Faces

J.P. sported aninteresting look.
Aaron Luna and J.P. talk it over in the on-deck circle late in the game.

Finally, we see Jordan's eyes!
The three amigos (Berry, Sestrunk, and Luna) look on from the dugout.

Pics From Rice OU

Zornes home run sent a resounding "gong" through the ballpark.
A smiling Zornes is greeted by teammates after being on the Gong Show.

Diego Seastrunk lays it down.
Lucas Luetge kept the Sooners off the board and impressed Coach Graham with his effort.












Ry-an Ber-ry can F-I-E-L-D his position, snagging this one bare-handed.
Hague gets ready to slide in his attempt to steal second.
Hague slides right into the throw.

Coach Graham heads back to the dugout after talking with Berry and Zornes.
Ber-ry labored in the foutrh inning, and it showed when he came off the field.
Dodson lays one down.
This throw by Wise didn't catch Jimmy Baseball as he stole second base.
Jimmy Baseball hit the ball hard against the Sooners.
Two centerfielders stare eacdh other down as Mozingo arrives at second.
Aaron Luna singles to drive in the seventh run iof the day in the ninth inning.

Owls Leap Over Sooners
By Mark Anderson

(Feb.29, Houston) The Rice Owls jumped all over Andrew Doyle as they scored three runs in the third inning to take an early lead hat was never relinquished.

The fun began with two outs when Jimmy “Baseball” Commerota singled, and then stole second. Jared Gayhart walked, putting runners at first and second,. Mozingo singled for the second time in three innings to right, and Commerota came in to score. But right fielder Casey Johnson tried to get Gayhat going to third, and overthrew former Owl Trey Sperring to score Gayhart and move Mozingo to second. Seastrunk then hit a seeing-eye single right up the middle to score Mozingo and make the score 3-0, Owls.

Meanwhile, Ry-an Ber-ry was mowing them down the Sooners. Six of the first nine outs came on groundouts. Coach Graham said after the game that Berry’s fastball was hitting 93 on the radar gun, “and he should have used it more.”

The Owls added another run in the fourth when Luna reached first on an error by pitcher Andrew Doyle. Padron followed with a single to left, and then Rick Hague laid down what was intended to be a sacrifice bunt, only Luna ended up being out at third. Adam Zornes then reached by catcher’s interference. Dodson got an RBI on a groundout from second to short that scored Padron. Dodson stole second, but Commerota grounded out to end the inning with the Owls apparently on cruise control by ascore of 4-0.

Ry-an Ber-ry had been cruising to this point, but in the fourth inning, the Sooners tried to knock the wheels off of the car. After a strikeout to open the inning, Selby singled, followed by Wise singling and Harughty singled again to load the basesWise scored. Ber-ry then walked Johnson to plate Oklahoma’s first run. Sperring struck out for out number two, bringing up pinch hitter Mike Gosse, who struck out—but the ball got away from Zornes, and J.T. Wise scored from third. Ber-ry got his fourth strikeout of the inning as Jamie Johnson struck out to end the inning, but the Sooners jumped back into the game by a score of 4-2.

In the sixth inning, Chad Mozingo doubled to left-center with one out, moved to third on a passed ball, and scored as Seastruck grounded to second to get the run in and put Rice up 5-2.

As the innings moved on, Berry knew he had to stay in as long as possible to spell the bullpen from Wednesday’s game. When Grahan removed him for Lucas Luetge after 6 2/3 innings, Berry had given up six hits, but had kept the Sooners at bay.

Adam Zornes put the game on ice for the Owls in the eighth when he stepped to the plate and crushed a pitch that hit metal and a resounding “gong” was heard throughout Minute Maid Park. Luetge closed the door for the Owls, allowing no hits over the final 2 1/3 innings. Graham praised Luetge’s effort, acknowledging that it was important for Lucas and for the Owls.

Tomorrow night at 7 pm Rice takes on Texas, with Cole St. Clair taking the hill for Rice.

