Friday, March 8
Houston, TX
6:30 pm
Rice University
vs
Oklahoma
Photo by: Erik Williams
Owls Host Oklahoma In Weekend Series
3/7/2019 4:51:00 PM | Baseball
First Pitch Friday Set For 6:30 PM At Reckling Park
Listen online (pregame show 15 min. before start)
Tickets for Reckling Park
Rice Game Notes PDF
Live Stats
Mar. 8 (Fri.) 6:30 pm; Oklahoma at Rice Watch online
Mar. 9 (Sat.) 2 pm; Oklahoma at Rice Watch online
Mar. 10 (Sun.) 1 pm; Oklahoma at Rice Watch online
Owls Host Sooners In Key Weekend Series
Rice Homestand Continues Thru March 13
The Rice baseball team, 6-8 this season, continues the current homestand with a three-game weekend series vs. Big 12 power Oklahoma March 8-10. Start times vs. the Sooners (11-2 overall) are set for Friday at 6:30 pm, Saturday at 2 pm and Sunday at 1 pm. The home action at Reckling Park then continues with two more games on March 12-13 (vs. Lamar and Texas State, respectively).
Fun & Games At Reckling Park - Check Out The Latest Promotion
Sunday (Mar. 10): Join us for National Mario Day! All fans named Mario, and any fans who are plumbers, can purchase tickets at a discounted rate of $10 for the series finale vs. Oklahoma. Sundays are always a Kids Club Day. All children 12 and under can run the bases following the game.
Watch Home Games Online Via CUSAtv
All home games at Reckling Park are slated for a live online video broadcast via 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.
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.
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 452-400-2. 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 coaches at third base and Teykl coaches at first.
Probable Pitchers
Coach Bragga announced Rice's starting pitchers for the Oklahoma series as Matt Canterino (0-2, 2.00), Evan Kravetz (1-1, 3.45), and Jackson Parthasarathy (2-1, 1.69). The veteran trio have been the same weekend starters since the opening series vs. Rhode Island.
• 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. and has been the Owls' Friday night ace almost his entire career. He could have used some offensive support last week at Minute Maid Park when he was tagged with a loss despite allowing just one run (which was unearned) in 7.0 innings of work. At Rice he has posted 251 career strikeouts in 208.0 innings.
• In the opening weekend of the season Evan Kravetz made an (almost) unexpected start on the mound when junior right-hander Addison Moss was a late scratch from the lineup. All Kravetz did was fire a career-high 10 strikeouts while matching a (then) career long 5.0 innings of work. A week ago at Minute Maid Park the senior left-hander battled for a win over No. 12 ranked Baylor by striking out nine in a new career long 6.2 innings. A year ago the Miami, Fla., native led the Owls and finished sixth in the conference in pitching appearances.
• Consider that when head coach Matt Bragga first arrived at Rice all the players on the roster were essentially new to him, and all the Owls were given an equal opportunity to play their way into a starting role for 2019. After the fall training program and preseason practices it was senior Jackson Parthasarathy who worked his way into one of the top three starting pitching spots for the opening weekend. The senior right-hander has been sound and solid in three starts this season, maintaining a 1.69 ERA and holding opponents to a composite .153 batting average. A year ago 64.7 percent of Parthasarathy's innings (25.0 of his 38.2) were against elite opponents that went on to play in the NCAA Tournament.
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.
Last Time Out: Owls Fall To Sam Houston Wednesday, 10-9
The visiting Sam Houston State baseball team rallied to tie the game in the top of the eighth and score the winning run in the ninth for a 10-9 win over the Rice Owls Wednesday night at Reckling Park... The Rice offense was in high gear early in the contest. Senior Andrew Dunlap provided two big hits going 3-for-4 with five RBI on the night. He belted a three-run homer in the third and a two-run double in the fourth as the Blue & Gray built a 9-5 lead after the first four frames... The Bearkats continued to fight, and chipped away for two runs in the sixth and two more in the eighth to tie the score, 9-9. The Southland Conference preseason favorite scored the go-ahead run in the ninth as the Owls gave up two walks, a base hit and hit a batter before ending the inning... Rice is now 6-8 on the season. The Owls' win streak was snapped at three games.
