Thursday, May 16
Huntington, WV
2 pm
Rice University
at
Marshall
Photo by: Maria Lysaker
Rice Meets Marshall In Final C-USA Series
5/15/2019 11:39:00 PM | Baseball
Owls Begin Three-Game Set Thursday In Huntington
Listen online (pregame show 10 min. before start)
Rice Game Notes PDF
May 16 (Thur.) 2 pm; Rice at Marshall Live Stats Watch Online
May 17 (Fri.) 1 pm; Rice at Marshall Live Stats Watch Online
May 18 (Sat.) 10 am; Rice at Marshall Live Stats Watch Online
Rice Meets Marshall In C-USA Regular Season Series; Owls Looking To Qualify For Next Week's C-USA Championship
The Rice baseball team, 24-28 overall and 14-13 in Conference USA action, closes out the regular season schedule May 16-18 in Huntington, W.Va. The Owls face Marshall (25-26, 11-15) in the final C-USA series of the season for both teams. The series is the final hurdle in Rice's battle to qualify next week's C-USA Championship in Biloxi, Miss. Game times against the Thundering Herd are set for 2 pm on Thursday, 1 pm Friday, and 10 am Saturday (all times listed here are Central Time).
Watch League Games Online
Most C-USA baseball games are slated for a live online video broadcast. The 'Watch' links for games, including road games, are available on the baseball schedule page.
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 10 minutes before first pitch. Veteran J.P. Heath is in his 11th season in the booth as the Voice of the Owls.
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 470-420-2. 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 This Weekend
Coach Bragga will announce this week's starting pitchers at a later time.
Power Surge
Rice hit two home runs May 12 (Sunday) to give the team a total of 44 homers this year. The Owls had already zoomed past their 2018 total of 35 home runs in just two-thirds of the at bats. The squad has been blasting the longball at a rate of one every 41.14 at bats as well as just barely under one per game (0.846), both percentages are the best the program has done in the last two years. Overall the squad's slugging percentage is higher this season (.414) than a year ago (.386). Rice also already has 16 triples to surpass its full-season total from one year ago.
Canterino & Parthasarathy Named To C-USA All-Academic Team
DALLAS – Rice's Matt Canterino and Jackson Parthasarathy been named to the 2019 In-Touch Credit Union Conference USA Baseball All-Academic Team, the league office announced Wednesday from its headquarters in Dallas, Texas. The two Owls are among the 11 student-athletes named to the league's All-Academic Team, as voted by the school's academic counselors. The other 2019 C-USA Baseball All-Academic honorees included Dominick Cammarata (Charlotte), Chris Clayton (Louisiana Tech), Steele Netterville (Louisiana Tech), Tucker Linder (Marshall), Joshua Shapiro (Marshall), Tommy Bell (Old Dominion), Hunter Slater (Southern Miss), Bradley Griggs (UTSA) and Dillon Nelson (WKU). Nominees from each C-USA school had to be at least a sophomore in classification with a minimum 3.20 grade point average. This season Canterino has posted a 2.93 ERA and held opposing hitters to a composite .199 batting average, and he has been just as successful in the classroom. The junior from Southlake, Texas, has maintained a 3.96 grade point average while majoring in mechanical engineering. He recently moved into Rice's top ten list with 330 career strikeouts heading into his start Thursday night at Marshall. Parthasarathy has likewise juggled Division I baseball and elite academics. The senior right-hander from Austin, Texas, has maintained a 3.52 grade point average majoring in mechanical engineering. He worked his way into a weekend's starter's role, posting a 4-7 record and 4.41 ERA while striking out 59 batters in 63.1 innings of work.
News & Notes From Previous Appearance (Tues. vs. Houston)
SUGAR LAND, Texas – The Rice baseball team scored two runs on three hits and six different Owl pitchers made it stand up for a 2-1 victory over crosstown rival Houston, clinching the annual Silver Glove Trophy against the Cougars Tuesday evening at Constellation Field in Sugar Land, Texas.
Silver Glove Trophy Series: Like the big rivalries in college football, the Rice and Houston baseball teams play a yearly series for an annual trophy, The Silver Glove. The teams began playing for the trophy in the 1998 season and Rice had won The Glove 15-of-16 times through 2013. With the win Tuesday the Owls have now won The Glove twice in the last three years.
