PICS FROM FRIDAY AGAINST MARSHALL

OWLS BERRY DOMINATING

First Complete Game Leads the Way

By Mark Anderson

Ryan Berry gave up only five hits and a run as the Rice Owls completely dominated Marshall on Friday by a score of 13-1.

How dominating was Berry?

When was the last time that an Owl pitched a complete game? (Answer: June 3, 2005 when Josh Geer pitched a complete game vs. Northwest State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.)

The other clue as to how dominating Berry was on Friday was Coach Graham never even made a trip to the mound. That’s right—not even one.

Berry, however, wasn’t satisfied. “I could have done better.” When asked how, he pointed to the loss of a shutout and an elevated fastball in the ninth.

Meanwhile, the Owl offense had a walk in the park—so to speak. Marshall pitching gave up ten walks while collecting sixteen hits and a hit batter to boot. Joe Savery raised his average to .367 with four hits that drove in three runs. Diego Seastrunk, Danny Lehmann, and Brian Friday also had three hits each.

The Owl offense got rolling in the third inning—literally and otherwise. Brian Friday led off with a humpback one hopper that hit the edge of the infield and then rolled harmlessly just beyond the dirt for a hit. Gahart followed with a seeing eye single, and Dodson’s sacrifice moved them up. Savery’s single brought in Friday with the first run, and Henley walked. With the bases loaded, Lehmann laid down a perfect bunt to bring in another run. Seastrunk followed with an RBI single to make the score 4-0.

The fourth inning, the offense got rolling again, this time with a runner on and two outs. With Brian Friday on second after a one out double and two outs, Dodson drove in Friday with a two-out single, and moved up on the throw home. Savery then followed that with an RBI single of his own, and the Owls had a comfortable 6-0 lead. The Owls missed a chance to add more runs when they left the bases load, but with Ryan Berry cruising at this point, seemed to have the game in hand.

In the eighth inning, Chad Lemback had come on to replace Gayhart. Talk about timing! Shortstop Brandon Casamassima (you pronounce it, I’m not going to) hit a rocket to right field that seemed to be over Lembeck’s head. Lembeck made a leaping grab of the ball, but wasn’t finished yet. After Sanders singled to right—the first hit off of Berry since the third inning, Marshall sent up pinch hitter Chris Peak. Peak should have kept his seat on the bench—and Sanders shouldn’t have wandered off of first. Peak hit a rope to right that Lembeck caught charging in, then threw to Savery to double off Sanders.

Gametime today is 3:00. Rice has not announced their starter, so come out to the ball park and find out first hand!

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More From Saturday's Cal Poly Game

Matt Langwell reaches back.....
And he fires a pitch in the fourth inning.
Joe Savery also had fun with the high sky while catching this foul pop-up.

Fair or Foul?

This bunt by Diego Seastrunk rolled down the third base line. . .
Matt Leonard gets an up-close look as it keeps rolling. . .
Suddenly, the ball rolled literally down the line. . . .
But then took an abrupt turn into foul territory for a harmless foul ball.

Pics From Satuday's Game vs. Cal Poly

This pitch was at the knees, but look at his right knee--it was inside for ball four.
Friday tried to break up this double play unsucessfully, one of three in the first 5 innnings by Cal Poly.
Catcher Joshua Thomas throws to first after a pitchout to try and pick off Brian Friday.
No, Joshua, the game isn't leapfrog--it's baseball.
Brian Friday fights a high Texas sky while catching this pop-up.

OWLS RALLY AGAIN, DEFEAT CAL POLY

Two out seventh inning rally propels Rice to victory

By Mark Anderson

The Rice Owls rallied with two outs in the seventh inning to take the lead and eventually the game from the Cal Poly Mustangs.

Rice and Cal Poly were tied at 2 runs each when, with one out, Brian Friday singled. With pinch-hitter Jared Gayhart at the plate, Friday attempted to steal second, but was thrown out. End of any rally, right?

Wrong.

