Silver Glove Finale Opens Final Week of Regular Season

HOUSTON: Rice steps outside conference play for one final game on Tuesday by facing Houston in the final game of the Silver Glove Series before turning its attention to earning a top four seed at the American Conference Championship with three against Tulane Thursday through Saturday.

ON THE AIR: J.P. Heath will call the action on RiceOwls.com and the Varsity Network app.

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

THE RACE FOR THE TOP FOUR: Four of the eight slots in the American Conference Baseball Championship have been filled as Rice, UTSA, ECU, and UAB have clinched a ticket to Clearwater, Florida, but the race to fill out the remaining spots, in addition to determining the top four teams who will earn byes, remains up for grabs. Rice is tied with UAB in third at 13-11 but holds the tiebreaker over the Blazers after sweeping them two weeks ago. Both trail ECU by a game, with Rice holding the advantage over the Pirates thanks to taking two of three last weekend. While Rice will host Tulane, UAB will wrap up its season on the road at regular-season champion UTSA. Florida Atlantic and Memphis are both one game behind Rice and UAB, and FAU will host ECU while Memphis travels to Charlotte. Wichita State is two games behind Rice and UAB and travels to USF this week.

SILVER GLOVE SERIES: The Rice-Houston series was branded the Silver Glove Series in 1998, and the schools have played the series in each season since (other than the 2020 and 2021 seasons that were impacted by the pandemic). Houston won the inaugural game on Feb. 11, 1998, as the Cougars broke a 6-6 tie with two runs in the seventh and held off a late charge by the fourth-ranked Owls to win 8-7. Rice came back to win the final three games to bring the Silver Glove South Main. Rice won the annual series again in 1999, and after Houston took two-of-three in 2000, the Owls held the trophy from 2001-13. Houston has won eight of the last 10 series, including the last four in a row. Rice leads the overall Silver Glove series 60-42 and the series of games at Reckling Park, 32-17. The Owls also lead the series at Houston, 27-20, while the Cougars took five of six games played at Constellation Field in Sugar Land.

ROAD WORK: With their two wins in Greenville over the weekend, Rice improved to 13-10 in road games this season, the most for any team in the American Conference and the most by the Owls since they finished the 2017 season 13-12. Rice had not reached double figures in wins in the last seven full seasons. The last time the Owls won more than 14 games on the road was in 2015 (14-6).

WINNING PACE: With a 31-21 record heading into the final four games of the regular season, Rice has seen a 14-win improvement from its final win total in 2025. The 14-game jump is the largest since David Hall led Rice to a 20-game improvement in his first season on South Main, as the Owls won 34 games. The 31 wins are the Owls' most since they ended 2017 with a 33-31 record. That season, Rice closed the regular season 27-29 before winning the Conference USA Championship and winning twice at the Baton Rouge Regional. Rice last ended a regular season over .500 in 2016 (32-20). Rice's 5-3 win at East Carolina on Saturday moved the Owls 11 games over .500 for the second time this season, their highest margin over .500 since the end of the 2016 season (38-24).

NOTHING NEW: Rice's 14-game improvement in David Pierce's first full season as head coach is the largest in his first season at any of his four head coaching assignments. In 2012, he led a 35-win Sam Houston squad to 40 wins (+5). Four years later, he guided Tulane to a 12-game improvement and then, in 2017, led Texas to a 13-game increase in wins.

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