Rank's Walk-off Gives Owls Dramatic Win in 13 Innings

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Reckling Park: Treyton Rank drilled a solo home run in the bottom of the 13^th to give Rice a wild 4-3 win over Wichita State in the opening game of their three-game series on Friday night.

How it Happened: Rice opened and closed the game on solo home runs, as Colin Robson led off the game by taking the first pitch from Shockers' starter Grant Adler the opposite way for his first career home run. But the Owls were held to just three hits in between those solo shots as the teams were deadlocked at 2-2 from the fourth inning until the Shockers took the lead on an unearned run in the top of the 12^th. They briefly took the lead with two runs off Rice starter Davion Hickson in the second, but Rice tied it in the fourth on a two-out, RBI single by Cole Green. Hickson and Adler battled to a draw over the next three innings before Nick Porter relieved Adler in the eighth, and Jack Ben-Shoshan took over for Hickson after Hickson hit the leadoff hitter in the ninth. Both relievers held the opposing offenses hitless until the Shockers took a 3-2 lead in the top of the 12^th on an RBI single. But that lead was short-lived as Green smacked a solo homer with one out in the bottom of the 12^th to knot the game again, 3-3. Austin Eppley took over for Ben-Shoshan in the 13^th and worked around a one-out walk to keep the game scoreless, setting the stage for Rank to hit the first walk-off home run at any level of his baseball career and send the relieved crowd of families here for Saturday's commencement ceremonies happy.

Up Next: Rice and Wichita State resume the series at 2 p.m. on Saturday before wrapping up the Owls' 2025 home schedule at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Notes

Rice improved to 3-6 all-time against Wichita State, but 3-0 in games at Reckling Park and 1-3 in extra-inning games.
Rice is 8-4 in its last 12 AAC games and has won the opening game of a conference series for the third time in its last four series.
The Owls' last win in extra innings was on 4/26/24 when they defeated UTSA 9-8 in 10 innings at Reckling.
The Owls have homered in five straight games (11 total).
Hickson worked into the eighth inning for the third consecutive start and for the fourth time this year.
He is 1-1 with a 1.82 in his last three starts (5 ER in 24.2 innings) and has struck out 26 over that stretch.
Ben-Shoshan stranded his team-high 17^th inherited runner and lowered his ERA to 2.32 in his last 16 appearances.
Eppley earned his first career win.
Rank's homer was his fourth this year, extending his career high and he has homered in consecutive games for the first time in his career.
He is hitting .385 over his last 15 games (20x52) and the Owls are 9-5 over that span.
Robson's leadoff homer was the first by an Owl since Benjamin Rosengard at Texas A&M on 3/21/23.
Green collected two of the Owls' five hits and drove in two runs… He has driven in eight runs in his last four games.
Michael Zito's infield single in the third inning extended his hitting streak in AAC contests to 19 games.

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