Longtime Rivals: This may be the 22nd year of The Silver Glove series, but the Owls and Cougars have a long-standing rivalry that dates back to 1948. In 190 games played since the first meeting between the two schools in 1948, Rice leads the all-time series with Houston 108-82. The teams became Southwest Conference rivals when UH joined that league in the 1970s. The teams renewed the conference rivalry from 2006-2013 as C-USA foes. Consider that since 1948 there have now been 59 one-run games in the series, with Rice holding a narrow 30-29 advantage.
Recent Finales: Tuesday's contest marked the fourth time in the last five years for the Silver Glove Trophy to be decided in the third and final game of the series.
All-Series Team: At the conclusion of the game the annual All-Silver Glove Series Team was announced. With a total of 6.2 shutout innings in the series Rice sophomore pitcher Kel Bordwine was named the series' Most Outstanding Player. Blair Lewis (P), Kendal Jefferies (P), Cade Edwards (Inf.), and Braden Comeaux (Inf.) joined Bordwine on the 2019 all-series team.
Pitchers: The Owl staff of Drake Greenwood, Blair Lewis, Jackson Tyner, Kel Bordwine, Dalton Wood, and Kendal Jefferies combined to hold the Cougars to just one run on six hits. Rice flirted with danger walking a total of nine batters in the contest, but came up big to avoid damage. As the Cougars battled to put the potential winning run in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth, Jefferies got a ground ball out to notch his team leading sixth save of the season (and his second of the series).
Two Big ABs: Where Rice finished the night with just two runs on three hits, the Owls made the most of two key at bats. There were two times, in the top of the third and fourth innings, where the Blue & Gray had a runner on third base and less than two outs. Rice pushed the runner home both times with a ground ball to the right side and a sacrifice fly. Houston is 31-20 on the season.
Here's Who's Hot
Senior Andrew Dunlap is a combined 12-for-22 (.545) with a home run and two doubles (.773 SLG%) in his last six games. He's also scored five times and driven in four runs... Junior Braden Comeaux has helped Rice take the final two games against Southern Miss and Tuesday's Silver Glove game vs. Houston. Comeaux is a combined 5-for-11 (.455) with a pair of doubles (.636 SLG%), a walk (.500 OB%) and two runs scored... In the last ten games sophomore catcher Justin Collins is a combined 12-for-33 (.364) with two doubles and a home run (.515) to go along with seven walks (.463 OB%). He also delivered a big sacrifice fly in the Houston game.
C-USA Honors Kravetz
DALLAS – Rice's Evan Kravetz has been named a Conference USA Pitcher of the Week, the league office announced on Monday... On May 11 (Saturday) Kravetz registered another sound and solid start on the mound in Rice's 4-0 shutout victory over first place Southern Miss. The senior left-hander scattered just three hits over 7.1 shutout innings while posting ten strikeouts. He held the 28 batters he faced to a composite .125 batting average, with only one of the three hits being for extra bases. The win was Kravetz' fifth of the year and he surpassed 100 strikeouts for this season. It is the second time this season Kravetz has been named a C-USA Pitcher of the Week. This year five different Rice Owls have been named a C-USA Pitcher/Hitter of the Week. Louisiana Tech's Mason Mallard has been named the Conference USA Hitter of the Week. All C-USA weekly awards are presented by Top of the World.
Cruzin' Among The C-USA Leaders
Sophomore shortstop Trei Cruz has jumped out to rank among the C-USA statistical leaders in a host of offensive categories. Cruz is second in the league in triples (6), tied for sixth in at bats (206) and tied for seventh in total bases (109). The former Houston prep star is also tied for 10th in the league in runs scored (45), tied for 11th plate appearances (241) and 13th in both hits (63) and home runs (8).
