Smith Makes Early Lead Hold Up to Give Cruz First Win

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Baseball

at Louisiana

Oct 11

1 PM

Baseball

vs McClennan JC

Oct 26

Noon

Reckling Park

In Brief: Parker Smith tossed six shutout innings and his Rice teammates provided an early four-run cushion to spark Rice to a 6-2 win over HBU and present head coach Jose Cruz Jr. his first victory on a frigid Wednesday afternoon.

The Details: With the temperatures hovering in the mid 40's and intermittent rain falling, Rice jumped on the Huskies with a pair of runs in the first and single tallies in the second and third innings. The Owls took advantage of a pair of HBU errors to plate their first two runs. Austin Bulman drove home Pierce Gallo with a sacrifice fly in the second while Justin Long and Antonio Cruz each hit doubles in the third to plate the fourth run. Smith hit the first batter he faced but after a strikeout, the inning ended when the baserunner was doubled up off first after a fly out to Guy Garibay. Smith retired the next eight in order as the Owls built him a four-run cushion. He did not surrender his first hit until Jake Miller's infield single with two outs in the fourth. A pair of errors on the same play put Huskies at second and third, but Smith coaxed a ground ball out of Dawson Woods to end the inning. Smith needed only 56 pitches to complete his six innings of work. Mark Perkins followed Smith and worked out of a pair of jams in the seventh and eighth before turning the ninth inning over to Matt Linksey.

Notable:

The game was the first meeting between former Rice and Houston Astros teammates Cruz and Lance Berkman and it also marked the first time the teams had played on the HBU campus since 1970.
Justin Long has hit in each of the first four games of the year.
Guy Garibay walked twice in addition to assisting on a double play in the first inning. He has reached base in all four games.
Pierce Gallo has started all four games at shortstop and has reached base in each of the first four. He has matched his career-best marks for starts that he set at Clemson in 2020 and matched last season, while his four hits match his career total in 25 career at-bats over two seasons.

Up Next: The Owls will pack the road uniforms away until the end of March as they open a 17-game homestand on Friday when they host Lamar for the first of three games. The opener is sponsored by Dave's Hot Chicken and will feature an exclusive "Cruz Era" shirt giveaway for the first 500 fans, a baseball bingo contest, the Coca-Cola Houston Rodeo Tour Exhibit, and post-game fireworks!

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