Minute Maid Schedule for 2008

Friday, February 29
Noon - Oklahoma vs. Rice
3:30 pm - Texas Tech vs. Houston
7:00 pm - Texas vs. Tennessee

Saturday, March 1
Noon - Oklahoma vs. Houston
3:30 pm - Texas Tech vs. Tennessee
7:00 pm - Texas vs. Rice

Sunday, March 2
11:00 am - Oklahoma vs. Tennessee
2:30 pm - Texas Tech vs. Rice
6:00 pm - Texas vs. Houston

The Blog wil be there defintely for the first two games, and probably the Sunday game as well. Look for coverage, pics, and interviews here.

Long Beach State University pics

Recognize the face on the left? That's Wayne Graham's 2006 Friday Night Special, Eddie Degerman, with his brother on the right. (Photo by Mike Ross.


Chad Mozingo loosens up. (Photo by Mike Ross)
Chad Mozingo and J.P. Padron tried to heat up the bats, but to no avail on this night. (Photo by Mike Ross)
The Owl dugout was into the game, cheering on their team. (Photo by Mike Ross)

Pics From Long Beach State

Mike Ross answered the Blog's call to send in some pictures from the Long Beach series. These pics come from Friday night. Mike, sorry I couldn't get them posted sooner. I truly appreciate what you went through to get the pictures.

Two Ryan Berry pitches: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=486142009003336187http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5357899170314559610andhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8677555569909032528Mike has three short videos from last Friday as well.

Pictures coming soon. . . .

See Joe Savery's Smiling Face Again

http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/media/player/mp_tpl.jsp?racking_var=external&catCode=gen_video&w_id=611544&w=mms%3A//a1503.v108692.c10869.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1503/10869/v0001/mlb.download.akamai.com/10869/2008/open/teams08/phi/video/021408_phi_savery_blog_400.wmv&pid=gen_video&vid=1&mid=200802142374018&cid=mlb&fid=gen_video400&v=2&mType=w&type=v_free&_mp=1

Check out our "old" friend Joe Savery at the Phillies' major league camp by clicking the link above! Enjoy!

Just Another Day in Paradise.....

All-American Cole St. Clair, Adam Zornes, Jared Gayhart, Matt LAngwell, andone other Owlshare moments of camradrarie in the dugout after the scrimmage.

Adam Zornes holds court.
Derek Myers and Jimmy "baseball" Comerota talk after the scrimmage.
Sunset over paradise.

Another Day in Paradise. . . .

This swing of Chad Mozingo look familiar?
Zach Harwell delivers.
Rick Hague takes his cuts.
Jordan ripped this pitch. . . .but foul.

More pics from paradise

Tinsley pops up to fire to second base. . . .and then watches as the runner is tagged out.


Is this a new dance at home plate with the umpire?
Here's all 6'8" and 280 pounds of Andy Hamilton coming at home plate. Wanna bat?
Doug Simmons heads for home after "Simmonzing" a pitch over the right field wall.

"Just Another Day in Paradise"

Matt Langwell delivers in the first innning.



Yes, Hamilton is THAT big.
DeBiasse and Gonzalez tangle at first--go figure.














Ry-an Ber-ry tries his hand as a first base ump. Look at the green field behind him!

by Mark Anderson

Those were Wayne Graham's words as he exited the field after the Blue-Grey Scrimmage this afternoon. Normally, I try and give a play by play, but will leave that for others on different message boards. But there were some things that deserve some notice:

• Matt Langwell looked ready to start the season, havingthe best oputing of all the pitchers;


• Andy Hamilton shut out the Blue team while he was on the mound. He constantly had runners on, but would settle down to wiggle out of the inning. When he gets to 100%, this kid is going to be scary good.


• Travis Wright had the roughest outing of all the pitchers, having one of his pitches "Simmonized" by Doug Simmons over the 330 sign in right, out of Jordan Dodson's reach.


• Catches John Hale and Garrett Tinsley were very impressive, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Hale framed several pitches well to get the strike call from the umpire, and Tinsley threw out a runner trying to steal and tagged out a runner at home for the last out of another inning. Tinsley's footwork was especially impressive.


• Aaron Luna ripped the cover off of two balls he hit, both going for doubles as I recall.


• Chad Monzingo has to be a body clone of Aaron Luna. Their builds are very similar. He also reminds one of Tyler Henley in centerfield and at the plate.

