Owls Set for Astros Foundation College Classic

OWLS FACE TOP 20 SLATE THIS WEEKEND: Rice will make the short trip downtown this weekend to take on three Top 20 teams at the Astros Foundation College Classic, Friday through Sunday. The Owls open the event by facing #16 Mississippi State at 11:05 on Friday and open the second day of action by meeting #2 and defending national champion Tennessee at 11:05 on Saturday before wrapping up the weekend by facing #1 Texas A&M at 7:05 on Sunday.

HOT LINKS
Watch: Space City Home Network/Astros.com
Listen: RiceOwls.com
Live Stats: StatBroadcast

PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday: RHP Davion Hickson (0-0, 1.00 ERA) vs. LHP Pico Kohn (1-0, 0.79)
Saturday: LHP Blaine Brown (0-0, 3.38 ERA) vs. Marcus Phillips (0-0, 1.04)
Sunday: RHP Robert Fernandez (0-0, 0.90 ERA) vs. LHP Myles Patton (1-0, 0.75)

OWLS FACE TOP 20 SLATE THIS WEEKEND: Rice will make the short trip downtown this weekend to take on three Top 20 teams at the Astros Foundation College Classic, Friday through Sunday. The Owls open the event by facing #16 Mississippi State at 11:05 on Friday and open the second day of action by meeting #2 and defending national champion Tennessee at 11:05 on Saturday before wrapping up the weekend by facing #1 Texas A&M at 7:05 on Sunday.

ON THE AIR: J.P. Heath will be behind the mic on RiceOwls.com for the first two games while Jason Metlko will have the call on the finale with Texas A&M. All games will be broadcast regionally on Space City Home Network and also be available on Astros.com free of charge. Gerald Sanchez and Brian Bogusevic will call Friday's game, Randy McIlvoy and Pat Combs on Saturday, and Brett Dolan and Bogusevic on Sunday.

TOP 2: Since at least 1997, Rice has never faced the top two ranked teams in the country in successive games. The Owls are 20-11 in games against ranked opponents at the Astros Classic, including a split of games against a team ranked #1. They defeated Texas A&M 2-0 on 2/28/09 (see note below) and lost to North Carolina 2-1 on 3/1/13. Rice's last game vs. an in-season #1 team was on 2/28/17 when the Owls lost at TCU 13-5. The Owls' most recent over a ranked team came in the 2023 Shriners Children's Classic, 3-2 over #26 Texas Tech.

SERIES HISTORIES: Rice and Mississippi State have met once, with the Bulldogs stunning the top-seeded Owls with a 10-run sixth inning to erase a 13-5 lead and eliminate Rice at the College Station Regional in 1998. The Owls and Tennessee have met once previously as well, with Rice winning 11-1 at the Astros college baseball event. Freshman Jordan Stephens earned Most Outstanding Player honors after he threw seven shutout innings against the Vols. Rice and Texas A&M have been facing off in baseball since 1915 Rice and Texas A&M met in the Owls' first game as members of the Southwest Conference on March 26, 1915, in Houston not far from Daikin Park as Rice defeated Texas A&M 3-2, scoring the winning run with one out in the ninth. Rice's John Hathorn outdueled Aggie legend Pat Olsen, striking out 10 while Olsen fanned 13 Owls. A&M leads the series 189-97-2, but the schools have split eight games at the Astros home field.

DOWNTOWN GAMES: This is Rice's 19th appearance in a weekend series of games at Houston's major league home. The Owls made their debut at Enron Field in 2001, sweeping games against Baylor, Texas and Texas Tech. They returned in 2002 to Astros Park, appeared 16 times at Minute Maid and this will be the first time at Daikin Park. Rice participated in the first 14 series of games before not appearing in 2015 as well as in 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024. Rice's most common opponents have been Baylor (6-3) and Texas Tech (8-1) and Texas A&M (4-4) will join the list this year. The Owls have played Texas (2-5) seven times, TCU six (4-2) and Texas State twice (0-2). Rice has played single games with Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas State, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, UCLA and Vanderbilt.

ASTROS CLASSIC MOMENTS

Rice has three walk-off wins in the College Classic, including one in the Owls' first game. Jesse Roman's solo homer with one out in the 10th gave Rice a 1-0 win over Baylor on 2/1/2001. That win was the first of three, 1-0 wins for the Owls in the Classic, and one of four shutouts.
Rice walked off against UCLA on 2/27/2009 as Michael Fuda scored on an error to tag the loss on the Bruins' Trevor Bauer.
Fuda came back the next year against TCU to cap a two-run rally in the bottom of the ninth to score the winning on a single by Chase McDowell, The rally started with a triple by current Astros executive Jimmy Comerota who scored the tying run on a single by Michael Ratterree.
Two Owls have thrown complete game shutouts, both of them against Texas A&M:
- Ryan Berry rewarded the crowd of 13,928 on 2/28/09 who were braving an 8:31 start time on Saturday night by needing on 2:16 to blank the #1 Aggies 2-0. He took a no-hitter into the six and allowed just three base runners (two hits, in HPB) and struck out 12
- Two years later Austin Kubitza made Berry's game look like a marathon, bringing home a six-hit, 1-0 shutout in 1:45 (7:49 start time). He struck out six and induced 13 ground ball outs.
Rice outhit No. 1 ranked North Carolina 9-8, but the Tar Heels took advantage of two late wild pitches to claim a 2-1 win over the Owls in the opening round of action at the annual Astros Foundation Classic Friday evening downtown at Minute Maid Park.
Rice dropped its second meeting against a top-ranked team in the tournament in 2013, as North Carolina scored once in the seventh and ninth innings to beat the Owls 2-1. Kubitza again was dominant in 6.2 innings, striking out nine with just two walks.
Rice's 17 runs vs. Texas Tech are the most the Owls have scored in the games here.
Rice's three games in 2014 saw a total of six runs scored between both teams, with the Owls defeating TCU 1-0, and losing to Texas 2-0 and Texas Tech 2-1.
Current Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehman hit a pair of homers during the 2005 classic.
Anthony Rendon hit .333 in nine College Classic games with three homers and eight RBI.
Rice head coach Jose Cruz Jr. hit .233 in 43 career at-bats at the Minute Maid Park, while volunteer coach Lance Berkman hit 326 home runs and drove in 1,090 runs while playing at the Astro's current home.

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