Owls Slam Owls on Savery HR in Ninth, 4-2
By Mark Anderson
The Rice Owls, who came in at 6-4, showed the upstart Florida Atlantic Owls (whose record was 9-0) whose nest they were in as they came back in the ninth inning to win over the Florida Atlantic Owls by a score of 4-2.
Pitcher Chris Kelly started off the game hot. Block had a 3-2 count on him before he even swung the bat, fouled off a few, then was frozen on a Kelly delivery for strike three. Bombeck followed it with a deep fly to right, but Widlansky worked a two out walk. But McKenna hit a soft fly to Henley to end the inning.
Things got rolling for Rice in the second inning when Luna doubled to right to open the inning. Buenger grounded out to second, moving Luna to third and bringing up Diego Seastrunk. But the real adventure happened on a 1-1 count. “I missed the signal actually,” Seastrunk confessed after the ballgame. “I missed the squeeze bunt and Coach Graham called me over. . . He told me to hit the ball hard.”
Diego did hit it hard—right over the blue Raymond James sign for a homerun to put Rice up, 2-0.
In the sixth, Florida Atlantic creeped back into the game when Widlansky doubled to left with one out. He moved to third on a wild pitch by Kelly, and scored as McKenena grounded out to Friday at short to make the score 2-1.
Florida Atlantic tied it in the seventh when Cook led off with a single, and Martin followed with another single. With Bramhall replacing Kelly on the mound, Ferreria then did his best impersonation of the 1975 Red Sox-Reds bunt and ran into the catcher. Home plate umpire Greg Oros ruled Ferreria out on interference, and the runner could not score from third. Ararta then hit the ball sharply to Seastrunk, who started what looked like a double play, only to be ruled safe at first with Cook scoring the tying run.
The bottom of the ninth may well be remembered as the inning that got the Owls rolling this season. Henley doubled off the second base bag and bounced away. After failing to sacrifice Henley over, Friday struck out. Henley advanced to third when Salberg committed an error. With the squeeze on, Dodson missed with the bunt, and it hung Henley out to dry (which would have been a good thing at that point considering the rain falling). Henley was tagged out. That left Dodson wearing the goat horns—but not for long. He doubled down the right field line to bring up Joe Savery.
Everyone in Rice Owl country knows the struggles Joe Savery has had this early part of the year. Well, on a 2-1 count, Savery swung—and the crowd rose to their feet as the ball began rising and carried over centerfield for a two-run homer to win the game.
So how did Savery come through?
“Just relaxing,” Savery said after the ballgame. “We had a tough time. We’re just not very good at situational hitting right now. We mess up a squeeze, Tyler had a lead-off triple and we didn’t get him in. It’s one of those things. As bad as it was going, you’re probably going to fail anyway, so why not relax?”
But Joe knew one thing in that at-bat that made the difference tonight. “I knew what he wanted to give me, and that was his curve ball,” Joe told the blog. “So I was looking for that and got one.”
Joe got it all right—and sent that baby packing.
It was a great team win for the Rice Owls on Friday night at Reckling. The Owls--weather permitting—face the Nebraska Cornhuskers tomorrow at 1:00pm. Berry-mania continues tomorrow as Ryan Berry takes the hill against Charlie Shirek of the Huskers.
The Rice Owls, who came in at 6-4, showed the upstart Florida Atlantic Owls (whose record was 9-0) whose nest they were in as they came back in the ninth inning to win over the Florida Atlantic Owls by a score of 4-2.
Pitcher Chris Kelly started off the game hot. Block had a 3-2 count on him before he even swung the bat, fouled off a few, then was frozen on a Kelly delivery for strike three. Bombeck followed it with a deep fly to right, but Widlansky worked a two out walk. But McKenna hit a soft fly to Henley to end the inning.
Things got rolling for Rice in the second inning when Luna doubled to right to open the inning. Buenger grounded out to second, moving Luna to third and bringing up Diego Seastrunk. But the real adventure happened on a 1-1 count. “I missed the signal actually,” Seastrunk confessed after the ballgame. “I missed the squeeze bunt and Coach Graham called me over. . . He told me to hit the ball hard.”
Diego did hit it hard—right over the blue Raymond James sign for a homerun to put Rice up, 2-0.
In the sixth, Florida Atlantic creeped back into the game when Widlansky doubled to left with one out. He moved to third on a wild pitch by Kelly, and scored as McKenena grounded out to Friday at short to make the score 2-1.
Florida Atlantic tied it in the seventh when Cook led off with a single, and Martin followed with another single. With Bramhall replacing Kelly on the mound, Ferreria then did his best impersonation of the 1975 Red Sox-Reds bunt and ran into the catcher. Home plate umpire Greg Oros ruled Ferreria out on interference, and the runner could not score from third. Ararta then hit the ball sharply to Seastrunk, who started what looked like a double play, only to be ruled safe at first with Cook scoring the tying run.
The bottom of the ninth may well be remembered as the inning that got the Owls rolling this season. Henley doubled off the second base bag and bounced away. After failing to sacrifice Henley over, Friday struck out. Henley advanced to third when Salberg committed an error. With the squeeze on, Dodson missed with the bunt, and it hung Henley out to dry (which would have been a good thing at that point considering the rain falling). Henley was tagged out. That left Dodson wearing the goat horns—but not for long. He doubled down the right field line to bring up Joe Savery.
Everyone in Rice Owl country knows the struggles Joe Savery has had this early part of the year. Well, on a 2-1 count, Savery swung—and the crowd rose to their feet as the ball began rising and carried over centerfield for a two-run homer to win the game.
So how did Savery come through?
“Just relaxing,” Savery said after the ballgame. “We had a tough time. We’re just not very good at situational hitting right now. We mess up a squeeze, Tyler had a lead-off triple and we didn’t get him in. It’s one of those things. As bad as it was going, you’re probably going to fail anyway, so why not relax?”
But Joe knew one thing in that at-bat that made the difference tonight. “I knew what he wanted to give me, and that was his curve ball,” Joe told the blog. “So I was looking for that and got one.”
Joe got it all right—and sent that baby packing.
It was a great team win for the Rice Owls on Friday night at Reckling. The Owls--weather permitting—face the Nebraska Cornhuskers tomorrow at 1:00pm. Berry-mania continues tomorrow as Ryan Berry takes the hill against Charlie Shirek of the Huskers.
posted by my kid's sports pics at 7:26 PM
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