Owls Edge Blazers to Clinch Opening Series

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Baseball

at Louisiana

Oct 11

1 PM

Baseball

vs McClennan JC

Oct 26

Noon

Reckling Park

Birmingham, AL: Drew Holderbach broke a 1-1 tie with an RBI single in the seventh and Justin Long and Krishna Raj held UAB scoreless over the final 4.2 innings to lead Rice to a 2-1 win over UAB on Saturday and clinch the opening series of the Conference USA season for the Owls.

The Details: Benjamin Rosengard's second single of the game opened the seventh for Rice and he advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Ben Royo. One out later Guy Garibay Jr. walked and then Holderbach lined the first pitch he saw to left to bring home the eventual game-winner. Royo opened the scoring for the Owls in the top of the third with his first career homer, but UAB immediately answered with a run off Rice starter J.D. McCracken to keep the game even. McCracken matched his career high with five strikeouts, the last with runners at second and third to end the fourth. He was relieved by Justin Long with one out and one on in the fifth and Long held UAB to a pair of singles over the next 3.2 innings while striking out four to improve to 2-1 on the season. Krishna Raj came on in the ninth and earned his second save of the year, working around a one-out walk and ending the game with a strikeout.

Notes

Rice is now 2-4 on Saturdays and 2-2 in the middle games of a series.
Rice has clinched the opening series of a conference season for the first time since taking two of three from UTSA in San Antonio in 2016
The Owls have won their last two C-USA series and have won five straight conference games (a sweep at FIU to end the 2022 season and the first two vs. UAB this season).
Rice improved to 36-17 all-time vs. UAB (15-9 in Birmingham) and has won the last four between the two played at Young Memorial Field.
The Owls have won six of their last eight.
Rice has allowed two runs in the last two games, the fewest allowed by Owls' pitchers since they ended last season by allowing one run in the final two wins at FIU (10-0, 3-1),
Long and Raj combined for 4.2 scoreless innings in relief while earning the win and save… Rice relievers have worked 9.2 scoreless innings in the first two games of the series (9.2,3,0,0,4,12) while picking up both wins and one save.
Over the last four games, the Owls bullpen is 3-0 with two saves and a combined 0.79 ERA (22.2, 9, 3, 2, 9, 28).
Rosengard led the Owls with two hits, his first two-hit game as an Owl.
Rosengard and Royo, who were hitting in the final two spots in the order, collected three of the Owls' five hits (3x8) and scored both runs.

Up Next: The Owls and Blazers wrap up the series at noon on Sunday. Rice remains on the road on Tuesday with a game vs. Texas A&M on Tuesday before returning to Reckling Park next weekend to host UTSA in the C-USA home opener.

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