Late UAB Rally Ends Owls’ Season

Friday, May 22

Reckling Park

4:30 PM

Rice University

35-24

UAB

32-25

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
UAB	1	2	0	0	0	1	1	0	4	9	9	0
Rice	0	1	0	0	0	0	3	2	0	6	8	4

Photo by: American Athletic Conference/Ben Soloman

5/22/2026 9:51:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Finish season 35-24

By: Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu)

Clearwater, FL: Rice roared back from a 5-1 deficit to take a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the eighth only to see UAB respond with a rally of its own as the Blazers ended Rice's season with a 9-6 win on Friday night.

How it Happened: UAB built a 5-1 lead while holding the Owls to just two hits through the top of the seventh, but Rice found its offensive footing with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, drawing to within two runs. Masa Chilcutt started the rally with a pinch-hit single and Hiram Bocachica Jr. followed with a line drive that bounced off the top of the wall in left to score Chilcutt and reach third before umpires ruled the ball a home run. It was what would become the first of numerous long replay delays over the final innings. The play was upheld, and Rice had cut the margin to 5-3. Landon West followed with a pinch-hit single, and Zachary Daigre worked his third walk of the night. Michael Zito delivered the Owls' third pinch hit single of the inning to score West but Daigre was called out attempting to reach third. Another long review confirmed the call, but also confirmed that West had scored before the out was recorded to move Rice to within a run. Brayden Sharp worked around a walk to hold the game at 5-4 in the top of the eighth, setting the stage for the Owls' final power surge of 2026. With one out in the bottom of the eighth, Paul Smith slammed his 13th homer of the year to tie the game, and three pitches later, Garet Boehm drilled his fifth homer over the right field wall to put Rice up by one. But the Blazers had their own response waiting as they scored four times in the top of the ninth to retake the lead for good.

Rice ended the season 35-23, and 18-game improvement over the previous season, and the second largest single-season improvement in program history.

Bixby Family Head Baseball Coach David Pierce: "I just told our assistant coaches, I truly believe this is one of my most enjoyable seasons ever. I just finished my thirty-eighth season, and to watch the transformation of individual players into a team, to guys finding roles and playing (their roles) really well. The work ethic, how hard they worked, how much they loved each other. Every season's tough, but I would not trade this one for anything. It was so memorable, and those kids mean so much to our staff and me because they wanted to be a part of changing the culture, and I think they did an outstanding job. That's as good a transformation as you can have. What they accomplished in a short amount of time is something huge to build on. And they will, they're hungry now, this experience now is going to take us a long way."