Friday, April 19
Tampa, FL
5:30 p.m.
Rice University
13-25, 4-9
13
at
4
South Florida
21-17, 7-6
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Rice
0
0
0
1
1
1
3
2
5
13
15
1
South Florida
1
1
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
4
11
3
Rank's Blast Ingnites Owls
4/19/2024 10:53:00 PM | Baseball
Owls present Cruz with a memorable win on his 50th birthday
Tampa, FL: Treyton Rank's first home run as a Rice Owl keyed a 10-run outburst by Rice over the final three innings to present head coach Jose Cruz Jr. a memorable end to his 50th birthday as Rice downed South Florida 13-4 at USF Friday night.
The Details: After sending 10 men to the plate in the first three innings, with Manny Garza the only one to reach when he was hit by a pitch to lead off the third, the Owls found themselves trailing 2-0. The Bulls touched Rice starter Parker Smith for single runs in the first two frames, but he settled into a groove while his teammates scored in each of the remaining six innings, collecting 15 hits over their next 34 at-bats and reaching base in 21 times in 40 plate appearances. Garza was the first of six leadoff hitters to reach for the Owls over the last seven innings and five of them came around to score. Ben Dukes led off the fourth with the Owls' first hit of the night, extending his hitting streak to 10 games, and after stealing second he scored Rice's first run courtesy of a throwing error on a ball hit by Pierce Gallo. USF answered with a run of its own in the bottom of the fourth, but Smith would not allow another run, retiring eight of the final 10 hitters he faced. Jacob Devenny lined a single up the middle in the fifth to cut the margin to 3-2. Rank led off the sixth with a double into the gap and advanced to third on a fielding error by the Bulls centerfielder. Gallo's infield single brought him home to tie the game and a Nathan Becker single and walk to Garza put the Owls in position to take the lead with one out. But Eric Correa's liner up the left field line was snagged by USF third baseman Matt Rose who then doubled Gallo off third. Undeterred by the near-miss, Smith quickly worked through the bottom of the sixth, and the Owls' offense picked up where it left off. Facing USF lefthander Kyle Scrape, Devenny battled back from an 0-2 count to draw a walk and Dukes followed with a singled to right. Rank then unloaded on a 1-0 pitch, driving it over the fence in left to give Rice a 6-3 lead. After a two-out walk in the bottom of the seventh, Smith was relieved by Tom Vincent who ended the inning with a strikeout and the Owls added two in the top of the eighth thanks to a two-run single by Tobias Motley. USF mounted a threat in the eighth, scoring once, but Davion Hickson came in to end the threat with no further damage. The Owls put the game out of reach with five runs in the ninth, including Jack Riedel's conference-leading 12th homer to lead off the ninth.
Up Next: The series continues on Saturday at 1 p.m. (central) with J.D. McCracken starting for Rice.
The Details: After sending 10 men to the plate in the first three innings, with Manny Garza the only one to reach when he was hit by a pitch to lead off the third, the Owls found themselves trailing 2-0. The Bulls touched Rice starter Parker Smith for single runs in the first two frames, but he settled into a groove while his teammates scored in each of the remaining six innings, collecting 15 hits over their next 34 at-bats and reaching base in 21 times in 40 plate appearances. Garza was the first of six leadoff hitters to reach for the Owls over the last seven innings and five of them came around to score. Ben Dukes led off the fourth with the Owls' first hit of the night, extending his hitting streak to 10 games, and after stealing second he scored Rice's first run courtesy of a throwing error on a ball hit by Pierce Gallo. USF answered with a run of its own in the bottom of the fourth, but Smith would not allow another run, retiring eight of the final 10 hitters he faced. Jacob Devenny lined a single up the middle in the fifth to cut the margin to 3-2. Rank led off the sixth with a double into the gap and advanced to third on a fielding error by the Bulls centerfielder. Gallo's infield single brought him home to tie the game and a Nathan Becker single and walk to Garza put the Owls in position to take the lead with one out. But Eric Correa's liner up the left field line was snagged by USF third baseman Matt Rose who then doubled Gallo off third. Undeterred by the near-miss, Smith quickly worked through the bottom of the sixth, and the Owls' offense picked up where it left off. Facing USF lefthander Kyle Scrape, Devenny battled back from an 0-2 count to draw a walk and Dukes followed with a singled to right. Rank then unloaded on a 1-0 pitch, driving it over the fence in left to give Rice a 6-3 lead. After a two-out walk in the bottom of the seventh, Smith was relieved by Tom Vincent who ended the inning with a strikeout and the Owls added two in the top of the eighth thanks to a two-run single by Tobias Motley. USF mounted a threat in the eighth, scoring once, but Davion Hickson came in to end the threat with no further damage. The Owls put the game out of reach with five runs in the ninth, including Jack Riedel's conference-leading 12th homer to lead off the ninth.
Up Next: The series continues on Saturday at 1 p.m. (central) with J.D. McCracken starting for Rice.
- Rice won for the first time on the road in the AAC and has won four of the last five games.
- The Owls improved to 5-5 in series openers.
- The 13 runs were the most by Rice this season and the most by the Owls in a conference game since they scored 13 while defeating UTSA 13-8 at Recklilng Park in 2023.
- The 13 runs were the most in a conference road game by Rice since scoring 14 in a 14-10 win at Old Dominion in 2019.
- Rice finished the game 6x17 with runners in scoring position while holding USF to 2x11.
- All nine starters collected at least one hit and seven of nine had at least one RBI.
- Rank's home run was his first in college since he hit one with Florida State against Auburn in the 2022 Regional.
- Dukes tied his career high with three hits for the third time during his career-best, 10-game hitting streak (19x41, .463).
- Riedel's home run extended his on-base streak to 16 games, the longest by an Owl this season.
- Devenny's RBI single and two walks extended his on-base streak to 10 games.
- Garza tied his career-high by scoring three runs and is 5x8 in his last three games (.625).
- Gallo has five multi-hit games in his last eight (12x36).
- Smith is 2-1 with a 3.10 ERA in his last three starts.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Smith, Parker (4-3)
L: SCRAPE, Kyle (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Rank, Treyton 1 ; Correa, Eric 1
HR: Rank, Treyton 1 ; Riedel, Jack 1
RBI: Devenny, Jacob 2 ; Dukes, Ben 1 ; Rank, Treyton 4 ; Riedel, Jack 1 ; Gallo, Pierce 1 ; Correa, Eric 1 ; Motley, Tobias 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Devenny, Jacob 1 ; Dukes, Ben 2 ; Rank, Treyton 2 ; Riedel, Jack 1 ; Gallo, Pierce 1 ; Garza, Manny 3 ; Correa, Eric 2 ; Johnson , Max 1
SB: Dukes, Ben 1 ; Gallo, Pierce 1 ; Motley, Tobias 1
HBP: Garza, Manny 1 ; Motley, Tobias 1
Batting:
2B: BETANCOURT, Rafael 1 ; BRODIL, Marcus 1
RBI: MONTES, John 1 ; BOSER, Bobby 1 ; ROSE, Matt 1
SF: BOSER, Bobby 1
Base Running:
RUNS: ROZENBLUM, Ben 1 ; MAYO, Jackson 1 ; BRODIL, Marcus 1 ; ROSE, Matt 1
SB: ROZENBLUM, Ben 1 ; ROSE, Matt 1
HBP: ROZENBLUM, Ben 1
Game Leaders
AB
5
R
2
H
2
RBI
4
AB
6
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
2
R
3
H
2
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
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