Baseball Opens Weekend Series At UC Irvine

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* No Online Webcast For This Series *

Owls Hit 'Restart' On Current Road Stretch; Rice Opens Weekend Series at UC Irvine Friday
The Rice baseball team (0-3) "begins" a stretch of four-straight road games on Friday (Feb. 21) when the Owls play a weekend series at UC Irvine (1-3 overall). Start times at UCI's Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark are set for 8 pm (Central Time) on both Friday and Saturday, with Sunday's series finale scheduled for 3 pm (Central Time)... Rice was originally scheduled to begin the current road swing at longtime rival Sam Houston State Tuesday night (Feb. 18), but the contest was postponed. A makeup date/time will be announced later. After returning from the weekend in California Rice has one more road game in San Marcos against Texas State on Feb. 26.

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. Alex Del Bario, a longtime veteran of Rice Athletics broadcasts, has the call this weekend from California. J.P. Heath is in his 12th season as the voice of the Owls, but some different broadcasters like "A.D.B." 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.

Follow The Tweeting Rice Owls
The official Rice baseball Twitter account is @RiceBaseball while the Rice Athletics department is @RiceAthletics. Twitter is perhaps the fastest way to get weather-related changes to the schedule/updated start times.

Head Coach Matt Bragga
A 20-year veteran of the head coaching ranks, Matt Bragga was named the 21st head coach in Rice baseball history on June 15, 2018. He went 26-33 at Rice in his first season in 2019. Prior to Rice Bragga sent 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 10 years while reaching 40 or more wins in four of six seasons from 2013-2018. 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 472-428-2. 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 third year with the program as a coach. 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 second 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.

Possible Starting Pitchers
Coach Bragga announced Rice's starting pitchers for the UCI series as the right-handed duo of senior Roel Garcia and sophomore Blake Brogdon. Bragga will announce Sunday's starter at a later time.
• Roel Garcia was originally scheduled to start at Sam Houston State, but the postponement pushed him to Friday at UC Irvine. Garcia is a veteran in his fourth year with the program, but he was sidelined all last season. Even without pitching in a single game in 2019, that did not stop the Toronto Blue Jays from selecting him in the 27th round of last year's MLB Draft. The 6-foot-4 native of Deer Park, Texas, had an improved second season of Division I baseball in 2018, finishing among the Rice staff leaders in starts (tied second), wins (tied third), innings (fourth), strikeouts (fifth) and opponents' batting average (fifth). He made 15 pitching appearances with 11 starts, including six times in Conference USA league games. Garcia totaled 52.0 innings with starts against high-RPI teams Texas A&M, TCU, Southern Miss and Florida Atlantic (twice). He pitched at least 5.0 innings in a game six times. Garcia was tabbed to be a significant part of Matt Bragga's debut Rice season in 2019, but the big right-hander was lost for the year in a preseason practice in January.
• After a total of 1.1 innings and just one outing in his debut season of collegiate baseball a year ago, Coach Bragga might have raised a few eyebrows when he selected Blake Brogdon as the game two starter for last weekend's opening series against the No. 30 ranked Texas Longhorns. The head coach got it right. Brogdon was sound and solid in his collegiate starting debut, scattering just three hits while working into the sixth inning. He also posted a career-high three strikeouts in a career-long 5.2 innings, but was tabbed with a loss as his teammates on the offensive side did not support him with so much as one single run. Brogdon's improvement over the summer and the hard work he put in during the Owls' 2019 fall training program caught the coaches' attention. Prior to Rice the 6-foot-2 Brogdon was a local high school standout at Cypress Woods High School just northwest of Houston.

Last Time Out – Texas Halts Ninth Inning Rice Rally Sunday
A dramatic Rice rally in the bottom of the ninth inning came up just short as the Texas baseball team hung on for a 5-4 win over the Owls in the finale of a three-game weekend series Sunday evening (Feb. 16) at Reckling Park in Houston. Rice trailed 5-2 to start the bottom of the ninth, but continued to fight. Junior catcher Justin Collins punched his second hit of the day through the left side and Braden Comeaux followed with a two-run homer to left to pull the Owls within one. Texas made a move to the bullpen but the Longhorns were careful pitching to Rice shortstop Trei Cruz, who drew a free pass after working the count full. The Blue & Gray then brought the potential winning run up to bat two more times in the frame, but the Horns avoided further trouble for a 5-4 final.

For The Record
The Owls dropped to 0-3 as Texas completed the season-opening series sweep. Rice had a similar 0-3 start to the season in 2010. That year the Blue & Gray went on to post 41 wins on the way to the Conference USA regular season championship with an at large bid to a NCAA Regional.

Big Crowds At Reckling Park
Sunday's attendance at Reckling Park was 3,485. For the three-game weekend series the combined attendance was 10,530. There were more than 4,000 fans in attendance at the game on Saturday.