Winning Is Always In Fashion
For the fashion-minded, Rice's 2019 W-L records while wearing the various uniform combinations is as follows:
8-6 in blue Old English jersey with pinstripe pants
5-4 in all-pinstripes
4-4 in all-white
2-3 in all-gray
2-3 in blue 'flag' jersey with pinstripe pants
2-4 in blue & gray "R" jersey with gray pants
1-2 in blue 'flag' jersey with white pants
0-1 in blue Old English jersey with white pants
0-1 in blue & gray "R" jersey with pinstripe pants
Rice Game Notes PDF
May 16 (Thur.) 2 pm; Rice at Marshall Live Stats Watch Online
May 17 (Fri.) 1 pm; Rice at Marshall Live Stats Watch Online
May 18 (Sat.) 10 am; Rice at Marshall Live Stats Watch Online
Rice Meets Marshall In C-USA Regular Season Series; Owls Looking To Qualify For Next Week's C-USA Championship
The Rice baseball team, 24-28 overall and 14-13 in Conference USA action, closes out the regular season schedule May 16-18 in Huntington, W.Va. The Owls face Marshall (25-26, 11-15) in the final C-USA series of the season for both teams. The series is the final hurdle in Rice's battle to qualify next week's C-USA Championship in Biloxi, Miss. Game times against the Thundering Herd are set for 2 pm on Thursday, 1 pm Friday, and 10 am Saturday (all times listed here are Central Time).
Watch League Games Online
Most C-USA baseball games are slated for a live online video broadcast. The 'Watch' links for games, including road games, are available on the baseball schedule page.
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 10 minutes before first pitch. Veteran J.P. Heath is in his 11th season in the booth as the Voice of the Owls.
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 470-420-2. 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 This Weekend
Coach Bragga will announce this week's starting pitchers at a later time.
Power Surge
Rice hit two home runs May 12 (Sunday) to give the team a total of 44 homers this year. The Owls had already zoomed past their 2018 total of 35 home runs in just two-thirds of the at bats. The squad has been blasting the longball at a rate of one every 41.14 at bats as well as just barely under one per game (0.846), both percentages are the best the program has done in the last two years. Overall the squad's slugging percentage is higher this season (.414) than a year ago (.386). Rice also already has 16 triples to surpass its full-season total from one year ago.
Canterino & Parthasarathy Named To C-USA All-Academic Team
DALLAS – Rice's Matt Canterino and Jackson Parthasarathy been named to the 2019 In-Touch Credit Union Conference USA Baseball All-Academic Team, the league office announced Wednesday from its headquarters in Dallas, Texas. The two Owls are among the 11 student-athletes named to the league's All-Academic Team, as voted by the school's academic counselors. The other 2019 C-USA Baseball All-Academic honorees included Dominick Cammarata (Charlotte), Chris Clayton (Louisiana Tech), Steele Netterville (Louisiana Tech), Tucker Linder (Marshall), Joshua Shapiro (Marshall), Tommy Bell (Old Dominion), Hunter Slater (Southern Miss), Bradley Griggs (UTSA) and Dillon Nelson (WKU). Nominees from each C-USA school had to be at least a sophomore in classification with a minimum 3.20 grade point average. This season Canterino has posted a 2.93 ERA and held opposing hitters to a composite .199 batting average, and he has been just as successful in the classroom. The junior from Southlake, Texas, has maintained a 3.96 grade point average while majoring in mechanical engineering. He recently moved into Rice's top ten list with 330 career strikeouts heading into his start Thursday night at Marshall. Parthasarathy has likewise juggled Division I baseball and elite academics. The senior right-hander from Austin, Texas, has maintained a 3.52 grade point average majoring in mechanical engineering. He worked his way into a weekend's starter's role, posting a 4-7 record and 4.41 ERA while striking out 59 batters in 63.1 innings of work.
News & Notes From Previous Appearance (Tues. vs. Houston)
SUGAR LAND, Texas – The Rice baseball team scored two runs on three hits and six different Owl pitchers made it stand up for a 2-1 victory over crosstown rival Houston, clinching the annual Silver Glove Trophy against the Cougars Tuesday evening at Constellation Field in Sugar Land, Texas.
Silver Glove Trophy Series: Like the big rivalries in college football, the Rice and Houston baseball teams play a yearly series for an annual trophy, The Silver Glove. The teams began playing for the trophy in the 1998 season and Rice had won The Glove 15-of-16 times through 2013. With the win Tuesday the Owls have now won The Glove twice in the last three years.
Longtime Rivals: This may be the 22nd year of The Silver Glove series, but the Owls and Cougars have a long-standing rivalry that dates back to 1948. In 190 games played since the first meeting between the two schools in 1948, Rice leads the all-time series with Houston 108-82. The teams became Southwest Conference rivals when UH joined that league in the 1970s. The teams renewed the conference rivalry from 2006-2013 as C-USA foes. Consider that since 1948 there have now been 59 one-run games in the series, with Rice holding a narrow 30-29 advantage.
