Rice and Hawai'i Open Four-Game Series on Friday

Hawaii Calls
Rice heads west for the final non-conference road series of 2024 as the Owls make their first trip to Hawai'i to face the Rainbow Warriors for the first time since 2013. The four-game series opens with night games on Friday and Saturday at 10:35 (central) followed by a 5:05 pm game on Sunday and then wrapping up with a 6:05 game on Monday. The Owls will return home to Houston on Tuesday afternoon and will return to action on Friday, March 15 by hosting Houston Christian in a weekend series that will rotate between the schools, with the Owls hosting Friday and Sunday and the Huskies hosting on Saturday.

Watch None of the games this weekend are available
Listen: Online / Varsity Network
Live Stats: Statbroadcast
Full Game Notes: RiceOwls.com

On the Air
While J.P. Heath remains in Houston to call Rice men's basketball, Jason Metko will be in Honolulu with the Owls and call all three games on RiceOwls.com and the Varsity Network app.   None of the games in the series will be available for streaming.

Owls and Rainbow Warriors
Rice leads the overall series 36-10 and comes into the weekend with a six-game winning streak in the series overall as well as a six-game streak at Les Murakami Stadium. The schools began facing each other as members of the WAC in 1998 and played a home-and-home, three-game series each season between 1998-2006. They first met as non-conference opponents in 2013, with Rice sweeping all four games. The most recent series opened with a marathon 2-0 Rice win in 17 innings, adding nearly the equivalent of a fifth game to the scheduled four games. They closed the four games with a 5-0 shutout and eight different Rice hurlers combined for a 1.02 ERA in 44.0 total innings and held the Rainbows to a composite .189 batting average during that series. Hawai'i's last win in the series came in the first game of the three-game series at Reckling in 2005, 7-4 while the Rainbow Warriors' last win in the series at home came on April 15, 2005. 3-2.

Doubling Up
The Owls lead the AAC and rank second nationally with 15 double plays in the first 12 games. They have turned at least one in 10 consecutive games and 11 of 12 this year.

Starting it off
Rice starting pitchers have a combined 3.65 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP through the first 12 games while holding opposing hitters to a combined .209 batting average and allowing only three homers in 56.2 innings.   They have worked into the sixth in six of nine weekend starts this year and allowed five hits or less in seven of nine.

In the Stats
J.D. McCracken is third with 20 innings pitched... Nathan Becker is tied for fourth with five doubles while Jack Riedel is tied for 6th in the AAC with four home runs... Treyton Rank is tied for sixth with 10 walks.. Manny Garza leads the AAC with six runners caught stealing, 120 total chances and 105 putouts... Davion Hickson led the AAC and was 15th nationally allowing just 3.18 hits per nine innings (4 in 11.1 IP) and his .114 opponents' batting average also led the league prior to his falling below the minimum while not appearing in any of the last three games... Hickson was second in the conference with an 0.79 ERA through his first four appearances as an Owl.

Pitching Matchups
Friday: RHP Parker Smith ((1-2, 3.18/1.47) vs. LHP Harrison Bodendorf (0-1, 7.36/2.18)
Saturday: LHP J.D. McCracken (101, 4.05/1.30) vs. LHP Randy Abshier (0-1, 7.62/1.31)
Sunday; RHP Ryland Urbanczyk (0-2, 3.00/1.33) vs. Undecided
Monday: Both teams TBA

Starting it off
Rice starting pitchers have a combined 3.65 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP through the first 12 games while holding opposing hitters to a combined .209 batting average and allowing only three homers in 56.2 innings.   They have worked into the sixth in six of nine weekend starts this year and allowed five hits or less in seven of nine.

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