Baseball blasts No. 8 Texas A&M on road

By Jessica Cannon     4/17/08 7:00pm

The baseball team's accomplishments this past weekend surely kept fans' hearts pounding from beginning to end, although not all of the drama was on the field. No. 11 Rice (28-10, 10-2 Conference USA) almost dropped two games to the University of Alabama-Birmingham after holding substantial leads, but was saved by late-game heroics both times. The series with the Blazers (14-21, 1-8 C-USA), the worst team in the conference, also brought the return of junior reliever Bobby Bell, who took the mound for the first time since Feb. 2007 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Rounding out the week's action, the Owls took down No. 8 Texas A&M University 11-2 in College Station. Off the field, senior starter Cole St. Clair was honored at the senior athletics award banquet with the annual Bob Quin Award, the highest athletic honor for a male Rice athlete.

However, the drama from last weekend may not yet be over. This weekend, Rice faces possibly its toughest conference test this year, a three-game series with 24th-ranked East Carolina University that starts tonight at Reckling Park at 6:30 p.m. The Pirates (26-10, 8-4 C-USA) have the sixth highest RPI in college baseball to go along with a fearsome offense: Nine players are batting over .300 and the team has a combined total of 53 homers. The final two games will be Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.

While the Pirates are nearly at the top of the conference standings, the Blazers are sitting at the bottom of the pack. Rice took full advantage of their opponents' obvious struggles early on Friday, racking up an eleven run lead with the help of a solo home run by senior first baseman J. P. Padron and a three-run blast by junior catcher Adam Zornes.

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But plans quickly went awry, as the Blazers came back and tied the game with 10 unanswered runs.

Fortunately for the Owls, freshman outfielder Chad Mozingo displayed some late-game theatrics to save the game. With the bases juiced in the bottom of the eighth inning, Mozingo hit a go-ahead single put the Owls ahead by the eventual game-winning score of 13-11.

The next day, Rice checked the drama at the door, winning 11-4 behind a good start by senior pitcher Chris Kelley and an excellent relief outing by junior Bryan Price, who hurled five strikeouts in 1.2 innings. Freshman designated hitter Doug Simmons hit his first career homer, and Bell made his first appearance in relief this season, pitching a scoreless ninth inning.

Completing the sweep of the Blazers proved to be challenging, however, as the Owls had to go into extra innings to pull out a victory on Sunday. Tied 8-8 after nine frames, St. Clair came into the game and kept the Blazers' bats quiet in the top of the tenth inning. In the bottom of the tenth, UAB relievers walked three consecutive batters, and Seastrunk smashed a grand slam to left field for the walk off 12-8 win.

"I just wanted to get the guy home," Seastrunk said. "I was fortunate the wind was blowing out, and I got it up in that jet stream."

Later Sunday night, St.Clair was honored with the Bob Quin Award for the most outstanding male athlete at Rice. St.Clair is the first baseball player to win the award since 1983, and the first during head coach Wayne Graham's tenure.

Despite some rumors in the air, St.Clair said he had no idea what was in store at the senior awards banquet.

"I was shocked, really," he said. "I was completely surprised. It's an honor to get that award."

Graham agreed with St.Clair's assessment of the award.

"One thing that happens with baseball players is that that they're limited in their other activities by the fact that we play 56 games, so they don't get out as much as they could," Graham said. "Well, Cole has done everything well. He's a good person on campus. He's a great pitcher that came back from injuries. I think he's a great choice, and it's a great thing for baseball and for Cole."

Rice hit the road on Tuesday, facing a Texas A&M squad that had won thirteen games in a row. After going ahead 4-1 early, Rice broke out in the fifth inning to put a five-spot on the board on a pair of singles from Zornes and senior designated hitter Derek Myers. The Aggies could not make up the deficit, and the Owls cruised to an easy win.

While the Pirates are at the top of the conference standings, the Blazers are sitting at the bottom of the pack. Rice took full advantage of their opponents' obvious struggles early, racking up an eleven run lead, including a solo home run by senior first baseman J. P. Padron and a three-run blast by junior catcher Adam Zornes.

But plans quickly went awry, as the Blazers came back and tied the game with 10 unanswered runs.

Fortunately for the Owls, Mozingo displayed some late-game theatrics to save the game. With the bases juiced in the bottom of the eighth inning, Mozingo hit a go-ahead single to allow the Owls to pull ahead and eventually win 13-11.

