Friday, February 18
Austin, TX
6:30 PM
Rice University
0-1
0
at
7
#1 Texas
1-0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Rice
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
2
Texas
1
1
0
3
2
0
0
0
X
7
8
0
Owls Blanked in Opener
2/19/2022 12:02:00 AM | Baseball
First pitch at 2:30 on Saturday
In Brief: Three Texas hurlers combined to toss a five-hit shutout as the top-ranked Longhorns spoiled the coaching debut of Jose Cruz Jr. with a 7-0 win in Austin on Friday Night.
The Details: Texas scored single runs in each of the first two innings and then took control with three runs (two unearned) in the fourth inning off Owls' starter Cooper Chandler. The Longhorns added two insurance runs in the fifth before Cristian Cienfuegos and Tom Vincent held them scoreless over the final three frames. Guy Garibay collected two of the Owls' five hits with a single and a double.
Notable:
The Details: Texas scored single runs in each of the first two innings and then took control with three runs (two unearned) in the fourth inning off Owls' starter Cooper Chandler. The Longhorns added two insurance runs in the fifth before Cristian Cienfuegos and Tom Vincent held them scoreless over the final three frames. Guy Garibay collected two of the Owls' five hits with a single and a double.
Notable:
- Rice dropped its opening day game for the fourth consecutive year.
- The win by Texas was the first for the home team in four Opening Day games between the schools. Texas had won both Opening Day games at Reckling Park in 2015 & 2020 while Rice took the first game of the 2017 season in Austin.
- The win was the sixth straight for Texas over Rice. Rice's last win came on 2/19/17 when the Owls used a 7-1 to split the four-game series.
- The crowd of 7,355, the largest Opening Day crowd for Rice since 8,945 saw the 2004 opener vs. Texas Tech at Minute Mark Park. It was also the largest Opening Day crowd for a game between Rice and Texas, topping the 6,197 who saw the teams open the 2017 season (2/17/17).
- Antonio Cruz delivered the first base hit of his father's tenure as head coach with a second-inning single that came on the heels of a sliding catch in the bottom of the first.
- Tom Vincent struck out two in his collegiate debut. Vincent redshirted as a freshman at Texas A&M after undergoing surgery and electing to transfer to Rice.
- Cristian Cienfuegos's 2.2 innings of work was his longest outing since he threw 4.1 innings vs. Missouri State in 2020… He lowered his career ERA vs. Texas to 1.58 (1 ER in 5.2 IP).
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Hansen, Pete (1-0)
L: Chandler, Cooper (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Garibay Jr., Guy 1 ; Long, Justin 1
Base Running:
CS: Gallo, Pierce 1
Batting:
2B: Ardoin, Silas 1
3B: Kennedy, Eric 1 ; Faltine, Trey 1
HR: Ardoin, Silas 1
RBI: Melendez, Ivan 1 ; Ardoin, Silas 3 ; Campbell, Dylan 1
SH: Messinger, Skyler 1
SF: Campbell, Dylan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kennedy, Eric 1 ; Melendez, Ivan 1 ; Daly, Mitchell 1 ; Ardoin, Silas 2 ; Todd, Austin 1 ; Messinger, Skyler 1
SB: Hodo III, Douglas 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
P
/ Baseball
P
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
P
/ Baseball
P
/ BaseballWBB: Rice vs. Marshall Postgame Presser
Wednesday, March 09
VB: Rice-Texas Postgame Presser
Saturday, December 04
VB: Rice-San Diego Postgame Presser
Thursday, December 02