Owls Announce Baseball Schedule
1/19/2021 9:00:00 AM | Baseball
Great Home Games At Reckling Park
New Ticket Sales
HOUSTON – A total of 55 regular season games, including 30 at Reckling Park and three more in the greater Houston area, make up the Rice baseball program's 2021 schedule Owls head coach Matt Bragga announced on Tuesday (Jan. 19).
Rice opens the 2021 season on Feb. 19 at Reckling Park, the start of a home heavy early schedule featuring 17 games at the venue through the month of March. The Owls host Little Rock, Houston Baptist and Washington on the opening weekend, and later welcome Incarnate Word, Kansas State, Northern Illinois, Prairie View A&M, Southern and Texas A&M Corpus Christi to Reckling Park for non-conference games. The Conference USA home slate this year includes four game weekend series against four league opponents: Charlotte, Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss and UTSA.
In early March Rice returns to the annual College Classic downtown at Minute Maid Park. The Owls are scheduled to face Sam Houston State, Texas State and Texas Tech at the MLB home of the Houston Astros.
Rice Athletics is currently working with the University's Crisis Management Team to determine the seating layout and how many fans will be allowed at each game for the 2021 season. As updates are made available they will be posted on the baseball ticket page and communicated to all 2020 season ticket members. Rice's 2020 season ticket members will receive first priority on tickets. Check out the above links for renewals and for purchasing season tickets for the first time.
Some fun facts about Rice's 2021 baseball home opponents are as follows:
- Little Rock posted nine wins, including a victory over Southern Miss, when the 2020 season ended.
- The Trojans are under the direction of seventh-year head coach Chris Curry.
- Junior right-hander Aaron Funk returns with 37 strikeouts and a 0.80 WHIP in 31.1 innings from a year ago.
- Washington is making its first trip to Reckling Park since the 2002 NCAA Regional.
- The Huskies recorded nine wins, including taking two-of-three from UC Irvine, when the 2020 season concluded.
- Junior RHP Stevie Emanuels was named to the Collegiate Baseball All-America Third Team after posting a 3-1 record, a 0.79 ERA, and 38 strikeouts in 22.2 innings.
- HBU returns 23 players overall, including seven seniors who have opted for a fifth year.
- Senior outfielder Brandon Bena was an all-conference selection in 2019, batting .313 with five home runs, 12 doubles, 36 RBIs and 34 runs.
- The Rice-HBU rivalry dates back to 1966, where the Owls hold a 20-3 series lead.
- Head Coach Auntwan Riggins is in his sixth year at the helm of the program.
- Freshman outfielder Brayden Johnson was batting .291 with 12 RBI in 17 games when the 2020 season ended.
- The Rice-PVAMU baseball series started in 1986. All 12 games in the series have been played on the Rice campus.
- Now entering his 14th season, Scott Malone is the winningest coach in program history with 322 victories.
- Veteran outfielder Mike Williams graduated last May and is working toward a MBA.
- For the last three years Baseball America tabbed senior Itchy Burts as "the No. 1 name in college baseball."
- The Huskies enjoyed a power surge at the plate in 2020, hitting nine home runs in 17 games after just 22 as a team in 56 games in 2019.
- Senior catcher Jake Dunham had four home runs in 17 games in 2020.
- NIU had three of the top 10 strikeout pitchers in the MAC in 2020 – Nate Thomas, Michael Lasiewicz and Brandon McPherson.
- The Wildcats had posted 10 wins, including three on the road at Stanford, when the 2020 season came to an early end.
- Sophomore left-handed pitcher Jordan Wicks was named to the 2021 Collegiate Baseball Preseason All-America Third Team.
- Head coach Pete Hughes is the father of Rice Owls' newcomer Hal Hughes.
- Chris Crenshaw was recently named the Jaguars' head baseball coach, just the seventh in the history of the program.
- Southern had jumped out to a 4-2 mark against conference opponents when the 2020 season came to an end.
- As recently as 2019, the Jaguars won the conference tournament title to advance to a NCAA Regional in Starkville, Miss.
- The 2021 schedule features two four-game series with Conference USA in-state rival UTSA.
- Rice leads the all-time series with the Roadrunners 23-8 dating back to the initial meeting in 1994.
- UTSA is under the direction of former Owl letterman Pat Hallmark, now in his second season.
- The Rice-Louisiana Tech baseball series dates back to 1969.
- The Bulldogs are led by head coach Lane Burroughs, now entering his fifth season.
- Texas native Parker Bates was having a sensational year (.422, 8 HR, 28 RBI, 20 runs) when the 2020 season came to a close.
- Head coach Ryan Shotzberger is in his second season at UIW after serving on staffs at Houston, TCU and Duke.
- Freshman outfielder Grant Smith was batting .339 with 15 RBI and 14 runs scored in 16 games when the 2020 season ended.
- The Rice-UIW series includes just four career meetings from the 1993 and 1994 seasons, all played on the Rice campus.
- Scott Berry needs five wins for 400 in his Golden Eagle career.
- The Golden Eagles were 12-4 when the 2020 season came to an end.
- Southern Miss has won at least the C-USA regular season or tournament championship since 2016.
- Robert Woodard is in his second season as the 49ers head coach, and he is only the fifth head coach in the history of the program.
- Charlotte's JUCO recruiting class was ranked as the seventh-best in the nation.
- The 49ers have 26 newcomers on the roster to go along with 19 returning players.