Winning Is Always In Fashion
For the fashion-minded, Rice's 2019 W-L records while wearing the various uniforms is as follows:
1-0 in blue 'flag' jersey with pinstripe pants
4-2 in blue Old English jersey with pinstripe pants
1-2 in all-pinstripes
0-1 in blue Old English jersey with white pants
0-3 in all-white
Comeaux & DiCaprio Named To College Classic All-Tourney team
Owls Dominic DiCaprio and Braden Comeaux were named to the 2019 All-Tournament Team for last weekend's Shriners' College Classic played downtown at Minute Maid Park. Comeaux hit a combined .417 (5-of-12) with two doubles and three runs scored at the Astros' home venue. DiCaprio was 4-of-12 (.333) with a double, two RBI and a run as the Owls went 2-1.
Comeaux Named Bragan Slugger Award Player of the Week
Braden Comeaux's selection to the All-College Classic team is only part of the junior's accolades last week. Comeaux was also named the Bragan Slugger Award Player of the Week for the four total games he played (including one midweek contest in addition to the three at Minute Maid Park). For the full week Comeaux was 8-of-17 (.471) with six runs scored, two doubles and a stolen base. It caught the attention of the organizers behind the 2019 Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award, where Comeaux had already been named to the Award's initial watch list prior to the start of the season... 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 a team-best .339 with five doubles, 15 runs scored and three stolen bases in 14 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.
Owls Sweep C-USA Weekend Awards
Andrew Dunlap and Jackson Parthasarathy have been named the Conference USA Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, the league office announced on March 4... In four games last week Dunlap went a combined 8-for-16 (.500) with 11 RBI and eight runs scored in leading the Owls to three wins. The senior outfielder from Houston knocked two home runs, a triple and two doubles for a 1.188 slugging percentage. He also maintained a .600 on-base average as Rice posted wins over ranked teams Baylor and TCU, as well as Prairie View... Parthasarathy earned a win over No. 16 ranked TCU at hitter-friendly Minute Maid Park over the weekend. The junior right-hander from Austin tied a career-long with 6.0 innings of work while holding the nationally-ranked Horned Frogs to just one earned run on five hits and two walks. He struck out seven to earn his second victory of the season. This is the first time for both Owls to earn the respective weekly honors from Conference USA.
Tickets for Reckling Park
Rice Game Notes PDF
Live Stats
Mar. 8 (Fri.) 6:30 pm; Oklahoma at Rice Watch online
Mar. 9 (Sat.) 2 pm; Oklahoma at Rice Watch online
Mar. 10 (Sun.) 1 pm; Oklahoma at Rice Watch online
Owls Host Sooners In Key Weekend Series
Rice Homestand Continues Thru March 13
The Rice baseball team, 6-8 this season, continues the current homestand with a three-game weekend series vs. Big 12 power Oklahoma March 8-10. Start times vs. the Sooners (11-2 overall) are set for Friday at 6:30 pm, Saturday at 2 pm and Sunday at 1 pm. The home action at Reckling Park then continues with two more games on March 12-13 (vs. Lamar and Texas State, respectively).
Fun & Games At Reckling Park - Check Out The Latest Promotion
Sunday (Mar. 10): Join us for National Mario Day! All fans named Mario, and any fans who are plumbers, can purchase tickets at a discounted rate of $10 for the series finale vs. Oklahoma. Sundays are always a Kids Club Day. All children 12 and under can run the bases following the game.
Watch Home Games Online Via CUSAtv
All home games at Reckling Park are slated for a live online video broadcast via 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.
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.
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 452-400-2. 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 coaches at third base and Teykl coaches at first.
Probable Pitchers
Coach Bragga announced Rice's starting pitchers for the Oklahoma series as Matt Canterino (0-2, 2.00), Evan Kravetz (1-1, 3.45), and Jackson Parthasarathy (2-1, 1.69). The veteran trio have been the same weekend starters since the opening series vs. Rhode Island.
• 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. and has been the Owls' Friday night ace almost his entire career. He could have used some offensive support last week at Minute Maid Park when he was tagged with a loss despite allowing just one run (which was unearned) in 7.0 innings of work. At Rice he has posted 251 career strikeouts in 208.0 innings.
