Owls Open Seven-Game Homestand by Hosting Charlotte

OWLS HOST CHARLOTTE TO OPEN FINAL HOMESTAND: Rice opens its final homestand of the 2025 baseball season by hosting Charlotte for three games this weekend. The homestand continues with a single game vs. Prairie View A&M on May 7 and concludes next weekend with three games against Wichita State.

TIME CHANGE REMINDER: Friday's series opener vs. Charlotte has been moved up to a 3 p.m. first pitch due to inclement weather forecast for the Houston area on Friday night.

HOT LINKS

Watch:   ESPN+
Listen: RiceOwls.com
Live Stats: SideArm

PITCHING MATCHUPS:
Friday (3 PM)                     RHP Davion Hickson (1-6, 4.62 ERA vs. RHP Blake GIllespie (6-3, 2.70 ERA)
Saturday (2 PM)                 LHP J.D. McCracken (2-4, 6.44 ERA) vs. RHP Andrew Kribbs (3-2, 4.10 ERA)
Sunday (12 PM)                 TBA vs.   TBA

ON THE AIR: J.P. Heath will call the game on RiceOwls.com on Friday while Randy McIlvoy and Enrique Cruz will have the call on ESPN+. Heath moves over to ESPN+ on Saturday (with Zac Babb) and Sunday (Sam Kaman) and Jason Metko takes over the duties on RiceOwls.com.

FOUR FOR TWO: UAB (7-11), Rice (6-12), Wichita State (5-13) and Memphis (4-14) head into the last three weeks of the regular season battling for the final two spots in the AAC Tournament in Clearwater, Florida which begins play on May 20.
Remaining schedules by opponents' conference records:

Rice 31-23 (Charlotte 11-7, Wichita State 5-13, @UTSA 15-3)
UAB 25-29 (@Memphis 4-14, @Charlotte 11-7, FAU ,10-8)
Memphis 22-32 (UAB 7-12, Tulane 10-8, @Wichita State 5-13)
Wichita State 20-34 (ECU 10-8, @Rice 6-12, Memphis 4-14)

FRESHMAN LEADERSHIP: Blaine Brown (.311) is bidding to become the first true freshman to lead the Owls in hitting since Anthony Rendon (.388) in 2009 and the first to hit over .300 since Ford Proctor hit .336 in 2016. Proctor was also the last freshman to lead Rice in RBI (41 in 2016), and Brown leads the team this year with 35. Hiram Bocachica Jr (29) and Brown (28) lead the Owls in runs. Rendon is the last freshman to lead Rice in runs (94). Bocachica leads the Owls with 11 steals, the most by a freshman since Tyler Henley had 12 in 2005 while becoming the last freshman to lead the Owls in thefts.

SERIES NOTES:

The Owls and 49ers have met 28 times, all as members of the same conference (25 in C-USA, 3 in the AAC) and all in the regular season.
Charlotte leads the series 15-13 thanks to winning eight of the last nine.
Rice won eight of the first 10, beginning with a three-game sweep in Charlotte in 2015 and took the first three series.
The 49ers have not lost a season series since 2017, winning five and splitting the four-game series in 2021.
Charlotte has won the last three at Reckling thanks to a sweep in 2023.
The Owls' last home win in the series came in the final game in 2021 in a game shortened to five innings by rain.

LAST MEETING (5/5/2024): Treyton Rank slammed a go-ahead home in the fifth inning and Davion Hickson and Tom Vincent held Charlotte's potent offense to one run while striking out 13 over the final 7.1 innings to lead Rice to an 8-5 win and break an eight-game losing streak against the 49ers. After dropping both ends of a doubleheader on Friday and sitting on Saturday due to rain, the Owls found themselves in an early hole. Charlotte took advantage of an error to open the second inning and scored four runs to jump in front in the second inning. Hickson took over for starter Tucker Alch with two outs and ended the inning with a strikeout, an outcome that would become commonplace over the next five innings. In the fourth inning, Rank and Jack Riedel slapped back-to-back singles with one out, and one out later, Nathan Becker nailed the first pitch he saw down the line in left for his second home run of the season. After Hickson struck out the side in the fourth, Tobias Motley became the first Owl leadoff hitter in the last 13 to reach base when he was hit by a pitch. He moved to third on a pair of stolen bases and then scored when Rank unloaded on a 2-2 pitch to dead center to put Rice in front 5-4. Hickson struck out the side in the fifth, and the Owls added two more in the top of the sixth on a two-run single by Jacob Devenny. Riedel tacked on the Owls' eighth run with a solo homer to right, his 13th of the season. Hickson rolled into the seventh before Vincent took over with two outs in the seventh and struck out five of the eight, he would face the rest of the way to close out the win.

COACHES: This will be David Pierce's first time facing Charlotte and 49ers' head coach Robert Woodard.

UP NEXT: Rice hosts Prairie View A&M on Wednesday in its final non-conference game of the year and then wraps up the 2025 home schedule next weekend by hosting Wichita State.

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