Recent Finales: Tuesday's contest marked the fourth time in the last five years for the Silver Glove Trophy to be decided in the third and final game of the series.
All-Series Team: At the conclusion of the game the annual All-Silver Glove Series Team was announced. With a total of 6.2 shutout innings in the series Rice sophomore pitcher Kel Bordwine was named the series' Most Outstanding Player. Blair Lewis (P), Kendal Jefferies (P), Cade Edwards (Inf.), and Braden Comeaux (Inf.) joined Bordwine on the 2019 all-series team.
Pitchers: The Owl staff of Drake Greenwood, Blair Lewis, Jackson Tyner, Kel Bordwine, Dalton Wood, and Kendal Jefferies combined to hold the Cougars to just one run on six hits. Rice flirted with danger walking a total of nine batters in the contest, but came up big to avoid damage. As the Cougars battled to put the potential winning run in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth, Jefferies got a ground ball out to notch his team leading sixth save of the season (and his second of the series).
Two Big ABs: Where Rice finished the night with just two runs on three hits, the Owls made the most of two key at bats. There were two times, in the top of the third and fourth innings, where the Blue & Gray had a runner on third base and less than two outs. Rice pushed the runner home both times with a ground ball to the right side and a sacrifice fly. Houston is 31-20 on the season.
Here's Who's Hot
Senior Andrew Dunlap is a combined 12-for-22 (.545) with a home run and two doubles (.773 SLG%) in his last six games. He's also scored five times and driven in four runs... Junior Braden Comeaux has helped Rice take the final two games against Southern Miss and Tuesday's Silver Glove game vs. Houston. Comeaux is a combined 5-for-11 (.455) with a pair of doubles (.636 SLG%), a walk (.500 OB%) and two runs scored... In the last ten games sophomore catcher Justin Collins is a combined 12-for-33 (.364) with two doubles and a home run (.515) to go along with seven walks (.463 OB%). He also delivered a big sacrifice fly in the Houston game.
C-USA Honors Kravetz
DALLAS – Rice's Evan Kravetz has been named a Conference USA Pitcher of the Week, the league office announced on Monday... On May 11 (Saturday) Kravetz registered another sound and solid start on the mound in Rice's 4-0 shutout victory over first place Southern Miss. The senior left-hander scattered just three hits over 7.1 shutout innings while posting ten strikeouts. He held the 28 batters he faced to a composite .125 batting average, with only one of the three hits being for extra bases. The win was Kravetz' fifth of the year and he surpassed 100 strikeouts for this season. It is the second time this season Kravetz has been named a C-USA Pitcher of the Week. This year five different Rice Owls have been named a C-USA Pitcher/Hitter of the Week. Louisiana Tech's Mason Mallard has been named the Conference USA Hitter of the Week. All C-USA weekly awards are presented by Top of the World.
Cruzin' Among The C-USA Leaders
Sophomore shortstop Trei Cruz has jumped out to rank among the C-USA statistical leaders in a host of offensive categories. Cruz is second in the league in triples (6), tied for sixth in at bats (206) and tied for seventh in total bases (109). The former Houston prep star is also tied for 10th in the league in runs scored (45), tied for 11th plate appearances (241) and 13th in both hits (63) and home runs (8).
Winning Is Always In Fashion
For the fashion-minded, Rice's 2019 W-L records while wearing the various uniform combinations is as follows:
8-6 in blue Old English jersey with pinstripe pants
5-4 in all-pinstripes
4-4 in all-white
2-3 in all-gray
2-3 in blue 'flag' jersey with pinstripe pants
2-4 in blue & gray "R" jersey with gray pants
1-2 in blue 'flag' jersey with white pants
0-1 in blue Old English jersey with white pants
0-1 in blue & gray "R" jersey with pinstripe pants
Players Mentioned
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/ BaseballWBB: Rice vs. Marshall Postgame Presser
Wednesday, March 09
VB: Rice-Texas Postgame Presser
Saturday, December 04
VB: Rice-San Diego Postgame Presser
Thursday, December 02