Gayhart then followed with a single of his own, and took second on a wild pitch. Lehmann and Luna both walked, bringing up Jordan Dodson, last week’s tournament MVP. Dodson’s single scored Gayhart to break the tie game and give the Owls a 3-2 lead. Adam Zornes followed with a single to right, scoring Lehmann and Luna. The rally ended when Joe Savery hit into a force play, but the Owls had a 5-2 lead.

Coach Graham brought in Bobby Bramhall for Matt Langwell at this point, and Bramhall shut down the Mustangs, yielding only a hit. Langwell pitched well, giving up a grand total of 4 hits and 2 walks in 7 innings.

In the bottom of the eighth, the rally continued as Henley led off with a bunt single. Diego Seastrunk laid down a sacrifice to move Henley to second, and Brian Friday continued with his torrid hitting by driving in Henley with a double down the line in right. After Gayhart struck out swinging, Lehmann laced a single to right that scored Friday. That made the score 7-2, and Bobby Bramhall gave up a single but no more in the ninth to notch his second save of the year.

The Owls go for the sweep tomorrow with Joe Savery taking the hill for the Owls. Start time is at noon.

Pictures to be posted Sunday.

MARCH MADNESS AT THE RECK!
Luna’s double sends Owls to victory

By Mark Anderson

For those who thought March Madness was about basketball, they were not at the game between Cal Poly and Rice at Reckling Field on Friday. Tyler Henley summed it up well when he said, “It was a hard-fought game. Whoever was going to win that game was going to be extremely happy because of how hard they fought, and whoever lost was going to be really upset because of how hard they fought.”

This game had all the elements of March Madness. It had players making great plays. It had coaches getting upset with calls. It had all the elements of two teams fighting it out hard for the win at the buzzer, as witnessed by squeeze plays (2 in the same game by the same team), some arguing over calls, pitchers getting into jams, you fill in the blank, this game had it.

For instance, Cal Poly loaded the bases with two outs against Ryan Berry. But Smith ended up striking out to end the threat. Rice then countered that threat by scoring a run in the second as Danny Lehmann scored on Jared Gayhart’s sacrifice fly to put the Owls up, 1-0.

Rice would extend that lead to 2-0 in the fourth when Savery led off with aq single but was erased on a fielder’s choice as Luna was safe at first on the double play attempt. Lehmann grounded out to short, but Luna advanced on the throw to second. Gayhart followed with an RBI single that scored Luna.

In the fifth, Jess Buenger led off with a triple to right-center, and Brian Friday followed that with an RBI single to center. After Friday stole second base, Henley singled up the middle to score Friday and give the Owls a seemingly safe 4-0 lead, with Ryan Berry cruising along at that point.

Not so fast there, pilgrim.

Beginning with the top of the 6th, the Mustangs began to climb back in the game. During Brent Morel’s at-bat, he swung and missed at a curve from Berry—and dislocated his shoulder in the process. Rick Morel just happened to be standing beside me, and he explained that Brent had been out two weeks because of that shoulder. Well, Brent, much to the surprise of many, didn’t come out of the game, and then sent a Ryan Berry fastball over the left field wall for the Mustangs first run.

Berry got out of the inning without any further damage, but his night was finished. When asked about Berry’s performance after the game, Coach Graham said, “Well, Ryan really wasn’t on, but he had enough moxy to pitch a good ball game anyway.” Scott Longeran came on in the seventh. Longeran, who was spectacular last weekend, was greeted rudely with three hits—one of them being a two-run homer by Desme, making the score 4-3.

But then in the top of the eighth, Cal Poly rallied to give the Mustangs the lead. Kepner singled to right, and Pezet was hit by a pitch. When Thomas laid down a sacrifice, Tacker’s throwing error opened the floodgates as Kepner scored. Melker flied out to right on a spectacular catch by Gayhart. Smith then laid down a perfect suicide squeeze to score Pezet. Schafer tripled to right to score both Smith and Thomas. That would be all the Mustangs would get in the eighth, but it put them ahead by a score of 7-4.

But the Owls answered in the bottom of the eighth as Henley was hit by a pitch. Savery struck out and Luna grounded to second, sending Henley to second and bringing up Lehmann, who doubled and drove in Henley. Dodson singled up the middle to score Lehmann and make the score 7-6.

