Saturday, May 11
Houston, TX
6 pm
Rice University
22-28, 13-13
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Southern Miss
32-16, 19-7
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Photo by: Maria Lysaker
Owls Shine In Shutout Victory Over Southern Miss
5/11/2019 10:26:00 PM | Baseball
Kravetz & Jefferies Combine On Three-Hit Shutout
HOUSTON – The Rice senior duo of Evan Kravetz and Kendal Jefferies combined on a three-hit shutout as the Owls defeated first place Southern Miss 4-0 in Conference USA action Saturday evening at Reckling Park in Houston.
Records: Rice is now 22-28 overall and 13-13 in C-USA. Southern Miss is now 32-16 and remains in first place in the league standings with a 19-7 conference ledger.
Standings Update: With the win the Owls moved into a tie for fifth place in the conference standings with Old Dominion (13-13 C-USA). The Owls hold the head-to-head series advantage over the Monarchs.
Mound Men: The Kravetz-Jeffereies tandem was sensational in posting the staff's first shutout of the season, and Rice's first shutout since April of last season (a 9-0 home win over Old Dominion). Kravetz worked 7.1 innings, scattering the three Golden Eagle hits and striking out 10. The southpaw now has 103 strikeouts this season to tie for the team lead. Jefferies tallied the final 1.2 frames, striking out three for his fifth save of the season and 12th of his career.
Web Gem: The Owls made a big defensive play in the top of the eighth that helped save the shutout. With just one away the Golden Eagles loaded the bases on three straight walks. Rice third baseman Braden Comeaux, however, ended the USM threat by fielding a hard grounder at the hot corner, tagging the on-coming runner and then firing the ball to first base. Senior Brandt Frazier, who had just come in that half inning as a defensive replacement at first, made a nice catch on a tricky throw to complete the double play.
Offense: Rice's Braden Comeaux and Trei Cruz both collected two hits in the game and combined for three runs and three RBI. Cruz' two hits were his eighth home run of the season and his team leading sixth triple. Rice outhit USM 9-3 in the game. For the series the Owls have outhit the Golden Eagles 18-10.
Home Run Tracker: The Cruz round-tripper gave the team a total of 42 homers this year. Rice had already zoomed past its 2018 total of 35 home runs in just two-thirds of the at bats. The squad has been mashing the taters at a rate of one every 41.69 at bats as well as just under one per game (0.84), both percentages are the best the program has done in the last two years. Overall the squad's slugging percentage is higher this season (.416) than a year ago (.386). Rice also already has 16 triples to surpass its full-season total from one year ago.
Late Start: Because of rain in the area the start time was pushed back from 2 pm to 6:08 pm. The scenario was essentially a flip in the traditional weekend scheduling where the series opener on (usually scheduled for a 6:30 pm start) was moved up to 2 pm to avoid rain expected later in the evening on Friday.
Vs. Southern Miss: Rice leads the all-time series with Southern Miss 28-20 dating back to the first meeting in 2006.
Rice's "Brand of Justice": Longtime Rice baseball volunteer Steve Justice was one of the honorees to throw out a ceremonial first pitch Saturday. For the last 20 years Justice has served as the program's volunteer umpire liaison, assuring that the game's arbiters have a professional environment to do their jobs. Justice is retiring from his post after this season.
On Deck: Sunday's 1 pm series finale is Rice's final home of the 2019 season. No less than 13 Owl seniors will honored before the first pitch.
Records: Rice is now 22-28 overall and 13-13 in C-USA. Southern Miss is now 32-16 and remains in first place in the league standings with a 19-7 conference ledger.
Standings Update: With the win the Owls moved into a tie for fifth place in the conference standings with Old Dominion (13-13 C-USA). The Owls hold the head-to-head series advantage over the Monarchs.
Mound Men: The Kravetz-Jeffereies tandem was sensational in posting the staff's first shutout of the season, and Rice's first shutout since April of last season (a 9-0 home win over Old Dominion). Kravetz worked 7.1 innings, scattering the three Golden Eagle hits and striking out 10. The southpaw now has 103 strikeouts this season to tie for the team lead. Jefferies tallied the final 1.2 frames, striking out three for his fifth save of the season and 12th of his career.
Web Gem: The Owls made a big defensive play in the top of the eighth that helped save the shutout. With just one away the Golden Eagles loaded the bases on three straight walks. Rice third baseman Braden Comeaux, however, ended the USM threat by fielding a hard grounder at the hot corner, tagging the on-coming runner and then firing the ball to first base. Senior Brandt Frazier, who had just come in that half inning as a defensive replacement at first, made a nice catch on a tricky throw to complete the double play.
Offense: Rice's Braden Comeaux and Trei Cruz both collected two hits in the game and combined for three runs and three RBI. Cruz' two hits were his eighth home run of the season and his team leading sixth triple. Rice outhit USM 9-3 in the game. For the series the Owls have outhit the Golden Eagles 18-10.
Home Run Tracker: The Cruz round-tripper gave the team a total of 42 homers this year. Rice had already zoomed past its 2018 total of 35 home runs in just two-thirds of the at bats. The squad has been mashing the taters at a rate of one every 41.69 at bats as well as just under one per game (0.84), both percentages are the best the program has done in the last two years. Overall the squad's slugging percentage is higher this season (.416) than a year ago (.386). Rice also already has 16 triples to surpass its full-season total from one year ago.
Late Start: Because of rain in the area the start time was pushed back from 2 pm to 6:08 pm. The scenario was essentially a flip in the traditional weekend scheduling where the series opener on (usually scheduled for a 6:30 pm start) was moved up to 2 pm to avoid rain expected later in the evening on Friday.
Vs. Southern Miss: Rice leads the all-time series with Southern Miss 28-20 dating back to the first meeting in 2006.
Rice's "Brand of Justice": Longtime Rice baseball volunteer Steve Justice was one of the honorees to throw out a ceremonial first pitch Saturday. For the last 20 years Justice has served as the program's volunteer umpire liaison, assuring that the game's arbiters have a professional environment to do their jobs. Justice is retiring from his post after this season.
On Deck: Sunday's 1 pm series finale is Rice's final home of the 2019 season. No less than 13 Owl seniors will honored before the first pitch.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Kravetz, Evan (5-2)
L: Powers, Stevie (3-4)
S: Jefferies, Kendal (5)
Batting:
2B: Slater, Hunter 1
Base Running:
SB: LeBlanc, Hunter 1
Batting:
2B: Comeaux, Braden 1 ; Edwards, Cade 1
3B: Cruz, Trei 1 ; Beaulaurier, Aaron 1
HR: Cruz, Trei 1
RBI: Comeaux, Braden 1 ; Cruz, Trei 2 ; Dunlap, Andrew 1
SF: Dunlap, Andrew 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Comeaux, Braden 1 ; Cruz, Trei 2 ; Beaulaurier, Aaron 1
SB: Duluc, Rodrigo 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
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