Owls Host Conference Co-Leader for Key Weekend Series

HOUSTON-Rice welcomes American Conference co-leader UAB to Reckling Park this weekend for a three-game series as both schools look to improve their position for the American Conference Championship in Clearwater, Florida May 20-24.

2006 CWS TEAM TO BE RECOGNIZED: Rice will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its fifth team to reach the College World Series on Saturday with a reunion and in-game recognition. The 2006 Owls were the consensus #1 team for five consecutive weeks leading into the College World Series, where they would finish third, and their 57 wins rank third all-time in program history. Prior to Omaha, they played their entire postseason at Reckling Park, going 9-1 while winning the Conference USA championship as well as the Regional and Super Regional. Eddie Degerman, Brian Friday, and Cole St. Claire were named first-time All-Americans that season, and eight were named all-conference, and five were selected to the all-regional team. The core of the 2006 team would go on to lead the Owls back to Omaha again in both 2007 and 2008.

ON THE AIR: Jason Metko will call the action on RiceOwls.com and the Varsity Network app+ on Friday and Sunday, while J.P. Heath will handle the duties on Saturday. Heath will be joined by Enrique Cruz and Abby Christopherson on the ESPN+ broadcast on Friday; Matt Pedersen, Sam Kaman, and Briana Santiago have the assignment on Saturday and Heath returns on Sunday to partner with Kaman and Christopherson.

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

OWLS & BLAZERS: The schools began meeting in baseball in 2006 in Rice's first season of play in Conference USA, and the Owls hold a 41-20 lead in the overall series, including a 20-7 mark at Reckling Park. UAB has won three of the last four in the regular season, winning the final game of the 2024 series at Reckling Park and then the first two last year at Young Memorial Field in Birmingham, but Rice defeated UAB at the 2024 American Conference Championship 9-0 to post the Owls' first win in their new conference's postseason tournament. Rice won the first 10 in the series before UAB broke through for the first time with an 8-2 win at the 2008 C-USA Championship. The most recent series at Reckling in 2024 saw the teams split a pair of 4-3 decisions, the first a Rice win in 15 innings, after the Owls won the opening game 4-2.

DOWN THE STRETCH: With nine conference games remaining, Rice is in a tight race to qualify for the American Conference Championship for the third consecutive season. The Owls will play at home in two of the last three weekends but face two of the teams tied for the conference lead in their next two series. They host UAB (12-6) this weekend and then wrap up their road schedule next weekend at East Carolina (12-6) before closing out the regular season against Tulane (8-10). The combined 32-22 record for Rice's opponents is the best among any of the ten conference schools heading into this weekend.

WINNING PACE: With a 26-20 record heading into the final 10 games of the regular season, Rice has seen a nine-game improvement from its final win total in 2025. The nine-game jump is the largest since a similar improvement from 1994 (34-21) to 1995 (43-19) in Wayne Graham's fourth season at Rice. In his first season on South Main in 1992, Graham led Rice to its last increase of at least 10 wins as he took a team that had finished 16-34 the previous season to a 29-26 mark. The 26 wins are the Owls' most since they ended 2019 with a 26-33 record. Rice last ended a season above .500 in 2017 (33-31), but ended the regular season 27-29 before winning the C-USA tournament and finishing 2-2 at the Baton Rouge Regional. Rice last ended a regular season over .500 in 2016 (32-20). Rice's 5-3 win over Sam Houston on 4/15 improved the Owls' season record to 24-13, its highest margin over .500 since the end of the 2016 season (38-24)

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