• In the opening weekend of the season Evan Kravetz made an (almost) unexpected start on the mound when junior right-hander Addison Moss was a late scratch from the lineup. All Kravetz did was fire a career-high 10 strikeouts while matching a (then) career long 5.0 innings of work. A week ago at Minute Maid Park the senior left-hander battled for a win over No. 12 ranked Baylor by striking out nine in a new career long 6.2 innings. A year ago the Miami, Fla., native led the Owls and finished sixth in the conference in pitching appearances.
• Consider that when head coach Matt Bragga first arrived at Rice all the players on the roster were essentially new to him, and all the Owls were given an equal opportunity to play their way into a starting role for 2019. After the fall training program and preseason practices it was senior Jackson Parthasarathy who worked his way into one of the top three starting pitching spots for the opening weekend. The senior right-hander has been sound and solid in three starts this season, maintaining a 1.69 ERA and holding opponents to a composite .153 batting average. A year ago 64.7 percent of Parthasarathy's innings (25.0 of his 38.2) were against elite opponents that went on to play in the NCAA Tournament.
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.
Last Time Out: Owls Fall To Sam Houston Wednesday, 10-9
The visiting Sam Houston State baseball team rallied to tie the game in the top of the eighth and score the winning run in the ninth for a 10-9 win over the Rice Owls Wednesday night at Reckling Park... The Rice offense was in high gear early in the contest. Senior Andrew Dunlap provided two big hits going 3-for-4 with five RBI on the night. He belted a three-run homer in the third and a two-run double in the fourth as the Blue & Gray built a 9-5 lead after the first four frames... The Bearkats continued to fight, and chipped away for two runs in the sixth and two more in the eighth to tie the score, 9-9. The Southland Conference preseason favorite scored the go-ahead run in the ninth as the Owls gave up two walks, a base hit and hit a batter before ending the inning... Rice is now 6-8 on the season. The Owls' win streak was snapped at three games.
Winning Is Always In Fashion
For the fashion-minded, Rice's 2019 W-L records while wearing the various uniforms is as follows:
1-0 in blue 'flag' jersey with pinstripe pants
4-2 in blue Old English jersey with pinstripe pants
1-2 in all-pinstripes
0-1 in blue Old English jersey with white pants
0-3 in all-white
Comeaux & DiCaprio Named To College Classic All-Tourney team
Owls Dominic DiCaprio and Braden Comeaux were named to the 2019 All-Tournament Team for last weekend's Shriners' College Classic played downtown at Minute Maid Park. Comeaux hit a combined .417 (5-of-12) with two doubles and three runs scored at the Astros' home venue. DiCaprio was 4-of-12 (.333) with a double, two RBI and a run as the Owls went 2-1.
Comeaux Named Bragan Slugger Award Player of the Week
Braden Comeaux's selection to the All-College Classic team is only part of the junior's accolades last week. Comeaux was also named the Bragan Slugger Award Player of the Week for the four total games he played (including one midweek contest in addition to the three at Minute Maid Park). For the full week Comeaux was 8-of-17 (.471) with six runs scored, two doubles and a stolen base. It caught the attention of the organizers behind the 2019 Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award, where Comeaux had already been named to the Award's initial watch list prior to the start of the season... 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 a team-best .339 with five doubles, 15 runs scored and three stolen bases in 14 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.
Owls Sweep C-USA Weekend Awards
Andrew Dunlap and Jackson Parthasarathy have been named the Conference USA Hitter and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, the league office announced on March 4... In four games last week Dunlap went a combined 8-for-16 (.500) with 11 RBI and eight runs scored in leading the Owls to three wins. The senior outfielder from Houston knocked two home runs, a triple and two doubles for a 1.188 slugging percentage. He also maintained a .600 on-base average as Rice posted wins over ranked teams Baylor and TCU, as well as Prairie View... Parthasarathy earned a win over No. 16 ranked TCU at hitter-friendly Minute Maid Park over the weekend. The junior right-hander from Austin tied a career-long with 6.0 innings of work while holding the nationally-ranked Horned Frogs to just one earned run on five hits and two walks. He struck out seven to earn his second victory of the season. This is the first time for both Owls to earn the respective weekly honors from Conference USA.
Players Mentioned
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