Owls Take Two Saturday To Sweep C-USA Road Series

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Baseball

at Louisiana

Oct 11

1 PM

Baseball

vs McClennan JC

Oct 26

Noon

Reckling Park

NORFOLK, Va. – The Rice baseball team won both games of a Conference USA road double-header at Old Dominion by the scores of 14-10 in game one and 11-2 in the nightcap Saturday evening in Norfolk Va. With the two wins the Owls also claimed a sweep of the three-game conference series.

Records: The Owls improved to 12-18 on the season and 4-5 in league play with a fourth-straight C-USA victory. Old Dominion dropped to 16-11 overall and 1-8 in C-USA action.

On The Rise: What a difference 24+ hours can make. Prior to Friday's opening game of the series Rice was tied for 11th in the C-USA standings. With the three-game series sweep the Owls vaulted into sole possession of eighth place in the standings. The positions can of course change with Sunday's completion of the weekend slate of C-USA games.

Owls Get Offensive: Rice lit up the scoreboard with a big 14-run total in game one and followed it up with double-digit runs (11) in game two. For the two games the Owls hit a combined 28-of-78 (.359) with seven doubles, a triple and five home runs for a composite .667 slugging percentage. The Blue & Gray also patiently drew 13 walks and was hit by a pitch eight times for a .490 on-base average.

Individual Honors: Where all the Owls in the lineup made a contribution in the 25-run day, four really stood out. Senior Andrew Dunlap was a combined 5-for-8 (.625) with three home runs, seven RBI and five runs scored; Sophomore Dominic Cox was 4-for-8 with three doubles and a grand slam (to account for his first career home run) for a total of nine RBI; Junior Braden Comeaux was 4-for-9 (.444) with two doubles, five runs scored, and two walks & two HBP for a .615 on-base percentage; and Sophomore Justin Collins was 3-for-7 (.429) with a home run, five runs scored and three walks & a HBP for a .636 on-base percentage.

Premium Pitching: Two pitchers were sound and solid on the way to registering their career longest outings in each of the games. In game one senior Jackson Parthasarathy came out of the bullpen and worked a career-long 7.0 innings to earn his third win of the season. In the nightcap senior Evan Kravetz was sensational in a career-long 8.0 innings, allowing just two runs on three hits while striking out eight. Where Kravetz and Parthasarathy accounted for 15.0 of the day's 18.0 innings, Old Dominion used a total of nine different pitchers to try and contain the Owl hitters.

Steady 'D' All Day: Almost lost in all the offensive fireworks was that the Owls were error-free in the field in 75 total chances and turned three double plays. Justin Collins caught all 18 innings behind the plate Saturday and did not miss a beat on the offensive side.

Ouch x 8!: In the early game Rice batters were hit by a pitch a total eight times, the most the Owls have been plunked in a single game since the keeping track of that particular occurrence. Going back to 1996 there were nine different times when the Owls were hit by a pitch five times in one game, but never more than that. Rice made good use of the free passes as four of the hit batters made their way around to score. That was essentially the winning margin in the 14-10 final.

On Deck: Rice is not finished with the five-game road swing just yet. The Owls are next in action on Tuesday night in Hunstville, Texas, against Sam Houston State. First pitch at Don Sanders Stadium is set for 6:30 pm.

Join Coach Bragga Monday: Fans are invited to attend the Matt Bragga Show on Monday (April 1) at Christian's Tailgate restaurant located on Kirby. The show featuring coach Bragga, along with Rice players and special guests, is scheduled for 7-8 pm every Monday thru May 13.

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