Owls Announce 2023 Baseball Season Schedule
10/21/2022 10:00:00 AM | Baseball
30 games at home, three at Minute Maid Park
FULL SCHEDULE
A new era for Rice Baseball will open on February 17 when the Owls debut their new state-of-the-art Act Global TM NR34 synthetic turf playing surface by hosting the Ragin' Cajuns of Louisiana in the first of three games that open the Owls' 56-game schedule.
The 2023 slate features three-game home series against 2022 NCAA Regional qualifiers Louisiana (February 17-19), Louisiana Tech (March 6-8), and Dallas Baptist (April 28-30) in addition to a single game against 2022 College World Series participant Texas A&M (March 8). The Owls' 24-game road schedule opens on February 24 with the first of three games against Stanford, which also reached the College World Series in 2022.
The 24 teams on the 2023 schedule averaged 33 wins last year.
The Silver Glove Series between Rice and Houston will be decided at Reckling Park this season as the final two games of the series will be played on the Owls' new home turf (May 3 & 10).
In addition to the 30 games at Reckling, Rice will also return to Minute Maid Park to play in the 2023 Shriners College Classic where the Owls will take on three additional 2022 NCAA Regional qualifiers (Louisville on March 4, TCU on March 5 and Texas Tech on March 6).
2022 season ticket members will receive renewal information by email and can renew season tickets by logging on at www.riceowls.com/myaccount.Any fans interested in becoming a season ticket member can indicate their interest on this request form.
Here's a quick look at the Owls' 2023 schedule
A new era for Rice Baseball will open on February 17 when the Owls debut their new state-of-the-art Act Global TM NR34 synthetic turf playing surface by hosting the Ragin' Cajuns of Louisiana in the first of three games that open the Owls' 56-game schedule.
The 2023 slate features three-game home series against 2022 NCAA Regional qualifiers Louisiana (February 17-19), Louisiana Tech (March 6-8), and Dallas Baptist (April 28-30) in addition to a single game against 2022 College World Series participant Texas A&M (March 8). The Owls' 24-game road schedule opens on February 24 with the first of three games against Stanford, which also reached the College World Series in 2022.
The 24 teams on the 2023 schedule averaged 33 wins last year.
The Silver Glove Series between Rice and Houston will be decided at Reckling Park this season as the final two games of the series will be played on the Owls' new home turf (May 3 & 10).
In addition to the 30 games at Reckling, Rice will also return to Minute Maid Park to play in the 2023 Shriners College Classic where the Owls will take on three additional 2022 NCAA Regional qualifiers (Louisville on March 4, TCU on March 5 and Texas Tech on March 6).
2022 season ticket members will receive renewal information by email and can renew season tickets by logging on at www.riceowls.com/myaccount.Any fans interested in becoming a season ticket member can indicate their interest on this request form.
Here's a quick look at the Owls' 2023 schedule
- Matt Deggs heads into his fourth season leading the Ragin' Cajuns.
- Louisiana was 37-23 last year and earned a berth in the NCAA tournament after beating #11 Texas State and #25 Georgia Southern to win the Sun Belt Championship.
- The season-opening series between the schools will be the first three-game series at Rice in the regular season between the schools since 1993. The schools also played a three-game NCAA Regional at the Astrodome in 1999.
- Jay Siriani heads into his fourth season leading the Bearkats.
- Sam Houston finished the 2022 season 31-25, 21-9 in the WAC.
- Rice swept both games of the annual home-and-home series last year for the first time since 2016 and the Owls have won the last five games in Huntsville in the series.
- The Horned Frogs were 38-22 last season, including a 2-2 record at the NCAA Regional at Texas A&M. and ended the year ranked as high as 19th in the season-ending polls.
- This will be the fifth time the schools have faced off at Minute Maid Park, including the most recent meeting when the Owls won 12-2 in seven innings in 2019.
- Head coach Kirk Sarloos is in his second year as the head coach after serving on the staff since 2012.
- The Cardinals and Owls will meet for only the third time and the first since Rice rallied from a 10-4 deficit to win 15-10 in the opening game of the 2007 College World Series.
- Head coach Dan McDonnell is in his 17th year at Louisville, having led the Cardinals to their meeting with Rice in the CWS in his first season, and is 12 wins shy of 700 in his career.
- The Cardinals were 42-21-1 last season, advancing to the Super Regional before falling to Texas A&M and ended the year ranked 12th by the writers.
- The former SWC rivals will meet at Minute Maid for the first time since 2014 when Tech took a 2-1 win to start its current seven-game winning streak vs. Rice.
