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Gallant's Career Day Leads Rice Over Houston Christian
3/16/2025 5:07:00 PM | Baseball
Goes seven innings and picks up the win on his father's birthday
Reckling Park: Reed Gallant fashioned a career-best performance on his father's birthday and Rice hit a season-high three home runs to take a 6-2 win over Houston Christian on Sunday and earn a split of the weekend series between the schools.
How it Happened: The teams traded unearned runs in the first inning, and HCU looked to reclaim the lead in the top of the second off reliever Jack Ben-Shoshan, but he stranded three runners with a fly at the end of the inning. Gallant entered the game in the third inning and shut down a Huskie offense that had hit a collective .300 in the first three games of the series over the next seven innings. He allowed just four hits in 25 at-bats (.160) while only throwing 70 pitches. He retired the first 10 he faced in order and then needed just three pitches to erase a one-out infield single in the sixth. He retired the Huskies again in order in the seventh and the first two in the eighth before allowing a single but fanned the next batter on three pitches. Trey Duffield's second home run in as many days, a solo shot in the fourth, put the Owls in front. Hiram Bocachica Jr. raced home on a sharp single off the second baseman by Blaine Brown in the fifth to extend the margin to 3-1. Jacob Devenny drilled a solo homer in the eighth and Max Johnson followed with a two-run homer to the line in left to double the lead and provide Gallant insurance as he looked to close the game out in the ninth. He gave up a single and a ground-rule double with one out and gave up his first run of the day on a ground out before ending the game on a fly ball to center.
Up Next: Rice will close out a stretch of 19 games within the city limits of Houston by hosting Incarnate Word on Tuesday at 6:35 and then open AAC play on Friday on the road when they take on Florida Atlantic.
Notes
How it Happened: The teams traded unearned runs in the first inning, and HCU looked to reclaim the lead in the top of the second off reliever Jack Ben-Shoshan, but he stranded three runners with a fly at the end of the inning. Gallant entered the game in the third inning and shut down a Huskie offense that had hit a collective .300 in the first three games of the series over the next seven innings. He allowed just four hits in 25 at-bats (.160) while only throwing 70 pitches. He retired the first 10 he faced in order and then needed just three pitches to erase a one-out infield single in the sixth. He retired the Huskies again in order in the seventh and the first two in the eighth before allowing a single but fanned the next batter on three pitches. Trey Duffield's second home run in as many days, a solo shot in the fourth, put the Owls in front. Hiram Bocachica Jr. raced home on a sharp single off the second baseman by Blaine Brown in the fifth to extend the margin to 3-1. Jacob Devenny drilled a solo homer in the eighth and Max Johnson followed with a two-run homer to the line in left to double the lead and provide Gallant insurance as he looked to close the game out in the ninth. He gave up a single and a ground-rule double with one out and gave up his first run of the day on a ground out before ending the game on a fly ball to center.
Up Next: Rice will close out a stretch of 19 games within the city limits of Houston by hosting Incarnate Word on Tuesday at 6:35 and then open AAC play on Friday on the road when they take on Florida Atlantic.
Notes
- Rice improved to 33-6 all-time vs. HCU and 29-5 in games played on the Rice campus.
- They improved to 2-2 under interim head coach Parker Bangs.
- The Owls hit three homers in a game for the first time this season and for the first time since the first game of a doubleheader at East Carolina on May 17, 2024.
- Rice stole three bases on Sunday, including two by Michael Zito, and finished with 13 (in 14 attempts) in the series and 23 over the last eight games.
- Zito and Bocachica each had three steals in the series.
- Gallant set career bests with seven innings and seven strikeouts, matching his previous career best with came in his debut with the Owls on February 22, 2021 against HBU (5,0,0,0,2,5).
- He was the third Rice pitcher in as many games to work at least six innings and the Owls posted a combined 3.27 ERA in the four games.
- Johnson's home run was the first of his career and came on his 196th career at bat.
- Duffield is the first Owl to homer in consecutive games this season and the first since Pierce Gallo and Manny Garza each homered vs. FAU on May 10 & 11, 2024.
- He drove in five of the Owls' 18 runs in the series and is hitting .333 with three homers and 10 RBI in his career vs. HCU.
- Tobias Motley led the Owls with six hits in the series (6x15).
- Bocachica was one of seven Owls to score at least two runs during the four games.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Gallant, Reed (1-1)
L: Smith, Ben (1-2)
Batting:
2B: Leiterman, Matthew 1 ; Bard, Luke 1
RBI: Edwards, Parker 1 ; Hendricks, Rhett 1
SH: Oropeza, Robert 1
SF: Edwards, Parker 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Payne, Tevis 1 ; Leiterman, Matthew 1
SB: Walker, Jack 1
Batting:
HR: Duffield, Trey 1 ; Devenny, Jacob 1 ; Johnson , Max 1
RBI: Brown , Blaine 1 ; Motley, Tobias 1 ; Duffield, Trey 1 ; Devenny, Jacob 1 ; Johnson , Max 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Bocachica Jr., Hiram 2 ; Duffield, Trey 1 ; Devenny, Jacob 1 ; Zito, Michael 1 ; Johnson , Max 1
SB: Brown , Blaine 1 ; Zito, Michael 2
HBP: Devenny, Jacob 1
Game Leaders
AB
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R
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RBI
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AB
4
R
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H
1
RBI
1
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
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