Owl Open Five-Game Homestand Friday
2/27/2020 3:01:00 PM | Baseball
Weekend Game Times vs. Missouri State Set For 6 PM, 2 PM & 1 PM
Tickets
Promotions
Watch Links (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
Listen
Live Stats
Owls Open Homestand vs. Missouri State; Five-Straight Home Games At Reckling Park
After four-straight road games the Rice baseball team (0-7) opens a five-game homestand beginning on Friday (Feb. 28) through Wednesday (March 4). The Owls host Missouri Valley Conference power Missouri State in a three-game weekend series. First pitch Friday at Reckling Park is set for 6:30 pm. Saturday's contest is set for 2 pm with Sunday's series finale at 1 pm. Next week the Blue & Gray welcome longtime foes Louisiana-Lafayette and Houston to close out the homestand.
Fun & Games At Reckling Park - Check out the promotions this weekend.
Friday (Retro Beanie Giveaway): Our "Throwback Weekend" begins with a special Retro Beanie giveaway to the first 250 fans at the ballpark. There will also be a throwback trivia contest during the game.
Saturday (Selfie with The Trophy Day): Get your cell phones ready for a unique opportunity to take a selfie photo with Rice Baseball's National Championship Trophy.
Sunday (Cowboy Hat Giveaway/ Rodeo & Kids' Day): The Houston Rodeo is right around the corner and we've got you covered - literally! Arrive at Reckling Park early Sunday to be one of the first 200 fans to receive a free Rice Owls cowboy hat. Of course Sunday is always Kids Day, where young Owls can run the bases one time after the game.
Watch Rice Games Online Via CUSAtv
Most Rice baseball games 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 and other platforms can alter the 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 10 minutes before first pitch. Veteran J.P. Heath, now in his 12th season as the voice of the Owls, has the call for the first two games of the Missouri State series. Note some different broadcasters are scheduled to announce 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 472-432-2. 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 Missouri State series as the right-handed duo of junior Alex DeLeon and sophomore Blake Brogdon. Bragga will announce Sunday's starter at a later time.
• Newcomer Alex DeLeon enters the weekend ranked second on the staff in both innings (7.2) and strikeouts (8). He was tabbed as the Rice starting pitcher for the opening game of the season vs. nationally-ranked Texas. DeLeon played both of the past two seasons at baseball power McLennan College in Waco. The 6-foot-0 native of Lago Vista, Texas, posted a career record of 14-4 with a 2.88 ERA in his previous two seasons with the Highlanders. He struck out a total of 92 batters and maintained a 2.8-to-1 strikeouts-to-walk ratio in 128.1 career innings. DeLeon led the staff with 14 starts in 2019 and he finished the year with five complete games while holding opposing hitters to a composite .231 batting average. A former prep star at Lago Vista H.S., DeLeon was the Austin American-Stateman CenTex Player of the Year as a senior in 2017. He was also a member of National Honor Society.
• 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 2 starter for the season-opening series against the nationally-ranked Texas Longhorns (Feb. 15). 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. In two outing so far this year Brogdon has held opposing hitters to a composite .216 batting average. The sophomore'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 prep standout at Cypress Woods High School just northwest of Houston.
Last Time Out – Owls Fall Wednesday Night At Texas State
SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State scored runs in four of the first six innings on the way to a 9-2 win over the visiting Rice baseball team Wednesday evening in San Marcos, Texas... Rice fell to 0-7 on the season. Texas State improved to 6-3. The teams were meeting for the 80th time in the series that began in 1984... Sophomore left-hander Brandon Deskins made his first career start on the mound for Rice. The Friendswood, Texas, native worked a career-long 2.1 innings with a career-high three strikeouts. He was relieved by Kel Bordwine (1.2 IP), Ryan Rickett (1.0), Garrett Zaskoda (1.0) and Andrew Kane (1.0) and Josh Larzabal (1.0). As a staff the Owls walked eight batters and were charged with a balk for the first time... The Owls collected five hits on the night. Newcomer Austin Bulman collected his team-leading fourth game with two base hits. He also drew a walk. Rodrigo Duluc hit safely for the second-straight game. The New York City native drove in a run and scored. As a team the Owls left 11 runners on base. Rice had it's leadoff batter reach base in four of the nine innings (.444)... Junior Trei Cruz batted in the leadoff position for the first time this season. Junior Dominic Cox made his first appearance of the season as a defensive sub in the outfield in the bottom of the seventh. True freshman Tyler LaRue made his collegiate debut behind the plate in the bottom of the eighth.
Dunlap's Return
Roel Garcia's return is certainly in the spotlight, but the Owls were also happy to have sophomore Justin Dunlap return to action in the same game at UC Irvine. In 2019 Dunlap had just worked his way into a starting role in the outfield when in March he was sidelined for the remainder of the season. Dunlap entered the Friday UCI game as a defensive replacement in the outfield. He drew a walk and scored Rice's lone run in the top of the eighth inning. He started on Saturday in the outfield and was able to reach base in four at bats.
Cruzin' To Preseason Accolades
On Feb. 18 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. Earlier Cruz was also 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. In the opening weekend series vs. Texas the Longhorns were very careful with the Owl slugger, walking him four times in the three-game series. On a side note 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.
