Rice University
Prairie View A&M
Owls Host Prairie View Wednesday Night
2/26/2019 1:39:00 PM | Baseball
Season-Opening Nine-Game Homestand Comes To A Close
Live Game Statistics
Tickets for Reckling Park
Rice Game Notes PDF
Feb. 27 (Wed.) 6:30 pm; Prairie View at Rice
Watch online (activates at game time)
This Week - Rice Hosts Longtime Foe Prairie View Wednesday Night
The Rice baseball team (2-6 this season) hosts longtime foe Prairie View on Wednesday (Feb. 27) at 6:30 pm. Start time at Reckling Park is set for 6:30 pm.
Watch Home Games Online Via CUSAtv
All home games at Reckling Park are slated for a live online video broadcast on CUSAtv. The broadcast is a subscription-based service which matches the play-by-play audio with a video feed to create a television-like production on the Internet (either live or in an archived format). Games that have been selected for TV broadcasts can alter the online availability. Links to away-game webcasts will be provided on RiceOwls.com when available.
Play-By-Play Audio On The Web
Every Rice baseball game is scheduled for a live audio broadcast on the Internet at RiceOwls.com. Tune-in to the broadcast's pregame show 15 minutes before first pitch. Veteran J.P. Heath returns to the booth for his 11th season as the voice of the Owls. Note that different broadcasters are scheduled to call some of the upcoming games until the completion of the respective Rice men's and women's basketball seasons.
Live Stats Links Online at RiceOwls.com
Links to live play-by-play text and statistics from every game, home and away, are posted on RiceOwls.com. Look for the links on the Rice Athletics front page, the weekly series preview, and/or the baseball schedule page.
Follow The Tweeting Rice Owls
The official Rice baseball Twitter account is @RiceBaseball while the Rice Athletics department is @RiceAthletics. Twitter is perhaps the fastest way to get weather-related changes to the schedule/updated start times.
Head Coach Matt Bragga
A 19-year veteran of the head coaching ranks, Matt Bragga was named the 21st head coach in Rice baseball history on June 15, 2018. Bragga has spent the last 15 years as the Head Coach at Tennessee Tech, building that program into one of the best in the Ohio Valley Conference. The four-time OVC Coach of the Year led the Golden Eagles to three NCAA Tournament appearances, winning six OVC championships in the past 10 years while winning 40 or more games in four of the past six seasons. In 2018 he helped Tennessee Tech to its best season in school history, amassing a school and OVC-record 53 wins, the most in the country, while leading the team to the league's regular season title and its first-ever trip to the NCAA Super Regionals. The Jefferson, Ohio, native who played collegiately at Kentucky before a pro playing career, owns a Division I coaching record of 448-398-2. Bragga is aided by assistant coaches Cory Barton (Memphis, 2007, first year), Paul Janish (Rice, 2004; second year), and Connor Teykl (Rice, 2017; first year).
Two Owls Coaching On The Corners
There are two former Rice Owls on Matt Bragga's 2019 coaching staff. Former major leaguer and 2003 Rice National Champion Paul Janish is in his second year with the program. Janish (Wiess College) played professionally for 13 years with nine seasons in the major leagues, most recently in 2017 with the Baltimore Orioles. Rice graduate Connor Teykl (Baker College 2017) is in his first season as an assistant coach at his alma mater. As a four-year letterman from 2013 to 2016, Teykl helped lead the Rice baseball program to three Conference USA regular season championships and two league tournament titles. On game days Janish will coach at third base and Teykl will be at first.
Possible Starting Pitcher
Coach Bragga has announced Wednesday's starting pitcher vs. Prairie View as sophomore right-hander Kel Bordwine (0-1, 4.50). After a solid debut outing against Rhode Island on the opening weekend of the year, Bordwine made his first collegiate start against No. 24 Arizona last Wednesday where he worked 3.0 innings. At just two weeks into the young season Bordwine has already surpassed his freshman totals for innings (6.0) and strikeouts (3).
