Saturday, March 8
2 PM
Rice University
8
vs
11
Yale
Bulldogs Late Rally Clinches Series
3/8/2025 6:49:00 PM | Baseball
Finale start time moved back to 1 p.m. on Sunday
Reckling Park: Graiden West collected a career-high three hits, including his first career home run but Yale stunned Rice by scoring 11 runs in the final three innings to clinch the weekend series with an 11-8 win on Saturday afternoon.
How it Happened: In his first true start of the season, senior J.D. McCracken made quick work of the Bulldogs for the first six innings, needing just 51 pitches over six shutout innings, while the offense backed him with three early runs. Tobias Motley was hit by a pitch to open the second and one out later West followed with the first of his three hits. Both runners advance on steals and Motley scored the game's first run when he came home on a wild pitch. After Max Johnson walked and stole second, he and West scored a single by Michael Zito. West and Zito combined for the Owls' fourth run in the fourth inning, He singled to open the inning and then scored on a sac fly by Zito. Motley scored on a wild pitch for the second time in the game to extend the lead to 5-0 after five innings. Yale finally snapped McCracken's spell with a leadoff homer in the seventh and he was replaced by Tucker Alch with the bases loaded and one out. After giving up a second run on a walk, Alch worked out of further trouble with a strikeout and ground out to second. West got one of those runs back with his first career homer, an opposite-field shot to right field with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. But the game's fortunes took a dramatic U-turn over the final two innings as Yale scored seven times in the eighth and two in the ninth.
Up Next: Rice and Yale conclude their series on Sunday with the start time now set for 1 p.m., rather than the original start time of 11:30 a.m.
Notes
How it Happened: In his first true start of the season, senior J.D. McCracken made quick work of the Bulldogs for the first six innings, needing just 51 pitches over six shutout innings, while the offense backed him with three early runs. Tobias Motley was hit by a pitch to open the second and one out later West followed with the first of his three hits. Both runners advance on steals and Motley scored the game's first run when he came home on a wild pitch. After Max Johnson walked and stole second, he and West scored a single by Michael Zito. West and Zito combined for the Owls' fourth run in the fourth inning, He singled to open the inning and then scored on a sac fly by Zito. Motley scored on a wild pitch for the second time in the game to extend the lead to 5-0 after five innings. Yale finally snapped McCracken's spell with a leadoff homer in the seventh and he was replaced by Tucker Alch with the bases loaded and one out. After giving up a second run on a walk, Alch worked out of further trouble with a strikeout and ground out to second. West got one of those runs back with his first career homer, an opposite-field shot to right field with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. But the game's fortunes took a dramatic U-turn over the final two innings as Yale scored seven times in the eighth and two in the ninth.
Up Next: Rice and Yale conclude their series on Sunday with the start time now set for 1 p.m., rather than the original start time of 11:30 a.m.
Notes
- McCracken's 6.1 innings were the longest outing by a Rice starter this year.
- Graiden West's three hits were a career-high as were his three runs… He came into the 2025 season with one hit in 35 at-bats.
- His solo homer, combined with younger brother Landon's first career homer earlier this year, make them the first set of brothers to homer for Rice in the same season since Antonio (2) and Trei Cruz (6) in 2019.
- Michael Zito collected three hits for the third time in 12 games this year… Each of his three-hit games has come in seven games at Reckling Park, and he is hitting .500 at home (11x22).
- Motley has hit in four straight overall and in six straight home games… He is hitting .429 this year at Reckling (9x21).
Players Mentioned
RHP
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LHP
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INF
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