10-Run Explosion Leads Rice Past Memphis for David Pierce's 500th Win

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Baseball

at Louisiana

Oct 11

1 PM

Baseball

vs McClennan JC

Oct 26

Noon

Reckling Park

Memphis: Treyton Rank led a 12-hit attack with two doubles and a triple, and Austin Eppley worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the eighth to lead Rice to a 10-5 win in the series opener with Memphis and present Bixby Family Head Baseball Coach David Pierce with his 500th career win.

How it Happened: The Owls broke out on top with a pair of runs in the first as Colin Robson and Blaine Brown opened with back-to-back singles. Michael Zito followed by fighting off a tough 1-2 pitch to move the runners to second and third and Landon West drove both in with the first of his two run-scoring hits. Memphis answered with two in the bottom of the first, but the Owls took the lead again in the fourth when Rank led off with the first of his two doubles, eventually scoring on a sacrifice fly by Hiram Bocachica Jr. They added three in the fifth thanks to an RBI single by Zito and a two-run double by West. Memphis knocked out starter Tucker Alch with two runs in the fifth, but Davion Hickson came on to strike out two and keep Rice two runs in front. Brown drilled his seventh home run of the year over the wall in left in the seventh to build the lead to 7-4, but Memphis mounted one final charge in the bottom of the eighth. The Tiger loaded the bases off Hickson, then scored a run on a bases-loaded walk, and Pierce called Eppley from the bullpen. Making only his third appearance since returning from an injury, Eppley needed 10 pitches to erase the threat, striking out the first batter he faced and then inducing a double play. The Owls added three insurance runs in the ninth. With one out, Robson reached on a wild pitch after striking out and Brown followed with a single to put runners on the corners. Brown stole second and the Tigers brought the infield in. Zito hit a ground ball up the middle, but the throw to the plate was wild, allowing both Robson and Brown to score. Rank blasted a triple off the wall in left center to bring home Zito with the game's final run.

Up Next: The Owls and Tigers meet again on Friday night at 6 p.m. before wrapping the series on Saturday at 12 p.m. .
Notes

Rice improved to 23-12 all-time vs. Memphis, including a 10-3 lead in games in Memphis.
The win broke a three-game overall winning streak for Memphis in the series.
Rice has won three consecutive AAC games and won its first series opener this year and the first since they opened the FAU series with a win on 5/10/24.
Pierce improved to 500-284 in 14 seasons as a head coach, 10-3 vs. Memphis head coach Matt Riser, and 4-3 vs. Memphis.
The 10 runs scored by Rice were two more than the Owls scored while being swept by Memphis in three games last year at Reckling Park.
Hickson struck out six in 2.2 innings of relief and picked up his first win of the year.
Rank's two doubles were a career high as were his three extra-base hits.
He extended his hitting streak to six games (.435, 10x23) and is now hitting .372 in AAC games.
West's four RBI were a career-high.
Brown matched his career high with three hits (in four at-bats) to raise his season average to .329 and scored a career-high four runs.
He homered for the third time in five conference series openers and for the fourth time in five conference series.
He has hit in eight straight to match his career high.

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