Cruzin' To Preseason Accolades
On Feb. 18 (Tues.) Rice junior shortstop Trei Cruz was named to the initial watch list for the 2020 Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award presented by SR Bats. Since its inception in 2017 the award is based on performance at the plate, academics and personal integrity. A few weeks ago Cruz was selected as the Conference USA Preseason Player of the Year in the league's annual head coaches' poll. After batting .307 in the prestigious Cape Cod League over the summer and being tabbed as the C-USA Preseason Player of the Year by D1Baseball.com, the Rice shortstop has the full attention of the league's head coaches for 2020. By training under the direction of head coach Matt Bragga, Cruz batted .305 with nine home runs, 11 doubles and 44 RBI. He tied for 15th in the nation with six triples, the eighth-highest single season total in school history and the most by any Owl in the last decade. He also topped the team with 121 total bases and 50 runs scored, while placing among the C-USA leaders in at-bats (sixth) and total plate appearances (seventh). Last summer Cruz was drafted by the Washington Nationals but opted to return to South Main for his third season. Cruz is off to a 3-for-10 start with a double a run scored. Over the weekend the Texas Longhorns were very careful with the Owl slugger, walking him four times in the three-game series. On a side not give some credit to the C-USA coaches recognizing individual talent. In 2019 the league coaches selected Matt Canterino as the C-USA Preseason Pitcher of the Year, and the Owl right-hander indeed claimed that honor in the postseason voting. The previous Rice position player to be selected as the C-USA Preseason Player of the Year was shortstop Ford Proctor in 2017.

The C-USA Preseason Poll
In the 2020 C-USA head coaches preseason poll Rice was selected fifth behind Southern Miss, Florida Atlantic, Louisiana Tech and Old Dominion, respectively.

Cutting Edge Tech
Some of the cutting-edge technology Matt Bragga and his staff are introducing this year includes:
• Hit Trax: Software which evaluates swing and mechanics with a powerful video analysis to increase exit velocities and optimize launch angles by capturing real-time metrics and observing results immediately after impact.
• Win Reality: A virtual reality training aid that allows the player to see the game at real time speed from a batters perspective. 2019 CWS champion Vanderbilt was one of three Division I schools to use Win Reality last year and has dedicated an entire room as a lab for Win Reality.
• Rapsodo: A compact, portable pitching monitor with indoor/outdoor capability that has a proprietary radar and camera system which measures ball flight, spin rates and efficiency, release points, velocity, and strike zone analysis.
• Synergy: Software that allows users to watch video of their past games and filter it by pitch, swings, locations, situations, etc., along with spray charts. It is a great tool for scouting upcoming opponents.

Take A Closer Look At Last Year
Rice had 33 losses in 2019, but a closer look is in order. The final margin in 13 of the team's losses was two runs or less. The Owls were playing close games in a tough schedule while a number of the team's star players (including Justin Collins, Roel Garcia, Addison Moss, Justin Dunlap, and Dominic DiCaprio) were all sidelined for extended points during the season. Justin Collins played the final third of the season with a broken hand. So just how tough was the 2019 schedule? Rice's final Strength of Schedule rating last season was No. 67 in the nation, the highest in C-USA. A year ago the young Owls' squad played 17 games against nine different teams that either made it to the NCAA Tournament or who were nationally ranked at the time Rice played them.

So Many New Faces You Might Need A Program!
There are some Rice newcomers to keep an eye on in 2020. The Owls started a newcomer, Alex DeLeon, on the mound last Friday night. Other new pitchers like Austin Kane, Cristian Cienfuegos and Ryan Rickett could have a role on the mound this year. Transfers Austin Bulman, Daniel Hernandez and Brayden Combs likewise had solid seasons a year ago playing in the junior college ranks.

Rice Since 1999
Using the 1999 season as the starting point (the year the NCAA expanded the postseason tournament field to 64 teams with the current Super Regional format), Rice baseball has maintained one of the nation's top win percentages over the last 21 years. Here's a closer look at the country's winningest programs from 1999-2019 (note: this listing will not be updated to include games played in 2020):
Team   Years   Wins   Loses   Ties   PCT
Florida State   21   1007   386   1   .723
North Carolina   21   936   399   1   .701
LSU   21   938   427   6   .686
Rice   21   922   421   2   .686
Coastal Carolina   21   885   413   2   .682
South Carolina   21   926   434   0   .681
Miami (Fla.)   21   882   417   3   .679
Cal St. Fullerton   21   877   422   0   .675
Oral Roberts   21   843   406   0   .675
Texas   21   880   447   1   .663
Oregon State   21   806   413   3   .661
Louisville   21   853   449   1   .655
Arizona State   21   792   418   2   .654
Stanford   21   823   437   2   .653
Georgia Tech   21   847   451   1   .652
Virginia   21   826   442   3   .651
Clemson   21   877   475   1   .649
Florida   21   872   473   2   .648
TCU   21   833   462   0   .643
Dallas Baptist   14   536   298   0   .643
Florida Atlantic   21   809   450   3   .642
East Carolina   21   820   456   4   .642
Texas A&M   21   838   476   4   .637
Kent State   21   782   447   0   .636
Southern Miss.   21   811   465   1   .635
Vanderbilt   21   831   478   1   .635
Nebraska   21   794   461   3   .632
Col. of Charleston   21   776   458   2   .629
Oklahoma State   21   795   471   1   .628
Ole Miss   21   815   492   1   .623
Arkansas   21   817   494   0   .623
St. John's (NY)   21   740   448   3   .623
NC State   21   791   485   0   .620
Tulane   21   783   488   2   .616
Louisiana   21   786   493   2   .614
Ohio State   21   760   484   2   .611
Mississippi State   21   788   507   3   .608
Creighton   21   705   460   1   .605
UNC-Wilmington   21   755   494   1   .604
UC Irvine   18   632   416   2   .603
Wichita State   21   772   509   1   .603
Texas Tech   21   751   501   2   .600
Arizona   21   735   491   1   .599
Notre Dame   21   734   495   5   .597
UCF   21   746   504   0   .597
VCU   21   719   487   1   .596
Oklahoma   21   760   523   3   .592
Baylor   21   744   517   0   .590
Ga. Southern   21   738   516   0   .589

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