Owls Welcome Islanders to Close Out Homestand

Rice's eight-game homestand concludes as the Owls host Texas A&M Corpus Christi at 6:35 on Tuesday. The Owls are 4-3 through the first seven games of the current slate at home.

ON THE AIR: J.P. Heath will call the action on RiceOwls.com and the Varsity Network app as well as a simulcast on ESPN+.

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

PITCHING MATCHUP:
Ty Baker (0-0, 3.12) vs. Bryson Shea (1-2, 9.15)

TURNING POINT: Rice and Texas A&M Corpus Christi have met 23 times overall since the series began with a pair of games in 1962, but the 23rd became significant for more than the result (a 9-4 win by the Islanders) because it was the final game of Jose Cruz Jr.'s tenue as Bixby Family Head Baseball Coach. A change in the leadership of the program was announced the next day and one week later, David Pierce returned to South Main. The Owls won the first 20 games in the series, but the Islanders have won two of the last three since 2022. , Pierce is 16-5 in his career vs. Texas A&M (8-3 with Sam Houston, 8-2 while at Texas).

HOME FRONT: Rice is 11-6 this season at Reckling Park and has won three of four home series (six of the last seven since last season). The Owls have not posted a winning season at home since they were 15-13-1 in 2018. In the 178 home games between 2019 and David Pierce's first home game as the Bixby Family Head Baseball Coach, Rice posted a .393 home winning percentage (70-108). The Owls are 19-14 (.576) at home under Pierce.

BOUNCING BACK: From 2022-2025, Rice had at least one nine-game losing streak in each season and had 10 streaks of five or more losses over that time, including a 12-game skein last season. This year the Owls have had back-to-back losses four times in addition to one, four-game losing streak. They responded to their four-game losing streak with a six-game winning streak, the longest for the program since a six-game winning streak in 2019.

LIGHTER PACKING: Rice returns to the road this weekend for a three-game series at Charlotte, Friday through Sunday. After their marathon stretch of 13 of 14 games away from Reckling earlier this year, Rice will not have a stretch of more than four consecutive games away from home down the stretch (games at East Carolina, May 8-10, followed by the finale of the Silver Glove Series at Houston on May 10). Heading into the weekend, Rice (8-8) is one of six American Conference teams to have at least a .500 record in games away from their home diamonds and the Owls eight wins are the second most in the American, trailing only UTSA (11-7).

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