Cal Poly replied with a run of their own in the ninth. With Kyle Gunderson pitching, Kepner drew a walk and the ire of the Rice bench, particularly Coach Pierce, who, after getting tossed, gave the umpires quite an earful. With Yoder running for Kepler, he took second on a wild pitch and third on a steal. With Thomas at the plate with one out, Cal Poly elected to go with another suicide squeeze—and scored as it was perfectly executed to give the Mustangs an 8-6 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.

Derek Myers led off the top of the ninth against hard-throwing Evan Reed by drawing a walk. Brian Friday followed with a single to center. Tyler Henley then stepped to the plate and delivered an RBI single to the right side, bringing Rice within a run and putting the tying run on third. Joe Savery then stepped up. What was Joe thinking as he stepped up? “Don’t strike out,” he said after the ballgame, with a smile on his face and his nephew in his arms. Joe didn’t strike out—he delivered a game-tying sacrifice fly to score Friday from third. That brought up Aaron Luna, who doubled to right, and brought in Henley with the winning run.

Saturday’s 2:00 game features Matt Langwell starting for the Owls against the Mustangs.

Note: I will fill in pictures on Sunday.

AWAKENING

By Mark Anderson

On February 23rd, it was a cold, wet evening as the Owls played Florida Atlantic. But the folks in the stands weren’t the only ones cold at the time. The Owls were 6-4, and the ninth inning didn’t look very promising with the home team down. That’s when Joe Savery stepped to the plate and delivered one of the biggest hits of the season to give the Owls the win that night.

The Owl bats have had an awakening ever since.

Take Savery as the prime example. Coming into that game against Florida Atlantic, he was batting .171, with only 6 hits and 4 RBIs. Starting with the Florida Atlantic game, Savery has hit at a .465 clip. This is his stat line beginning on February 23 through today:

AB: 43 R: 8 H: 20 2B: 5 3B: 1 HR: 0 RBI: 12 AVE.: 465

Now that’s what’s referred to as an awakening!

But Savery’s bat wasn’t the only one in the doldrums. Aaron Luna was struggling as well at the time, hitting .181 with 2 HR. His stats starting February 23rd read this way:

AB: 43 R: 13 H: 15 2B: 4 3B:1 HR: 2 RBI: 12 AVE.: .348

That’s what you would call an awakening as well.

Brian Friday’s bat since that day has also been on a tear of its’ own. Brian was clearly struggling early in the season, and brought a .189 average with no RBI’s into that February 23rd game. But beginning there, here are his stats:

AB: 45 R: 10 H: 15 2B: 6 3B: 0 HR: 1 RBI 9 AVE. .333

Clearly, the All-American shortstop has found his stroke. The quickest bat of the team has begun to produce and live up to expectations.

Diego Seastrunk wasn’t setting the world on fire coming into that game, either. He had 3 hits in 17 at-bats for a Mendoza-like .176. Look at his statistics beginning with that same game:

AB: 41 R: 9 H: 16 2B: 4 3B: 0 HR: 1 RBI: 9 AVE.: .390

While I was unable to obtain Jordan Dodson’s stats going into that same game, he clearly is on the warpath himself with a very hot bat. He homered twice against A & M—CC when the Owl offense exploded. He’s also coming off a weekend where he was named the MVP of the Whataburger Classic.

And Coach Graham turned into somewhat of a prophet himself as he reminded the blog that day, “There are entire months that Barry Bonds and Lance Berkman didn’t get a hit.” He also looked with a twinkle in his eye as he referred to the Owls’ lack of hitting and said, “They’ll hit.”

Yea, Coach—they’re hitting. And when these guys hit, great things happen. Their record since then is 8-3.

Here’s hoping those smoking hot bats continue to smack the baseball around the Reck today as Rice (14-7) takes on Cal Poly this weekend.

PROBABLE Weekend Rotation for Rice:
FRIDAY: Ryan Berry
SATURDAY: Matt Langwell
SUNDAY: Joe Savery