Rice University Athletics
Rice University
9-6
Florida International
11-3
Owls Top FIU 10-2 Wednesday Night At Reckling Park
3/9/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 9, 2011
HOUSTON -- Rice starting pitcher Matthew Reckling posted a career-high nine strikeouts in six shutout innings and the Owl offense erupted for 10 runs on the way to a 10-2 victory over visiting Florida International University Wednesday evening at Reckling Park in Houston.
The Owls struck for a run in the bottom of the second inning. Ryan Lewis drew a one-out walk and hustled to third when Michael Ratterree followed with a base hit into right field. Lewis then scored on a ground out to the right side for a 1-0 lead.
Rice proceeded to add seven more runs over the next two frames. J.T. Chargois led off the third with a single and Anthony Rendon drew a walk to put men on first and second. Jeremy Rathjen was only trying to sacrifice the runners up, but an FIU fielding error on the play put an Owl on every station. Chargois scored from third and the runners advanced on an errant Panther pickoff attempt. Craig Manuel drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and Rathjen came home on an RBI single by Lewis for a 4-0 Rice advantage.
The Owls doubled the margin with four more in the fourth. The big blow was a one-out, bases-loaded triple to right field by Rendon, who opportunistically sprinted home on the play when a Panther relay throw that went off target. Rice stretched the lead to 8-0 after four.
That was more than enough room for Rice starting pitcher Matthew Reckling. The junior right-hander from Houston worked a total of 6.0 shutout innings on the night, holding FIU to six hits while striking out a career-high nine. The Panthers scored single runs in the seventh and eighth of the Owl bullpen. Rice tallied its final two runs of the night in the seventh on a bases-loaded single by Ratterree and sacrifice fly by Derek Hamilton for a 10-2 final.
With the victory Rice improved to 9-6 overall. Florida International suffered only its third loss on the season to fall to 11-3.
The Owls wrapped-up the brief two-game Reckling Park homestand and next head west to play in the Cal Baseball Classic presented by Safeway, on March 11-13 at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Rice meets Long Beach State on Friday, tournament host California on Saturday and UC-Santa Barbara on Sunday.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Reckling, Matthew (2-0)
L: Fitzpatrick, Kyle (1-1)
Batting:
2B: Bermudez, Pablo 1 ; Patton, Jeremy 1 ; Henry, Jabari 1
RBI: Patton, Jeremy 1 ; Barroso, Yoandy 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Bermudez, Pablo 1 ; Shantz, T.J. 1
Batting:
3B: Rendon, Anthony 1
RBI: Rendon, Anthony 3 ; Manuel, Craig 1 ; Lewis, Ryan 1 ; Ratterree, Michael 1 ; Hamilton, Derek 2
SH: Rathjen, Jeremy 1 ; Hamilton, Derek 1
SF: Manuel, Craig 1 ; Hamilton, Derek 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Cook, Keenan 1 ; Chargois, J.T. 1 ; Rendon, Anthony 2 ; Rathjen, Jeremy 1 ; Aquino, Michael 1 ; Hoelscher, Shane 1 ; Lewis, Ryan 1 ; Ratterree, Michael 1 ; Hamilton, Derek 1
CS: Lewis, Ryan 1
HBP: Perrott, Geoff 1 ; Ratterree, Michael 1
