Owls Face Ragin' Cajuns In Weekend Series

Rice Owls (2-1) at Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns (3-2)
Games 4-6 | Friday/Sunday, Feb. 26/28, 60 pm, 2 pm and 1 pm
Location: Lafayette, La. ('Tigue' Moore Field at Russo Park)
Video Streams: ESPN+ (Friday) | ESPN+ (Saturday) | ESPN+ (Sunday) |
Listen Online: Audio
Live Stats: Friday | Saturday | Sunday
Series: Rice leads, 17-10 (Last Meeting: Louisiana Won 11-2, 3/3/20)

LAFAYETTE, La. - After winning its opening series of the season the Rice baseball team (2-1) is on the road for three games this weekend. The Owls face longtime foe Louisiana (3-2) Feb. 26-28 in Lafayette, La. Start times at 'Tigue' Moore Field at Russo Park are set for 6 pm on Friday, 2 pm on Saturday, and 1 pm in Sunday's series finale.

Best In The West
After the opening weekend of the season Rice moved into the top spot in the new Conference USA West Division. Trivia: When was the last year Rice played in a conference that featured different divisions?

Rice 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 now in his 13th season as the voice of the Owls. Different broadcasters are scheduled to announce some upcoming games until the completion of the respective Rice men's and women's basketball seasons. Garrett Jones has the call this weekend.

ESPN+ Broadcast
The weekend series has been selected for a live broadcast on ESPN+. With some of the most comprehensive coverage of collegiate competitions across the country, ESPN+ is bringing the Rice-Louisiana clash to the nation. Broadcasters Cody Junot, Jay Walker and Brad Topham (color) have the call for all three games.

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.

OWL IN
The Owl In logo represents the continued commitment of Rice Athletics' student-athletes, coaches, and staff to come together for positive change throughout our department, campus, and world. With increased efforts in education, policy development, and action as it relates to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice, members of the Rice Athletics community will become better equipped to ensure we can fulfill our department's desire to be a more inclusive and welcoming place. To learn more about being Owl In, visit RiceOwls.com/OwlIn.

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. The Owls were 2-14 when the 2020 season came to an abrupt end, but consider Rice's (non-conference) schedule featuring road series at Texas Tech and UC Irvine, plus another four games against Texas and Texas A&M, was rated as the 11th-toughest in all of Division I. 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 476-440-2. Bragga is aided by assistant coaches Cory Barton (Memphis, 2007, third year), Paul Janish (Rice, 2004; fourth year), and Trevor Putzig (Tennessee Tech, 2018; first year).

Possible Starting Pitchers
Coach Bragga announced Rice's starting pitchers for the Louisiana weekend as the right-handed duo of graduate transfer Mitchell Holcomb, sophomore Blake Brogdon and senior Roel Garcia.
• Mitchell Holcomb is a graduate transfer from the Ivy League (Penn) who is originally from Georgetown, Texas. The newcomer quickly became one of the most experienced Division I pitchers on the Rice staff, already owning a total of 31 career appearances, including 28 starts, totaling 163.0 innings. In four years at Penn he maintained a 4.03 career ERA and averaged 7.8 strikeouts per 9.0 innings of work. Holcomb made two starts on the mound for the Quakers in abbreviated 2020 season totaling 13.0 innings. He fired 8.0 shutout innings scattering four hits and striking out eight for a road victory at Conference USA foe FIU (March 7). In the 2020 season he held opposing hitters to a composite .213 batting average. A highlight from earlier in his career was fanning 12 batters at Yale in 2018. The Texas native is a 2016 graduate of Meridian High School (located between Fort Worth and Waco). He was a two-time first team All-State selection who led the Yellow Jackets to back-to-back 2A state titles in 2015-2016.
• After a total of 1.1 innings and just one outing in his debut season of collegiate baseball in 2019, Coach Bragga might have raised a few eyebrows when he selected Blake Brogdon as the Game 2 starter for the 2020 season-opening series against the nationally-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 finished with a career-long 5.2 innings vs. Texas, but was tabbed with a loss as his teammates on the offensive side did not support him with so much as one single run. The week after that he struck out eight in 5.0 innings at west coast power UC Irvine. He also pitched 5.0 innings in a home start against Missouri State. In four outings in 2020 Brogdon held opposing hitters to a composite .194 batting average with 8.4 strikeouts per 9.0 innings of work. His improvement and the hard work he has put in since his debut season has 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.
• It may have taken a long time in finally arriving, but Roel Garcia made his first appearance since the 2018 season in February of 2020. By design, Garcia worked just 2.0 innings that night at UCI, but he struck out three of the eight batters he faced. The Deer Park, Texas, native also made a nice defensive play to throw out the lead runner on a bunt. He finished without allowing any runs nor walks. Things were looking up, but then the 2020 season came to an unexpected end and Garcia has had to replay the waiting game. Garcia is a veteran in his fifth year with the program, but he was sidelined all of 2019. 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 that year's MLB Draft. The 6-foot-4 right-hander 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.

