Baseball Begins Fall Training
9/20/2019 4:39:00 PM | Baseball
Coach Bragga Like What He Saw On Day One
The Owls return seven offensive starters in the batting order with seven pitchers from last spring. Seven of the 15 newcomers on the team are transfers with previous college experience. There are eight true freshmen joining the squad from the high school ranks.
Beginning next week Bragga will direct a series of Blue-Gray squad scrimmages. On October 4 Rice baseball is scheduled to host longtime foe Sam Houston State in a 12-inning Fall exhibition at Reckling Park. The Owls play a second exhibition the following week at Texas A&M (Oct. 11). Both exhibitions are set to begin at 6 pm.
The Fall training program is scheduled to conclude in early November. Coach Bragga stated he liked what he saw on day one.
"It is great to get the new season started," coach Bragga said. ""We waited all summer and a couple of weeks into the start of school, then we had to wait two days more (due to Tropical Storm Imelda) but I'll tell you what… today was worth the wait. Our guys worked really hard.
"We had some great bullpens earlier in the day, then the hitters came in and put quite a bit of work in," Bragga stated. "We did not get on the field like we wanted, but we went through a lot of station work. We made some competitions out of it and they worked like crazy to get better. Braden Comeaux had a great day. I thought Brayden Combs did very well and also Aaron Beaulaurier. Those are the three position players who stood out today.
"Our pitchers came in earlier in the day and Alex DeLeon was phenomenal on the mound," he added. "I have already seen all the pitchers in individual workouts, but I have not seen them in live situations yet. I am looking forward to that. I am excited about our pitching. I think our pitching depth could be outstanding.
"We may have had to push our starting day of practice back, but the good thing is we'll be able to get the dates back by adding them at the end (in November)," Bragga explained. "I know the players are anxious to get on the field, and I am too. Next week we will begin our Blue-Gray games. I feel we got a lot done today and that's the important thing."