The next day, Rice went without the drama, winning 11-4 behind a good start by senior pitcher Chris Kelley and an excellent relief outing by junior Bryan Price, who hurled five strikeouts in 1.2 innings. Freshman designated hitter Doug Simmons hit his first career homer, and Bell made his first appearance in relief this season, pitching a scoreless ninth inning.

Completing the sweep of the Blazers proved to be challenging, however, as the Owls had to go into extra innings to pull out a victory. Tied 8-8 after nine frames, St. Clair came into the game and kept the Blazers' bats quiet in the top of the tenth inning. In the bottom of the tenth, UAB relievers walked three consecutive batters, and Seastrunk smashed a grand slam to left field to win in walk off fashion 12-8.

"I just wanted to get the guy home," Seastrunk said. "I was fortunate the wind was blowing out, and I got it up in that jet stream."

Later Sunday night, St. Clair was honored with the Bob Quin Award for the most outstanding male athlete at Rice. St. Clair is the first baseball player to win the award since 1983, and the first during since head coach Wayne Graham has helmed the team.

Despite some rumors in the air, St. Clair said he had no idea what was in store at the senior awards banquet.

"I was shocked, really," he said. "I was completely surprised. It's an honor to get that award."

Graham agreed with St. Clair's assessment of the award.

"One thing that happens with baseball players is that that they're limited in their other activities by the fact that we play 56 games, so they don't get out as much as they could," Graham said. "Well, Cole has done everything well. He's a good person on campus. He's a great pitcher that came back from injuries. I think he's a great choice, and it's a great thing for baseball and for Cole."

Rice hit the road on Tuesday, facing a Texas A&M squad that had won thirteen games in a row. After going ahead 4-1 early, Rice broke out in the fifth inning to put a five-spot on the board on a pair of singles from Zornes and senior designated hitter Derek Myers. While the Pirates are nearly at the top of the conference standings, the Blazers are sitting at the bottom of the pack. Rice took full advantage of their opponents' obvious struggles early on Friday, racking up an eleven run lead with the help of a solo home run by senior first baseman J. P. Padron and a three-run blast by junior catcher Adam Zornes.

But plans quickly went awry, as the Blazers came back and tied the game with 10 unanswered runs.

Fortunately for the Owls, freshman outfielder Chad Mozingo displayed some late-game theatrics to save the game. With the bases juiced in the bottom of the eighth inning, Mozingo hit a go-ahead single to put the Owls ahead by the eventual game-winning score of 13-11.

The next day, Rice checked the drama at the door, winning 11-4 behind a good start by senior pitcher Chris Kelley and an excellent relief outing by junior Bryan Price, who hurled five strikeouts in 1.2 innings. Freshman designated hitter Doug Simmons hit his first career homer, and Bell made his first appearance in relief this season, pitching a scoreless ninth inning.

Completing the sweep of the Blazers proved to be challenging, however, as the Owls had to go into extra innings to pull out a victory on Sunday. Tied 8-8 after nine frames, St.Clair came into the game and kept the Blazers' bats quiet in the top of the tenth inning. In the bottom of the tenth, UAB relievers walked three consecutive batters, and Seastrunk smashed a grand slam to left field for the walk off 12-8 win.

"I just wanted to get the guy home," Seastrunk said. "I was fortunate the wind was blowing out, and I got it up in that jet stream."

Later Sunday night, St.Clair was honored with the Bob Quin Award for the most outstanding male athlete at Rice. St.Clair is the first baseball player to win the award since 1983, and the first during head coach Wayne Graham's tenure.

Despite some rumors in the air, St.Clair said he had no idea what was in store at the senior awards banquet.

"I was shocked, really," he said. "I was completely surprised. It's an honor to get that award."

Graham agreed with St.Clair's assessment of the award.

"One thing that happens with baseball players is that that they're limited in their other activities by the fact that we play 56 games, so they don't get out as much as they could,"Graham said. "Well, Cole has done everything well. He's a good person on campus. He's a great pitcher that came back from injuries. I think he's a great choice, and it's a great thing for baseball and for Cole."

Rice hit the road on Tuesday, facing a Texas A&M squad that had won thirteen games in a row. After going ahead 4-1 early, Rice broke out in the fifth inning to put a five-spot on the board on a pair of singles from Zornes and senior designated hitter Derek Myers. The Aggies could not make up the deficit, and the Owls cruised to an easy win.

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