Last Week: Owls Claim Series vs. HBU
Freshman Connor Walsh delivered the game-winning hit in the bottom of the ninth inning to help rally the Rice baseball team to a 1-0 victory over visiting crosstown foe Houston Baptist in the finale of the three game series Monday afternoon (Feb. 22) at Reckling Park. Rice won the season opening series two games to one... The highly anticipated return of senior right-hander Roel Garcia, making his first appearance at Reckling Park since 2018, did not disappoint with a scoreless outing. Garcia was sharp in scattering three hits without any walks in a predetermined 4.0 innings of work. He gave way to true freshman Reed Gallant to start the top of the fifth, who proceeded to register an eye-opening Division I debut. The right-handed rookie from Flower Mound, Texas, fired 5.0 shutout innings with five strikeouts for the staff's early season lead. There were two occasions when Gallant had to get four outs in the inning. The first time was after an Owl fielding error in the sixth and the other was when the defense just missed turning what could have been an inning-ending double play in the ninth... For as well as Rice was pitching against the same HBU hitters that came into the game with a .343 average on 24 hits in the first two games of the series, the Huskies' pitching staff was likewise recording of shutout effort of its own. The Owls stranded runners in scoring position in the second, sixth and eighth innings... Cade Edwards drew a leadoff walk to start the bottom of the ninth and pinch hitter Johnny Hoyle was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second with no outs. Redshirt freshman Connor Walsh followed with a rocket base hit to right-center to score Edwards for the dramatic walk-off victory.

Hitting Stars
Graduate transfer Will Karp led all players in the game with a pair of hits. He batted .364 (4-of-11) for the series was joined by Braden Comeaux (7-for-13, .538) and Justin Dunlap (4-for-11) to have a hit in every game.

This & That
• For the HBU series Rice pitchers allowed just six walks in 28.0 innings.
• Another rookie in the lineup was catcher Justin Long making his Division I debut. The freshman was a local prep standout at Kingwood High School.
• Playing on Monday is a bit of a rarity in college baseball, but maybe the Owls should do more of it? Rice has won six of its last seven Monday games dating back to 2009.

Winning Is Always In Fashion
For the fashion-minded, Rice's 2021 W-L records while wearing the various uniform combinations is as follows:
1-0 in ADIDAS modern white
1-0 in ADIDAS modern blue
0-1 in pinstripes

PRESEASON ACCOLADES - Rice's Braden Comeaux was selected to 2021 Preseason All-Conference USA Baseball Team in the league's annual head coaches' poll, the C-USA office announced on Thursday (Feb. 11). The Rice graduate who is playing with an added year of eligibility led the Owls in hitting (.349) and slugging percentage (.535) in 2020. He was also second on the on the squad in runs scored (7), on-base average (.404) and home runs (1) – all while playing in just ten of the team's 16 games during that abbreviated collegiate season. Comeaux reached base safely in eight of his ten games played and batted .333 with runners in scoring position. Comeaux has long-had the full attention of the C-USA head-coaches, but now his reputation is growing. On Feb. 10 he was one of just 48 players from across the country named to the preseason watch list for the prestigious 2021 Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award. From its headquarters in the DFW Metroplex, the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation has combined a passion for baseball and providing youngsters with the incentive and opportunity to pursue a college education for more than 25 years. At the conclusion of the season one position player will be presented with the foundation's Slugger Award. Since its inception in 2017 the award is based on performance at the plate, academics and personal integrity.

COACHES' POLL - In the 2021 C-USA head coaches preseason poll Rice was selected third in the new divisional format being introduced this year. Here are the results of the league's 12 head coaches:
WEST
1. Southern Miss (10)
2. Louisiana Tech (2)
3. Rice
4. Middle Tennessee
5. UTSA
6. UAB

EAST
1. Florida Atlantic (10)
2. Old Dominion (1)
3. FIU (1)
4. WKU
5. Charlotte
6. Marshall
(first place votes in parentheses)

Trivia Answer - Last Year In A Conference With Divisions?
Ans: 1998. In each of its first two seasons as members of the Western Athletic Conference (1997 and 1998), Rice played in the WAC's South Division. The Owls won that division both of those years and then also went on to win the league's postseason tournament held in San Diego.

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 1999-2020 (note: this listing will not be updated to include games played in 2021):
Team              Years   Wins Loses Ties   PCT
Florida State        22   1019   391   1   .723
North Carolina       22   948   406   1   .700
LSU                  22   950   432   6   .687
South Carolina       22   938   438   0   .682
Coastal Carolina   22   896   418   2   .682
Rice                 22   924   435   2   .680
Miami (Fla.)         22   894   421   3   .679
Oral Roberts         22   849   416   0   .671
Cal St. Fullerton   22   881   434   0   .670
Texas                22   894   450   1   .665
Oregon St.           22   811   422   3   .657
Louisville           22   866   453   1   .656
Arizona St.          22   805   422   2   .656
Georgia Tech         22   858   456   1   .653
Virginia             22   840   446   3   .653
Florida              22   888   474   2   .652
Clemson              22   891   478   1   .651

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Blake Brogdon

Braden Comeaux

Justin Dunlap

Cade Edwards

Reed Gallant

Roel Garcia

Mitchell Holcomb

Johnny Hoyle

Will Karp

Justin Long

Connor Walsh

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