Preseason C-USA Accolades
IRVING, Texas – On the eve of the Rice Baseball team's first practice of the 2019 season Owl Matt Canterino was selected as the Conference USA Preseason Pitcher of the Year in the league's annual head coaches' poll. In the same preseason poll the C-USA head coaches also voted on a top-to-bottom finish for the 12 league teams. Rice was selected fourth behind Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech and Florida Atlantic, respectively.
Comeaux Named To Bragan Slugger Award Watch List
Junior third baseman Braden Comeaux been named to the initial watch list for the 2019 Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award. From its headquarters in the DFW Metroplex, the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation has combined a passion for baseball and providing youngsters with the incentive and opportunity to pursue a college education for more than 25 years. One position player from a Division I baseball school in the five-state region of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico will be presented with the Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award. Since its inception in 2017 the award is based on performance at the plate, academics and personal integrity. The winner of the award will be announced in May and honored at a gala in the fall. This year Comeaux is hitting .265 with three doubles, six runs scored and two stolen bases in eight games. As one of just four Owls to start all 59 of Rice's games last spring, Comeaux finished third on the team, and tied for ninth in Conference USA overall, with 76 hits. He shared the team lead and tied for eighth in the conference, in at bats (238) and ranked eleventh in C-USA in total plate appearances (278). The Lake Charles, La., native hit safely in a team-best 16-consecutive games during one stretch and he collected two or more hits in a game 22 times.
Honors Abound For Cruz After Week 1
After the opening weekend of the college baseball season the honors poured in for Rice's Trei Cruz. The sophomore shortstop was named a Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball and the Conference USA Hitter of the Week from the league office. Cruz batted a combined .444 (8-of-18) with two home runs, two triples, ten RBI, five runs scored, two stolen bases and a composite 18 total bases to help the Owls claim two wins in a three-game weekend series vs. Rhode Island. He did the bulk of his offensive damage in the Sunday series finale vs. URI as the Owls won 15-3. In that game, Cruz had four extra-base hits and drove in nine runs, just one shy of the Rice school record (held by his father, Rice All-American and former major league player Jose Cruz, Jr.).
Take A Closer Look At Last Year
Rice had 31 losses in 2018, but a closer look is in order. The final margin in 15 of the team's losses was two runs or less. The Owls were playing close games in a tough schedule while a number of the team's star players (including Addison Moss, Dominic DiCaprio and Ricardo Salinas) were all sidelined at various points during the season. Just how tough was the 2018 schedule? Rice's final Strength of Schedule rating last season was No. 30 in the nation, and there were no other C-USA schools in the Top 70 of last season's final S.O.S. ranking. A year ago the young Owls' squad played 27 games against 12 different teams that either made it to the NCAA Tournament or who were nationally ranked at the time Rice played them.
Rookie Ball!
There are some Rice newcomers to keep an eye on in 2019. Junior second baseman Cade Edwards was enrolled at Rice last spring but was not on the roster until the fall semester. Edwards played the 2017 season at Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Arizona, where he batted .324 with 47 hits in 42 games to help lead the Coyotes to their first region playoff appearance in five years. The Houston native played Division I baseball at Tulane in 2016… Sophomore transfer Drake Greenwood played his freshman year in the SEC at Missouri. The right-handed pitcher from Houston was a prep star at The Kinkaid School… Keep an eye on some local true freshmen including Brandon Deskins (LHP, Friendswood H.S.), Benjamin Content (RHP, Concordia Lutheran H.S.), Dalton Wood (RHP, Second Baptist H.S.) and Antonio Cruz (OF, Episcopal H.S.).
Winning Is Always In Fashion
For the fashion-minded, Rice's 2019 W-L records while wearing the various uniforms is as follows:
1-2 in all pinstripes
1-2 in blue jersey with pinstripe pants
0-2 in all-white
20th Year At Reckling Park
Other schools have tried to follow Rice baseball's lead, building bigger and more expensive stadiums, but Reckling Park remains among the best venues in college baseball. The 2019 season is now the Owls' 20th at the stadium. Rice has won an eye-opening 76 percent of its more than 630 games at Reckling Park since opening for the 2000 season. Through the first eight games of the 2019 season the Owls have been averaging almost 2,500 fans per game.
