Tuesday, April 5
Houston, Texas
6:30 PM
Rice University
9-21
13
vs
1
HBU
9-20
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
HBU
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
2
1
Rice
2
0
0
0
11
0
X
13
12
0
Big Fifth Lifts Owls Past Huskies
4/5/2022 10:15:00 PM | Baseball
11-run inning blows open tight game
In Brief: Thomas Burbank tossed five shutout innings and Rice broke open a tight game with an 11-run outburst in the fifth inning to down HBU 13-1 at Reckling Park on Tuesday night in a game shortened to seven innings.
The Details: Making his first start in two weeks, Burbank worked out of some early trouble buoyed by a two-run first inning for the Owls. Aaron Smigelski, who had been held to one hit and one RBI in his last seven games, lashed a one-out double to left to score Guy Garibay Jr. and Austin Bulman to give the Owls the early lead. Burbank made those runs hold up over a career-best five innings, holding the Huskies hitless until the fourth. He retired 12 of his last 13 batters, striking out a career-high five and then sat back as the Owls sent 17 batters to the plate in the bottom of the fifth. They scored 11 runs, the most since they plated 13 in an inning vs. Prairie View in 2019. Smigelski drove in three with a pair of singles in the inning and finished the game with a career-high five. Bullman and Antonio Cruz collected their first career triples in the inning, with Bulman driving in three and Cruz two.
Notable:
Up Next: Rice travels to Ruston this weekend for a series with Louisiana Tech which opens on Friday night at 6 p.m.
The Details: Making his first start in two weeks, Burbank worked out of some early trouble buoyed by a two-run first inning for the Owls. Aaron Smigelski, who had been held to one hit and one RBI in his last seven games, lashed a one-out double to left to score Guy Garibay Jr. and Austin Bulman to give the Owls the early lead. Burbank made those runs hold up over a career-best five innings, holding the Huskies hitless until the fourth. He retired 12 of his last 13 batters, striking out a career-high five and then sat back as the Owls sent 17 batters to the plate in the bottom of the fifth. They scored 11 runs, the most since they plated 13 in an inning vs. Prairie View in 2019. Smigelski drove in three with a pair of singles in the inning and finished the game with a career-high five. Bullman and Antonio Cruz collected their first career triples in the inning, with Bulman driving in three and Cruz two.
Notable:
- The win allowed the Owls to sweep the season series with HBU and also snapped a six-game home losing streak.
- The 13 runs were the most for Rice in the series since a 19-2 win in Jose Cruz Jr.'s freshman season at Rice (1993).
- The Owls improved to 4-4 in midweek games.
- After a day off on Sunday, Smigelski was 3x4 with a career-high five RBI.
- Bulman's three-run triple in the fifth extended his hitting streak to a career-best nine games and raised his RBI total to a career-high 26 this year.
- Nathan Becker walked twice and added a two-run single in the fifth to extend his on-base streak to 24 games, the longest by an Owl since 2017.
- Pierce Gallo was 2x4 to extend his on-base streak to 15 games
- Jack Riedel tied his career-high with three hits to extend his hitting streak to five games.
Up Next: Rice travels to Ruston this weekend for a series with Louisiana Tech which opens on Friday night at 6 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Burbank, Thomas (1-3)
L: T. King (0-2)
Base Running:
RUNS: K. Ortiz 1
HBP: K. Ortiz 1
Batting:
2B: Becker, Nathan 1 ; Smigelski, Aaron 1
3B: Bulman, Austin 1 ; Cruz, Antonio 1
RBI: Bulman, Austin 3 ; Becker, Nathan 2 ; Smigelski, Aaron 5 ; Cruz, Antonio 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Riedel, Jack 1 ; Garibay Jr., Guy 3 ; Bulman, Austin 3 ; Becker, Nathan 1 ; Smigelski, Aaron 1 ; Gallo, Pierce 1 ; Cruz, Antonio 1 ; Hughes, Hal 1 ; Hannigan, Cullen 1
SB: Garibay Jr., Guy 1
HBP: Hannigan, Cullen 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
5
R
1
H
3
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
3
RBI
5
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
2
R
3
H
1
RBI
3
Players Mentioned
Inf.
/ BaseballInf.
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P
/ Baseball
OF
/ BaseballINF
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OF
/ BaseballINF
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