Sports Notebook: Baseball beats UT

By Meghan Hall     10/30/08 7:00pm

The baseball team continued their preseason success with a 13-6 home win over the University of Texas last Sunday. Rice has now won all three of its preseason games, having already defeated Texas State University 8-4 at Reckling Park last weekend and UT 13-6 in Austin. The Owls will go for an undefeated preseason when they play McNeese State University tomorrow at Reckling Park. After that game, the team has a break until their first regular season contest at California Polytechnic State University on Feb. 20. Rice was able to showcase several of its new players in the scheduled 14-inning exhibition. Coach Wayne Graham sent eight pitchers to the mound in total- freshman Taylor Wall, junior Ryan Berry, junior Mike Ojala, sophomore Matt Evers, junior Zack Harwood, freshman Andrew Benak, freshman Anthony Fazio and senior Jordan Rogers. The lefty Wall started the game and threw two innings, striking out two. Berry tossed three scoreless innings, while Ojala, Evers and Harwood completed two apiece.

The Owls jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first, bringing in two runs-driven in by sophomore outfielder Chad Mozingo and junior Diego Seastrunk-that the Longhorns quickly matched in the top of the second.

The team then took control and scored seven runs in the bottom of the second, in which they had six hits and capitalized on an error and a balk by Texas. Rice only padded its lead with two more in the fourth and two in the 13th. Seastrunk and Mozingo were the offensive stars of the day, with three hits each. The other players that contributed multiple hits in the 19-hit effort were junior Brock Holt, senior Jimmy Comerota, freshman Anthony Rendon, freshman Craig Manuel and junior Steven Sultzbaugh.

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