A Bird's Eye View of the Alumni Game

by Steven Herce
(Special to the BLOG)

Mark Anderson asked me to give an insider’s perspective on the 2008 Rice Baseball Alumni Game. Rather than construct a narrative I thought I’d share a few stories from the day in no particular order. Of course, in keeping with the cloak and dagger clubhouse rules of baseball, the juicy stuff stays at Reckling and the State Grille…

Jon Skaggs and I spent a few hours at Reckling the night before the game setting up the check-in station, organizing the old jerseys our alums wore, dividing up the teams and throwing each other batting practice in the indoor tunnel. I met up with a few guys from my era in the Village for a few beers afterward and had an interesting exchange with Clay Reichenbach.

Reichenbach: “So, are there even going to be enough guys playing to make it a game?”
Herce: “We’ve got about 50 guys that want to play.”
Reichenbach: “I signed up to play but I don’t know. I don’t want to play unless it’s going to be a game.”
Herce: “Just play Reichenbach.”
Reichenbach: “Are any young guys going to play?”
Herce: “(Sigh) Yeah, Reichenbach, there are going to be young guys on the field.”
Reichenbach: “All right, I guess I’ll play. But I might not.”

Reichenbach, for those of you that didn’t attend the game, hit a grand slam. He crossed home plate and changed back into his shorts, done for the day.

As soon as introductions concluded, my four year-old son, Jimmy, and my one-year old son, Teddy, joined me in the dugout. My one year-old has flaming red hair (kind of like mine used to look before I got married and had two kids…). He draws a crowd on account of this and, well, he’s pretty dang cute. Each time one of my fellow alums asked, “Who’s this little guy?” Teddy would grip his shirt and wait for me to say, “Show him your belly button.” A big grin grabbed his face, he pulled up his shirt, and pointed to his belly button. He was a big hit. When he wasn’t flashing belly button he was picking up all the trash on the dugout floor for me to hold. Kids!

Jake Baker, who graduated the year before I matriculated, was catching hell (actually “heck” – those Bakers don’t curse) from his brother-in-law, Lance Berkman. Lance wanted Jake to enter the home run derby. I told Jake it was fine by me but that he would need to recruit another guy from the current team so the teams would be even. I don’t think Jake really wanted to swing in the derby so he just told Lance, “Herce won’t let me.” I reckon the flu dulled Lance’s notorious sense of humor because he looked a little irritated with me. Hey Lance, it’s not my fault Jake was scared of Luna!

Skaggs, Will Ford and I hung around after the game cleaning up the check-in station and throwing each other batting practice in the tunnel. It was so much fun we’re going to talk Coach Graham into letting us host “Batting Practice for Breakfast.” We’ll all get together and take hacks, play ping-pong, shower up in the locker room and head off to work. At least, this is the adrenaline-induced scheme Skaggs and Ford hatched. Those of us with young kids are probably out on this one.

A lot of people asked me why I didn’t toe the rubber. I would say I didn’t want to kill anybody since I haven’t taken the hill since March 2005 but I don’t throw hard enough any more to even hurt anyone, let alone kill a batter. But, ask Skaggs about the round of BP I threw him: down the middle, down the middle, in the dirt, down the middle, down the middle, behind his back, down the middle, at his head, down the middle, a foot outside…

My favorite new alumni friend has got to be Glenn Fuller. Glenn was the, ahem, older gentleman that played 3rd base much of the afternoon. Glenn lost out on first pitch honors to Bob Willard by one year. Glenn graduated in 1950 and came all the way down from Minnesota to play in the Alumni Game. And when I say “play”, I mean PLAY. He was on Coach Prather’s butt from the first pitch wanting to know when he was going to get in. Glenn made a few stabs at 3rd. Here’s hoping I can do anything but get hit in the teeth by a grounder when I’m 80 years old!

Finally, dinner at the State Grille was the most fun I’d had in a long time. True, it was mostly younger alums in attendance, but there was a loud and proud contingent of ‘70’s era players that stayed until all the beer was gone. I might miss a few but Don “Wheels” Loveless, Tom Smart, Bryan Boyne, Ted Nowak, David Ownby, Jeff Hays and Shible “Skate” Simon and their spouses commandeered a corner table and had a great time. Skate is particularly a character. I much enjoyed his stories of being Lebanese in the Southwest Conference in the’70’s.

We had a great time and we hope you did, too.