Rice University
Texas State
Owls Play At Minute Maid Park This Weekend
2/28/2019 3:56:00 PM | Baseball
First Pitch Friday Set For 11 A.M.
Live Game Statistics
Tickets for Reckling Park
Rice Game Notes PDF
Mar. 1 (Fri.) 11 am; Texas State (visitor) vs. Rice (home) Watch online
Mar. 2 (Sat.) 3 pm; Rice (visitor) vs. Baylor (home) Watch online
Mar. 3 (Sun.) 7 pm; TCU (visitor) vs. Rice (home) Watch online
Owls Head Way Downtown! - Rice Returns To College Classic
The Rice baseball team (3-6 this season) heads downtown to play in the annual Shriners College Classic on March 1-3. It's one of the nation's top collegiate tournaments and held annually at Minute Maid Park, the major league home of the Houston Astros. Rice is making its 16th appearance in this, the 19th year of the event. On three consecutive days the Blue & Gray meet longtime foes Texas State (5-3 overall) on Friday at 11 am, Baylor (8-0) on Saturday at 3 pm, and TCU (5-2) on Sunday at 7 pm.
Watch The College Classic Games Online
All nine games of the tournament will be televised by AT&T SportsNet, the television home of the Houston Astros, and streamed on the AT&T SportsNet app. Fans are asked to check local listings for more information. There are also many ways to stream all nine games live and for free. The games will be streamed on MLB.com, Astros.com and the MLB At Bat app. Additionally, the games will be available live on the Astros YouTube channel and the official social media accounts of the Astros, including Facebook Live and Twitter.
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 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 449-398-2. 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 announced junior right-hander Matt Canterino, as the starter for the opening game of the College Classic. The weekend's remaining starting pitchers will be announced at a later time.
• Now a two-year letterman in 2019, Matt Canterino has garnered a host of preseason attention in college baseball circles. The junior right-hander has been voted the Conference USA Preseason Pitcher of the Year by the league head coaches, a preseason All-American by Baseball America and the baseball writers (NCBWA), and to the initial watch list for the Golden Spikes Award as the best amateur player in the country. Last summer Canterino was selected to pitch for the United States collegiate national team and he was later the winning pitcher of the Cape Cod League All-Star game. The Southlake, Texas, native was a prep star at Carroll H.S. At Rice he has posted 242 strikeouts in 201.0 innings of work.
Preseason C-USA Prognostications
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 .308 with three doubles, nine runs scored and three stolen bases in nine 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.
Last Time Out: Owls Defeat Prairie View 25-5
The Rice baseball team slugged four home runs, including two grand slams, in a 25-hit attack to defeat visiting Prairie View 25-5 Wednesday night (Feb. 27) at Reckling Park... Rice was out of the starting gate early on the way to the program's biggest single-game run total since 2010. In the bottom of the first inning designated hitter Rodrigo Duluc made his first at bat of the season a memorable one by blasting a grand slam homer for his first collegiate hit. After a four-run first, the Owls added two in both the second and third innings with single runs in the fourth and fifth to build a 10-2 advantage… The Owls then sent 17 men to the plate in the seventh for an eye-opening 13 runs, tying for the most Rice has ever scored in one inning in school history. The inning featured the team's second grand slam of the night, by Trei Cruz which was already his second slam of the young season. Senior Andrew Dunlap knocked a three-run homer to go along with a three-run double for a six-RBI in the inning. Dunlap and Bradley Gneiting shared the team lead with five hits. Seven different Owls had two or more hits in the contest… Almost lost in all the offensive fireworks was a sound and solid starting pitching performance by sophomore Kel Bordwine. The right-hander fired a career-long 5.0 innings while allowing just five singles and no walks and tying a career-high with three strikeouts. He was charged with two runs, but both were unearned. A freshman trio Brandon Deskins, Dalton Wood and A.C. Plum also saw action on the night over the final four frames.
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:
2-2 in blue jersey with pinstripe pants
1-2 in all pinstripes
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 nine games of the 2019 season the Owls have been averaging more than 2,400 fans per game.
