Tuesday, March 28
Beaumont, TX
6 PM
Rice University
13-12
9
at
3
Lamar
16-8
1
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3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Rice
4
0
0
0
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2
1
2
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9
12
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Lamar University
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2
0
0
0
1
0
3
8
1
Rice Races Past Lamar
3/28/2023 9:30:00 PM | Baseball
Three-game road series at FAU up next
Beaumont: Ben Royo smashed his fifth home run in his last seven games, powering Rice to a 9-3 win over Lamar on Tuesday night.
The Details: The Owls (13-12) made an immediate impact in their first appearance in the Golden Triangle since 2018, jumping Lamar (16-8) starter Antonio Escano four runs in the first. Paul Smith led off a stretch of five consecutive Owls to reach base with a double. Walks by Pierce Gallo and Guy Garibay Jr. loaded the bases for Drew Holderbach who singled home Smith with the first run. Connor Walsh followed with a line drive to center that bounced over the center fielder. The play was ruled a single and an error, but more importantly, it brought home both Gallo and Garibay. After a flyout, Aaron Smigelski pulled a ground ball to first base to score Holderbach to close the first-inning outburst. Lamar scored a pair of runs in the fourth to cut the lead in half and retired nine of 10 Owls from the third through the fifth inning, but Royo reignited the offense and extended his hitting streak to seven games by launching a ball off the batter's eye in center for his fifth home run of the season, all in the last seven games. The Owls added three additional runs, one coming on Holderbach's third homer of the year. Cristian Cienfuegos (1-0) picked up the win with 1.1 scoreless innings in relief.
Notes
The Details: The Owls (13-12) made an immediate impact in their first appearance in the Golden Triangle since 2018, jumping Lamar (16-8) starter Antonio Escano four runs in the first. Paul Smith led off a stretch of five consecutive Owls to reach base with a double. Walks by Pierce Gallo and Guy Garibay Jr. loaded the bases for Drew Holderbach who singled home Smith with the first run. Connor Walsh followed with a line drive to center that bounced over the center fielder. The play was ruled a single and an error, but more importantly, it brought home both Gallo and Garibay. After a flyout, Aaron Smigelski pulled a ground ball to first base to score Holderbach to close the first-inning outburst. Lamar scored a pair of runs in the fourth to cut the lead in half and retired nine of 10 Owls from the third through the fifth inning, but Royo reignited the offense and extended his hitting streak to seven games by launching a ball off the batter's eye in center for his fifth home run of the season, all in the last seven games. The Owls added three additional runs, one coming on Holderbach's third homer of the year. Cristian Cienfuegos (1-0) picked up the win with 1.1 scoreless innings in relief.
Notes
- Rice is now 4-4 in weeknight action and 6-5 in first games against a school this year.
- Rice improved to 13-12 on the year and is four wins from matching the final win total in Jose Cruz Jr.'s first season as head coach (17-39).
- The Owls homered twice on Tuesday and have 15 homers in the last eight games (13 in the last five)… They hit nine long balls in the first 17 games this year.
- Rice has hit multiple homers in three consecutive games for the first time since 3/30-4/2 /19… The last time they had four straight multi-homer games was from 4/1-5/09 vs. DBU (1 game) and Tulane (3 games).
- Rice is 11-3 when homering this season.
- Over the last seven games, the Owls bullpen is 3-3 with three saves and a combined 2.15 ERA (58.2, 42, 16, 14, 24, 65).
- Justin Long made his second career start and his first since his first career pitching appearance on 2/18 vs. Louisiana… He allowed one hit, one walk and hit one batter in 2.2 scoreless innings.
- Manny Garza threw out his 10th runner attempting to steal in 19 attempts.
- Royo has hit in seven straight games (.310; 9x29) and is slugging .828 over that stretch (24 bases in 29 at bats).
- Paul Smith had a double and two singles for the first three-hit game of his career.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Cienfuegos, Cristian (1-0)
L: Escano, Antonio (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Smith , Paul 1 ; Smigelski, Aaron 1
3B: Gallo, Pierce 1
HR: Holderbach, Drew 1 ; Royo, Ben 1
RBI: Smith , Paul 1 ; Garibay Jr., Guy 1 ; Holderbach, Drew 2 ; Walsh, Connor 2 ; Smigelski, Aaron 1 ; Royo, Ben 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Smith , Paul 2 ; Gallo, Pierce 1 ; Garibay Jr., Guy 1 ; Holderbach, Drew 2 ; Smigelski, Aaron 2 ; Royo, Ben 1
Batting:
2B: Blankenship, J. 1
3B: Bumpus, Luke 1
RBI: Wilson, Tanner 2 ; Ruiz, Ethan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Bermudez, Kevin 1 ; Blankenship, J. 1 ; Wilson, Tanner 1
CS: MacNaughton, Ben 1
HBP: Wilson, Tanner 1
Game Leaders
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5
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2
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3
RBI
1
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
5
R
2
H
2
RBI
2
Players Mentioned
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Inf./OF
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