Pierce Era Opens on the Road Against Florida Atlantic

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Oct 11

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Oct 26

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Reckling Park

AAC YEAR TWO OPENS IN FLORIDA: New Bixby Family Head Baseball Coach David Pierce will make his Rice debut his Owls open their 2025 American Athletic Conference baseball schedule on the road this weekend by facing Florida Atlantic for three games. The series opens on Friday night at 5:30 (central), followed by a 3 p.m. start on Saturday and an 11 a.m. first pitch on Sunday. Rice heads back on the road having won two of its last three.

HOT LINKS
Watch: ESPN+
Listen: RiceOwls.com
Live Stats: StatBroadcast

Full Game Notes

PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday, March 21              RHP Davion Hickson 0-2, 3.06 ERA) vs. LHP Trey Beard (3-0, 2,00 ERA)
Saturday, March 22         LHP J.D. McCracken (0-2, 7.20 ERA) vs. RHP Tyler Murphy (2-0, 4.81 ERA)
Sunday, March 22            RHP Tucker Alch (2-0, 3.80) vs. RHP James Litman (2-0, 2.78 ERA)

ON THE AIR: J.P. Heath will have the call for three games from Boca Raton, while Frank Forte, Patrick Murray/ Ari Shanok and Gabriella Haugland will provide the commentary and coverage on ESPN+ .

RICE AND FAU:

Rice won the first eight meetings between the schools but has gone 8-17-1 since that time.
The Houston chapter of the Owls is 5-7 at FAU Baseball stadium, including a sweep of the first series between the schools in Boca Raton in 2015.
The schools have met 34 times, 27 in the regular season and seven times at the C-USA Championship (Rice was 3-2 in Biloxi, 1-0 in Hattiesburg, 0-1 at Reckling vs. FAU in the postseason).
Rice's 5-4 win over FAU in the opener of the 2018 C-USA Championship was the 1,173rd and final of Hall of Fame coach Wayne Graham's legendary career as FAU would eliminate Rice one day later, 9-8 in 10 innings.
New Rice head coach David Pierce has never faced FAU as a head coach, but he was an assistant coach at Rice for the first school meeting, a 4-2 win for Rice at Reckling Park on 2/23/07.

LAST TIME IN BOCA: Rice dropped two of three in its last visit to FAU Baseball Stadium (March 31-April 2, 2023) in a series played while most of the local attention was turned toward Houston as FAU was playing in the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Final Four at NRG Stadium. Parker Smith provided the highlight of the weekend for Rice in the opener as he combined with Matthew Linskey for the first shutout of Florida Atlantic at home by a Conference USA foe since 2017, and Connor Walsh's sixth-inning homer provided the only run the duo required as Rice took the opener 1-0. The win snapped FAU's overall eight-game winning streak in the series and a four-game losing streak for Rice at FAU's home park. Bonus Trivia: Smith, who was selected by Houston in the fourth round of last June's MLB draft, and Linskey are now both in the Astros' farm system. Linskey was drafted by Arizona after the 2023 season and was sent to Houston in a trade during the offseason.

UP NEXT: Rice travels to Beaumont on Tuesday for a game at Lamar before returning to Reckling Park on Wednesday to host Texas Southern at 6:35 p.m. The Owls open their 2025 AAC home scheduled next weekend when they host East Carolina.

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