Baseball Hosts Prairie View Wednesday Night

Rice Owls (2-4) Host Prairie View A&M Panthers (0-4)
Game 7 | Wednesday, March 3, 6:30 pm
Location: Reckling Park
Video Streams: CUSAtv
Series vs. PVAM: Rice leads, 12-0 (Last Meeting: Rice Won 25-5, 2/27/19)
Games 8 | vs. Sam Houston State, Friday, March 5, 11 am
Games 9 | vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Saturday, March 6, 11 am
Games 10 | vs. Texas State, Sunday, March 7, 7 pm
Location: Minute Maid Park
Video Streams: AT&T (Friday) | AT&T (Saturday) | AT&T (Sunday) |
Listen Online: Audio
Live Stats: Wednesday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday

HOUSTON — The Rice baseball team (2-4) is back home on Wednesday, Mar. 3, for a non-conference clash against longtime foe Prairie View. First pitch against the Panthers is set for 6:30 pm at Reckling Park.

SEATING UPDATES AT RECKLING PARK - Seating at Reckling Park has been reduced in 2021 due to COVID-19 protocols and a limited number of reserved season tickets remain available as well as a limited amount of general single game tickets. Reserved seats have been assigned in a physically distanced manner and fans will be required to wear masks at all times unless actively eating or drinking. Fans are encouraged to review all of the protocols before attending the games this weekend.

LIMITED CONCESSIONS NOW AVAILABLE
A limited food menu featuring hot dogs and hamburgers will be available for home games at Reckling Park.

PARKING AT THE PARK - Parking is free in the Greenbriar Lot west of Rice Stadium and $5 in the Orange Lots (West Lot 3, 4 and 5).

SEASON TICKETS - Season tickets for the 2021 campaign are currently on sale. Season ticket members and donors who have purchased tickets for the 2021 season will then have their seats assigned in priority order based on Owl Club/season ticket status. Seat assignments are available now. Season ticket members can renew their seats online at Riceowls.com/myaccount and new season tickets can be purchased here. Group tickets will be made available, pending availability, on a first-come basis. Interested parties should fill out this form to indicate your interest in bringing a group to a game this season. Details on the confirmation of ticket purchases and seating locations will be emailed directly to season ticket members and student-athlete families. Current Rice students will receive emails with further information on how to access a limited number of tickets, which will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis. Any ticketing questions should be directed to the ticket office by calling 713-348-6957 or emailing tickets@rice.edu.

Watch Reckling Park Games Online Via CUSAtv
Rice home baseball games are slated for a live online video broadcast via CUSAtv. The broadcast is a subscription 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.

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 next three games.

Rice Returns To Annual College Classic
The Owls head downtown to play in the annual Shriners Hospitals For Children College Classic on March 5-7. It's one of the nation's top collegiate tournaments and held annually at Minute Maid Park, the major league home of the Houston Astros. Rice is making its 17th appearance in this, the 21st year of the event. On three consecutive days the Blue & Gray meet longtime foes Sam Houston State on Friday at 11 am, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday at 11 am, and Texas State on Sunday at 7 pm. The other teams competing in the Classic this season are Big 12 powers Texas Tech and TCU.

Watch The College Classic Games
All nine games of the College Classic are scheduled for a television broadcast by AT&T SportsNet, the television home of the Houston Astros, and streamed on the AT&T SportsNet app. Broadcasters Brett Dolan (play-by-play), former major leaguer and Rice Owl Pat Combs (analysis) have the TV call this weekend from Minute Maid Park.

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 476-443-2. 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 three of the next four games. Taking the mound for the Owls is the the right-handed trio Mitchell Holcomb, Blake Brogdon and Roel Garcia.
• Mitchell Holcomb (0-1, 8.64 ERA) is a graduate transfer from the Ivy League (Penn) who is originally from Georgetown, Texas. Holcomb started the opening game of the 2021 season vs. HBU (Feb. 20) and taking the mound against Prairie View would be his third start in the last 12 days. By simply joining Rice he became one of the most experienced Division I pitchers on the Owl staff, 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. 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.
• Blake Brogdon (0-1, 7.27 ERA) is scheduled as the Owls' opening pitcher of the College Classic on Friday. 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 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 (0-0, 0.00 ERA) is back in 2021 and ready to have his first full collegiate season since 2018. By design this year Garcia has worked just 4.0 innings in both of his starts against HBU and Louisiana. He has not allowed a run in the 8.0 innings while striking out 11 and scattering four hits and two walks. In 2020 Garcia struck out three of the eight batters he faced in 2.0 innings at west coach power Cal Irvine. Things were looking up, but then the 2020 season came to an unexpected end and he had to replay the waiting game. The Deer Park, Texas, native 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 Drop Sunday Finale At Louisiana-Lafayette
The Rice baseball team's late push for runs was just short as the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns claimed a 6-3 win over the visiting Owls Feb. 28 in Lafayette, La.... Rice was first on the scoreboard with a run in the top of the third inning. Back-to-back singles by Ben Dukes and Hal Hughes put runners on first and second. Dukes appeared to be caught between second and third on a pickoff play, but a throwing error in the rundown allowed him to score for a 1-0 lead. Louisiana was able to score two runs in fifth, sixth and seventh innings for a 6-1 advantage... In the top of the eighth, Braden Comeaux was hit by a pitch and true freshman Guy Garibay followed with a two-run blast over the wall in right field. Graibay's first career round-tripper was in his third career start and pulled the Owls to within three, 6-3. Rice suffered three-straight losses in the weekend series.

Of Note
• In Sunday's game the Owls used a season-high six pitchers out of the bullpen. Cristian Cienfuegos, Matthew Linskey and Dillon Janac all made their season debuts in the contest.
• Freshman Connor Walsh was held out of the lineup Sunday after suffering an injury while running to first base in Saturday's game. Braden Comeaux left Sunday's game after getting hit in the nose by a pitch in the top of the eighth.
• Five of Rice's six hits in the game were by Owl freshmen, including Garibay, Nathan Becker, Ben Dukes and Justin Long with a pair of hits in a 2-for-4 day.

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 modern white
1-0 in gradient blue with white pants
0-1 in gradient blue with gray pants
0-1 in pinstripes
0-1 in blue with 'Rice' in Old English and pinstripe pants
0-1 in gray "R" top

Preseason Accolades For Comeaux
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.

The C-USA Preseason 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 (first place votes in parentheses):
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

Trivia - Last Year In A Conference With Divisions?
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.

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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