Owls Rally Shocks Wichita State

Thursday, May 21

Clearwater, Florida

Noon

Rice University

35-22

Wichita State

29-28

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Wichita State	0	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	4	13	1
Rice	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	5	12	1

Photo by: American Athletic Conference/Ben Soloman

5/21/2026 6:03:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Two-run ninth inning

By: Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu)

Clearwater, FL: Rice rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth to stun Wichita State and take a 5-4 win in the Owls' opening game of the 2026 American Conference Baseball Championship on Thursday.

How it Happened: After driving in two of the Owls' three earlier runs with a double and single, Kutter-Gage Webb set the stage for the rally by cutting down the Shockers' pinch runner, Anthony Cepeda, at the plate to end the top of the ninth. Cepeda was attempting to score on a double by Nolan Ganter, but leftfielder Jacob Devenny retrieved the ball and threw to Webb, who relayed the ball to catcher Lorenzo Rios. Webb then led off the bottom of the ninth for Rice and slammed a 2-2 pitch from losing pitcher Brady Hamilton 407 feet to tie the game 4-4. Devenny then followed a single, and he moved to second when Cole Green reached on a bunt single. Rios, who had driven in the Owls' second run earlier, fouled off his first attempt to move Devenny and Green up a base and then bunted the next pitch up the third base line, where Hamilton threw wildly to bring home Devenny with the winning run. Zachary Fetchel worked the final two innings to earn the first win of his collegiate career.
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Next Up: Rice will be back at BayCare Ballpark bright and early on Friday, facing second-seeded East Carolina at 9 a.m. Ethan Sanders is set to start for the Owls, and he will face ECU's Ryan Towers. The winner of that game will advance to the winner's bracket game on Saturday at 9 a.m., while the loser will play again at 4:30 on Friday in an elimination game against the loser of Thursday's Memphis-UAB game.

Notes

Rice improved to 35-22 and won for the 10th time in the last 12 games.
The Owls won an opening game in a conference tournament for the first time since a 6-3 win over Louisiana Tech at the 2018 Conference USA Championship.
Rice improved to 2-4 all-time at the American Conference championship.
After going over three years without a win when trailing after eight innings, the Owls have won four times this year, including three times in their last six wins (at ECU on 5/8; vs. Tulane on 5/16; vs. Wichita State 5/21).
Rice improved to 12-2 in one-run games.
Webb drove in three runs for the third time in his career and is second on the team with 10 multi-RBI games.