Walk-off Win Clinches Tournament Spot for Owls

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Baseball

at Louisiana

Oct 11

1 PM

Baseball

vs McClennan JC

Oct 26

Noon

Reckling Park

Reckling Park: Ben Royo dashed home to score on a two-out error in the bottom of the ninth to give Rice a 2-1 win over FIU at Reckling Park on Friday night, locking up the eighth seed in next week's Conference USA championship for Rice.

The Details: One night after the teams waged a back-and-forth offensive slugfest, the two teams locked up in a tense pitching battle with both hoping to earn the right to extend their seasons. FIU scratched out a run in the first inning on a two-out double and given the events of the previous evening, it seemed likely that more hits were to follow. But Owls' starter J.D. McCracken would allow only two additional baserunners on walks while working into the eighth inning for the first time in his career and Jack Ben-Shoshan and Matthew Linskey followed him with 1.1 innings of hitless relief as the Owls held an opponent to one hit for the first time since 2018. FIU starter Kevin Martin was equally tough on the Owls through five shutout innings before tiring in the sixth. Reliever Bryan Pazos worked out of a jam in the sixth, but the Owls drew even in the seventh on a two-out double by Drew Holderbach that scored Pierce Gallo. McCracken retired 17 consecutive batters between the second and seventh innings before allowing a leadoff walk in the eighth. With one out the runner advance to second on a wild pitch and then to third on a ground out. Head coach Jose Cruz Jr. called on Ben-Shoshan to end threat which he did by striking out FIU's Dante Girardi. Linskey took over in the ninth and immediately was locked in a tense battle with leadoff hitter Rueben Carpio that lasted 14 pitches before Carpio drew a walk. Linskey went right back to work and needed just 11 pitches to retire the next three hitters to keep the game tied. Royo lead off the bottom of the ninth with a single to left and advanced to second on a throwing error by FIU reliever Ryan Cabarcas who was attempting to double Royo up after a bunt attempt was popped up. Royo went to third on ground out by pinch hitter Christian Salazar and then came home with the winning run when Max Johnson slapped a 1-2 pitch for a sharp grounder to short that was not handled.

Notes

Rice has earned its 15^th appearance in the C-USA tournament, the first since 2019.
The win clinched the series for Rice, snapping a streak of eight consecutive series losses this season and six consecutive series losses at home dating back to last season.
Rice won its fifth straight over FIU and improved to 25-8 all-time against the Panthers (10-5 at Reckling Park).
The Owls have won three straight.
The combined one-hitter was the first for the Owls since Matt Canterino and Jackson Parthasarathy combined to allow just a single and two walks while striking out 14 in a 4-0 win over WKU at Reckling Park on 3/23/18.
McCracken's 7.2 innings was a career-high.
Linskey picked up the win for the second consecutive night to improved to a career-best 4-1.
Jack Riedel was 1x2 with a pair of walks and is now 10x19 (.526) in five career games vs. FIU… He is hitting .427 (32x75) over his last 20 games to raise his season average to .303. He has raised his average from 101 points from a low of .202 over his last 20 games.

Up Next: Rice and FIU conclude the Owls' final regular season in Conference USA with a 2 p.m. final game on Saturday.

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