Charlotte Tops Rice Friday In Series Opener, 9-6

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Baseball

vs McClennan JC

Oct 26

Noon

Reckling Park

HOUSTON. Texas — The visiting Charlotte baseball team jumped on the scoreboard for all its runs in the first two innings and was able to hold off a Rice rally for a 9-6 win in the opening game of the Conference USA weekend series Friday afternoon at Reckling Park.

For The Record
Rice is now 21-28-1 overall and 9-19-1 in C-USA league play. Charlotte, ranked No. 18 in the nation, improved to 36-14 overall and 23-6 in league play to stay in sole possession of first play in the C-USA East Division.

Scoring Frames
Charlotte took advantage of a Rice fielding error to post four runs in the top of the first inning (with just two runs being earned). The Owls battled back for a pair of scores on the strength of a two-out RBI double by Austin Bulman and a RBI triple by Will Karp.

The 49ers answered with five runs in the top of the second to stretch the margin to 9-2, but the Owls continued to fight. Bulman led off the bottom of the third with a solo home run for his seventh round-tripper of the year, before pushing across one more run in the inning on a passed ball, to make it 9-4.

The Blue & Gray continued to fight. In the bottom of the sixth freshman Nathan Becker lined a two-out double to left to score Bradley Gneiting and Will Karp and cut the margin to three, 9-6.

News & Notes
* True freshman Guy Garibay entered the game in relief in the top of the second inning and proceeded to work a career-long 7.2 innings. The rookie left-hander posted a career-best five strikeouts and retired 12 in a row during one stretch.
* Not only did Austin Bulman tie his Rice career-high with three hits and blast his seventh home run of the season, he was a triple away from hitting for the cycle. Bulman's three-hit game was his fourth of the season.
* Graduate senior Will Karp hit his first Rice triple in the bottom of the first inning (after Bulman drove in the Owls' first run with a double).
* True freshman Nathan Becker notched his sixth multi-hit game of the season and drove in a pair of runs for the fourth time.
* With the win Charlotte, ranked in all six national college baseball polls, clinched at least a top-two seed in the upcoming C-USA Tournament.
* Rice is now 10-6 in its all-time series vs. Charlotte.
* The four-game C-USA weekend series continues at Reckling Park thru Sunday. Saturday's action is a double-header of two seven inning games starting at 1 pm. Rice will honor its seniors before the start of Sunday's game at 12 Noon.

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