Thursday, May 18
Houston, Texas
6:30 PM
Rice University
20-34, 0
9
vs
7
FIU
20-33, 0
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7
8
9
R
H
E
FIU
3
0
0
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13
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Rice
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9
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Photo by: Maria Lysaker - Rice Athletics
Owls Take Series Opener with FIU
5/18/2023 10:57:00 PM | Baseball
Walsh and Riedel combine for seven RBI
Reckling Park: Rice rebounded from an early 3-0 deficit to down FIU 9-7 on Friday night at Reckling Park and move to within one win of grabbing the final berth in the upcoming Conference USA Championship.
The Details: FIU jumped on Rice starter Parker Smith for three runs in the top of the first, but his Owls teammates needed just three batters to draw even in their first time at bat. Max Johnson and Jack Riedel opened with singles and Connor Walsh blasted the first pitch he saw over the wall in right-center for his 10th homer of the year. Riedel gave the Owls their first lead of the night in the following inning with a two-run single and that lead held until the fourth when the Panthers tied it with two runs. Walsh put the Owls back up in the fifth when he stole third and continued home on an overthrow by the FIU catcher. The Panthers answered with a run in the sixth only to see Rice answer with one in the bottom of the sixth when Riedel singled home Ben Dukes. That lead held until the eighth when FIU tied the game for the third time. Drew Holderbach reached on an infield single to open the bottom of the eight and Dukes followed with a walk. Both advanced on a sacrifice by Johnson and Holderbach came home with the eventual game-winner on a wild pitch. Walsh followed with an infield single to bring home Dukes to push the lead to 9-7. Matthew Linskey earned the win 1.1 innings of scoreless relief.
Notes
Up Next: Rice and FIU meet again at 6:30 on Friday night at Reckling Park before wrapping up the season with a 2 p.m. finale on Saturday.
The Details: FIU jumped on Rice starter Parker Smith for three runs in the top of the first, but his Owls teammates needed just three batters to draw even in their first time at bat. Max Johnson and Jack Riedel opened with singles and Connor Walsh blasted the first pitch he saw over the wall in right-center for his 10th homer of the year. Riedel gave the Owls their first lead of the night in the following inning with a two-run single and that lead held until the fourth when the Panthers tied it with two runs. Walsh put the Owls back up in the fifth when he stole third and continued home on an overthrow by the FIU catcher. The Panthers answered with a run in the sixth only to see Rice answer with one in the bottom of the sixth when Riedel singled home Ben Dukes. That lead held until the eighth when FIU tied the game for the third time. Drew Holderbach reached on an infield single to open the bottom of the eight and Dukes followed with a walk. Both advanced on a sacrifice by Johnson and Holderbach came home with the eventual game-winner on a wild pitch. Walsh followed with an infield single to bring home Dukes to push the lead to 9-7. Matthew Linskey earned the win 1.1 innings of scoreless relief.
Notes
- Rice snapped a six-game losing streak in series openers and C-USA home games and an overall 10-game C-USA losing streak.
- Rice won its fourth straight over FIU and improved to 24-8 all-time against the Panthers (9-5 at Reckling Park).
- Rice improved to 8-20 in C-USA games, while FIU and UAB, which lost to FAU 16-5 at home on Thursday, are 7-21. Thanks to their sweep at UAB to open the conference schedule, the Owls will clinch the final berth in the 2023 C-USA Championship next week at Reckling with one win in the last two games.
- Rice has now hit 56 homers in 54 games this season, the most for the Owls since revised the bat standards prior to the 2011 season. The last time the Owls averaged more than one home run per game was in 2010 when they hit 97 in 64 games.
- The Owls advanced five runners on four sacrifice bunts (their most since they had four vs. FIU in the first game of a doubleheader on 3/25/17) and three of them eventually scored runs.
- Walsh's homer was his 10th of the year, joining Ben Royo (13) in double figures this year. The last time the Owls had more than one play with double-figure homers was 2010 when they had four (Anthony Rendon 26, Rick Hague 16, Jeremy Rathjen 13, and Michael Ratterree 10).
- Walsh's leadoff homer followed his walk-off, grand-slam on Tuesday against Prairie View and he now has eight RBI in his last two games and 13 in his last six games to reclaim the team lead with a career-high 41.
- Riedel finished the night 3x5 to improve 9x17 (.529) in four career games vs. FIU… He is hitting .425 (31x73) over his last 19 games to raise his season average to .301. He has raised his average from 99 points from a low of .202 over his last 19 games.
- Riedel has driven in 23 runs in his last 19 games.
- Max Johnson was 1x3 and scored two runs. He has hit in six of his last seven starts since returning from an injury (.333, 9x27) and has scored 11 runs in his eight starts.
Up Next: Rice and FIU meet again at 6:30 on Friday night at Reckling Park before wrapping up the season with a 2 p.m. finale on Saturday.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Linskey, Matthew (3-1)
L: CABARCAS (2-5)
Batting:
2B: GIRARDI 2 ; FRANCO 1
HR: GUIDA 1
RBI: SANCHEZ 3 ; GUIDA 3
SF: SANCHEZ 2
Base Running:
RUNS: GIRARDI 2 ; SANCHEZ 1 ; GUIDA 1 ; RONEY 1 ; FRANCO 1 ; WALLEN 1
CS: WALLEN 1
HBP: RONEY 1 ; PALIDAR 1
Batting:
2B: Riedel, Jack 1
HR: Walsh, Connor 1
RBI: Riedel, Jack 3 ; Walsh, Connor 4
SH: Johnson , Max 1 ; Gallo, Pierce 2 ; Holderbach, Drew 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Johnson , Max 2 ; Riedel, Jack 1 ; Walsh, Connor 2 ; Royo, Ben 1 ; Holderbach, Drew 1 ; Dukes, Ben 2
SB: Walsh, Connor 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
5
R
1
H
3
RBI
3
AB
5
R
2
H
2
RBI
4
AB
5
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
2
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
INF
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/ BaseballINF
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/ BaseballInf./OF
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