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 Opening night. Other new pitchers like Austin Kane, Cristian Cienfuegos, Ryan Rickett and Mathew Santos 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.
Promotions
Watch Links (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
Listen
Live Stats
Owls Open Homestand vs. Missouri State; Five-Straight Home Games At Reckling Park
After four-straight road games the Rice baseball team (0-7) opens a five-game homestand beginning on Friday (Feb. 28) through Wednesday (March 4). The Owls host Missouri Valley Conference power Missouri State in a three-game weekend series. First pitch Friday at Reckling Park is set for 6:30 pm. Saturday's contest is set for 2 pm with Sunday's series finale at 1 pm. Next week the Blue & Gray welcome longtime foes Louisiana-Lafayette and Houston to close out the homestand.
Fun & Games At Reckling Park - Check out the promotions this weekend.
Friday (Retro Beanie Giveaway): Our "Throwback Weekend" begins with a special Retro Beanie giveaway to the first 250 fans at the ballpark. There will also be a throwback trivia contest during the game.
Saturday (Selfie with The Trophy Day): Get your cell phones ready for a unique opportunity to take a selfie photo with Rice Baseball's National Championship Trophy.
Sunday (Cowboy Hat Giveaway/ Rodeo & Kids' Day): The Houston Rodeo is right around the corner and we've got you covered - literally! Arrive at Reckling Park early Sunday to be one of the first 200 fans to receive a free Rice Owls cowboy hat. Of course Sunday is always Kids Day, where young Owls can run the bases one time after the game.
Watch Rice Games Online Via CUSAtv
Most Rice baseball games 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 and other platforms can alter the 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 10 minutes before first pitch. Veteran J.P. Heath, now in his 12th season as the voice of the Owls, has the call for the first two games of the Missouri State series. Note some different broadcasters are scheduled to announce 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 472-432-2. 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 Missouri State series as the right-handed duo of junior Alex DeLeon and sophomore Blake Brogdon. Bragga will announce Sunday's starter at a later time.
• Newcomer Alex DeLeon enters the weekend ranked second on the staff in both innings (7.2) and strikeouts (8). He was tabbed as the Rice starting pitcher for the opening game of the season vs. nationally-ranked Texas. DeLeon played both of the past two seasons at baseball power McLennan College in Waco. The 6-foot-0 native of Lago Vista, Texas, posted a career record of 14-4 with a 2.88 ERA in his previous two seasons with the Highlanders. He struck out a total of 92 batters and maintained a 2.8-to-1 strikeouts-to-walk ratio in 128.1 career innings. DeLeon led the staff with 14 starts in 2019 and he finished the year with five complete games while holding opposing hitters to a composite .231 batting average. A former prep star at Lago Vista H.S., DeLeon was the Austin American-Stateman CenTex Player of the Year as a senior in 2017. He was also a member of National Honor Society.
• 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 2 starter for the season-opening series against the nationally-ranked Texas Longhorns (Feb. 15). 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. In two outing so far this year Brogdon has held opposing hitters to a composite .216 batting average. The sophomore'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 prep standout at Cypress Woods High School just northwest of Houston.
Last Time Out – Owls Fall Wednesday Night At Texas State
SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State scored runs in four of the first six innings on the way to a 9-2 win over the visiting Rice baseball team Wednesday evening in San Marcos, Texas... Rice fell to 0-7 on the season. Texas State improved to 6-3. The teams were meeting for the 80th time in the series that began in 1984... Sophomore left-hander Brandon Deskins made his first career start on the mound for Rice. The Friendswood, Texas, native worked a career-long 2.1 innings with a career-high three strikeouts. He was relieved by Kel Bordwine (1.2 IP), Ryan Rickett (1.0), Garrett Zaskoda (1.0) and Andrew Kane (1.0) and Josh Larzabal (1.0). As a staff the Owls walked eight batters and were charged with a balk for the first time... The Owls collected five hits on the night. Newcomer Austin Bulman collected his team-leading fourth game with two base hits. He also drew a walk. Rodrigo Duluc hit safely for the second-straight game. The New York City native drove in a run and scored. As a team the Owls left 11 runners on base. Rice had it's leadoff batter reach base in four of the nine innings (.444)... Junior Trei Cruz batted in the leadoff position for the first time this season. Junior Dominic Cox made his first appearance of the season as a defensive sub in the outfield in the bottom of the seventh. True freshman Tyler LaRue made his collegiate debut behind the plate in the bottom of the eighth.
Dunlap's Return
Roel Garcia's return is certainly in the spotlight, but the Owls were also happy to have sophomore Justin Dunlap return to action in the same game at UC Irvine. In 2019 Dunlap had just worked his way into a starting role in the outfield when in March he was sidelined for the remainder of the season. Dunlap entered the Friday UCI game as a defensive replacement in the outfield. He drew a walk and scored Rice's lone run in the top of the eighth inning. He started on Saturday in the outfield and was able to reach base in four at bats.
Cruzin' To Preseason Accolades
On Feb. 18 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. Earlier Cruz was also 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. In the opening weekend series vs. Texas the Longhorns were very careful with the Owl slugger, walking him four times in the three-game series. On a side note 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.
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 Opening night. Other new pitchers like Austin Kane, Cristian Cienfuegos, Ryan Rickett and Mathew Santos 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.
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