Sunday, February 20
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1 PM
Rice University
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#1 Texas
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Photo by: Maria Lysaker
Texas Completes Weekend Sweep
2/20/2022 6:05:00 PM | Baseball
Rice faces HBU on Wednesday at 2 p.m.
In Brief: Top-ranked Texas closed out a sweep of Rice with a 14-2 win on Sunday afternoon in Austin.
The Details: After waiting for 17 innings to score their first run of the season, the Owls wasted no time in getting on the board on Sunday as Austin Bulman drilled the first pitch he saw from Tanner Witt over the left-field fence to give Rice a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. It was Bulman's 10th career homer as an Owl and marked the third consecutive year he has hit the Owls' first home run of the season. Texas struck back with a pair of runs on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first. Silas Ardoin's bases-loaded fly scored Eric Kennedy from third and while Mitchell Day was caught in a rundown between first and second, Ivan Melendez was able to score from second. Texas broke the game open with four runs in both the fourth and fifth inning and then three in the sixth with Melendez driving in six of them on a pair of long home runs. Rice added a second run in the ninth when Manny Garza was hit by a pitch, advanced to third on Aaron Smigelski's second pinch-hit in as many games, and then scored on a wild pitch.
Notable:
The Details: After waiting for 17 innings to score their first run of the season, the Owls wasted no time in getting on the board on Sunday as Austin Bulman drilled the first pitch he saw from Tanner Witt over the left-field fence to give Rice a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. It was Bulman's 10th career homer as an Owl and marked the third consecutive year he has hit the Owls' first home run of the season. Texas struck back with a pair of runs on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first. Silas Ardoin's bases-loaded fly scored Eric Kennedy from third and while Mitchell Day was caught in a rundown between first and second, Ivan Melendez was able to score from second. Texas broke the game open with four runs in both the fourth and fifth inning and then three in the sixth with Melendez driving in six of them on a pair of long home runs. Rice added a second run in the ninth when Manny Garza was hit by a pitch, advanced to third on Aaron Smigelski's second pinch-hit in as many games, and then scored on a wild pitch.
Notable:
- Rice fell to 0-3 on the season.
- The win was the eighth 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.
- Austin Bulman's homer was the second of his career against Texas. His first game in the third game of the 2020 season, the first for the Owls that year. He also homered against HBU in the 2021 opener to register the first long ball of the season for Rice and his homer today marked the third season he's delivered the first four-bagger of the year.
- Garza had three plate appearances over the weekend without an at-bat. He walked on Saturday in his first career appearance and later drove in the Owls' first run with a sacrifice fly. He was hit by a pitch on Sunday and scored the Owls' second run of the day on a wild pitch.
- Pierce Gallo was 2x2 with a walk, registering his first career multi-hit game. He had appeared in 13 games (8 starts) in two seasons at Clemson prior to starting all three games this weekend.
- The three-game series drew 21,580 fans, the most for a weekend opening series in Texas baseball history.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Witt (1-0)
L: Burbank, Thomas (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Riedel, Jack 1
HR: Bulman, Austin 1
RBI: Bulman, Austin 1
SH: Dukes, Ben 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Bulman, Austin 1 ; Garza, Manny 1
HBP: Garza, Manny 1
Batting:
2B: Hodo III 1 ; Stehly 1
HR: Melendez 2 ; Faltine 1
RBI: Kennedy 1 ; Melendez 6 ; Daly 1 ; Ardoin 2 ; Campbell 1 ; Faltine 2
SF: Ardoin 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hodo III 2 ; Kennedy 4 ; Melendez 4 ; Daly 1 ; Campbell 1 ; Faltine 1 ; Stehly 1
SB: Hodo III 1 ; Daly 1
HBP: Kash 1 ; Daly 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
2
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
5
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
Inf.
/ BaseballINF
/ Baseball
C
/ Baseball
INF
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