walk.

The insertion of Creel, the Cougars' closer, did little to stem the tide. In addition to the Rendon grand slam - his third of the season, second against the Cougars, and 23rd home run overall - the Owls added three more runs off Creel in the third. Houston righthander Codey Morehouse was touched up for four runs on six hits and two walks in just under two innings of work before the Owls cranked the power meter to full throttle against Cougars lefthander Ty Stuckey and Houston righthander James Conlee. Stuckey surrendered home runs to Hague and Fuda in the Owls' three-run fifth before Jimmy Comerota, Fuda and Sultzbaugh crushed back-to-back-to-back home runs against Conlee to open the seventh.

"You don't see many games like that where you hit the ball that well," Rice coach Wayne Graham said of a 20-hit barrage that included 11 for extra bases. "It was a great job of hitting by a lot of guys in the lineup."

Said Hague, who finished 4-for-5 with five runs and two RBIs: "We can do this on any day. Everyone showed up and had their timing down."

The Owls set a C-USA single-game tournament record for runs scored and margin of victory. All nine starters recorded at least one hit, scored at least one run and produced at least one RBI. Fuda has his second multi-homer game of the season as Rice upped its total to 85 home runs, third-most in program history. Rice slugged 120 homers in 1997 and 118 the following year before the NCAA altered the weight ratio of bats.

Senior righthander Mike Ojala (5-2) was the beneficiary of the scoring deluge. While the Owls sent 14 batters to the plate in the first, Ojala made two treks to the bullpen to stay loose. When he took the mound for the first time already in possession of an 11-0 lead, he quickly shifted his focus to getting outs with haste. After striking out a career-best 12 batters last Friday against UAB, Ojala recorded just one strikeout against the Cougars, and that came against Stuckey in the fifth.

However, Ojala did record 12 fly-ball outs, routinely challenging the Cougars with his fastball in order to return to the dugout and allow his offense to keep pounding away at the Cougars' bewildered staff.

"That's exactly it," said Ojala, who allowed three runs on six hits and one walk in six innings. "Our defense is good and our catching is great, so all you've got to do is get through the innings. We were crushing the ball."

Rice can clinch a spot in the championship game with a victory over Marshall (27-30) on Friday. The Thundering Herd is slated to start Mike Mason, who allowed just three runs on nine hits and two walks over 6 1/3 innings in a 4-3 triumph on May 8. Mason is a lefthander.

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