- Tim Tadlock enters his 11th season at Tech having to replace a pair of All-Americans in Jace Jung and Brandon Birdsell, but they return Freshman All-American Hudson White.
- Tech finished the 2022 season 39-22 and reached the regional championship game before falling to Notre Dame and ending the year ranked 23rd by the writers.
- This will be the first meeting between the schools since UTRGV was created in 2015 after a merger between UT-Pan American and UT-Brownsville.
- Rice last met UT-Pan American in 1992.
- The Vaqueros were 33-25 last season under coach Derek Matlock who is entering his sixth season and have won 30+ games in each of the last three full seasons.
- The Aggies won their first games at the College World Series since 1993 in Jim Schlossnagle's first season at A&M.
- They finished 44-20 and were a consensus top-four pick in the final rankings.
- This will mark the first time the schools have played a home-and-home set of games in the regular season since 1968
- Lance Berkman returns for his second season for the Huskies who were 18-36 last season, including an 11-13 mark in the Southland Conference.
- Rice has won the last five in the series, including a sweep of the home and home series in 2022.
- Former Owl Patrick Hallmark enters his fourth season after guiding the Roadrunners to the third-most wins in school history in 2022 (38-20) and a berth in the C-USA Championship game.
- UTSA was 19-11 in conference play, their best record since joining the league.
- Rice and UTSA will meet in a home-and home set of weekend series, with the return meeting in San Antonio set for May 5-7.
- The Cardinals were 37-21 last season, including a 20-10 record in WAC action, but have returned to the Southland Conference this season.
- They return six starters from last season.
- Will Davis is entering his seventh season in leading Lamar after succeeding legendary coach Jim Gilligan.
- The annual Silver Glove Series resumes with a road game on April 4 before the deciding games are hosted at Reckling Park in early May.
- The Cougars were 37-24 last season and reached The American Athletic Conference tournament championship game before falling to ECU.
- Head coach Todd Whitting is entering his 13th season of guiding the Cougars (382-287-1)
- The Bulldogs are coming off their second consecutive NCAA Regional appearance, the first time the school has done so since 1986 and 1987 and their second straight 40-win season (43-21).
- They captured their first C-USA tournament title last year with a walk-off win over UTSA.
- Lane Burroughs is entering his seventh season in Ruston (205-111)
- Rice and McNeese will meet for the first time since 2006 when the Owls welcome the Cowboys to Reckling Park.
- The Cowboys were 34-23 last season, 15-9 in the Southland, and fell to Southeast Louisiana in the Southland Championship Series after winning the regular season title.
- Head coach Justin Hill enters his 10th season leading McNeese and he became the school's winningest coach with his 263rd win on May 20, 2022
- Charlotte finished 2022 at 36-22 under third-year head coach Robert Woodard as the 49ers reached as high as #23 in the polls during the season.
- Woodard welcomes back second-team Freshman All-American Cam Fisher, the fifth Niner to earn that honor during Woodard's tenure, and first-team all-conference selection Jack Dragum.
- DBU was 34-24-1 last year under coach Dan Heefner and reached the NCAA Regionals for the eighth consecutive year (one of only six teams to do so).
- The Patriots and Owls, who have met 35 times as non-conference opponents, will meet as conference foes during 2023 as DBU joined C-USA as an affiliate member during Rice's final season of C-USA play.
- Rice leads the overall series 24-11 and this will be the first time the schools have met in a three-game series since 2012, when Rice swept the weekend slate.
- The Cardinals were 21-31 last season under coach Ryan Schotzberger and reached the semifinals of the Southland tournament.
- Schotzberger took over at UIW in 2019 after eight seasons on the staff at Houston.
- The Owls have won all five of the previous games with the Cardinals, including a 15-12 win in 10 innings in the most recent meeting (4/13/21)
- The Panthers finished 2022 with a 30-27 record under head coach Auntwan Riggins, their most wins since they were 34-35 in 2007.
- Rice has won all 13 previous meetings between the schools in a series that began in 1986.
- The most recent meeting came in 2021, with Rice winning 10-0
- The Panthers, who will celebrate their 50th season of baseball in 2023, will be under the direction of new head coach Rich Witten, who was named the program's fifth head coach on June, 23 after five seasons on the staff at Virginia Commonwealth.
- Rice leads the all-time series 23-8 after ending the 2022 season with a three-game sweep in Miami, the first series sweep of Jose Cruz Jr.'s career.
- This will mark the second consecutive season the Owls and Panthers have ended the regular season against each other.
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