Sunday's Sports Update: Rice unable to get win despite sunny skies

By Meghan Hall     4/16/09 7:00pm

The Owls got to play a game at the regularly scheduled time in the sunshine today, something they hadn't yet experienced in this series. However, the sun didn't shine too brightly on the Rice baseball team today as they lost the finale of their conference series against Marshall 11-7.Games one and two of this series were both postponed due to rain, but both games got finished and the 27-10 Owls took both of them, 7-5 and 10-3, to win the series overall. Rice still leads Conference USA due to East Carolina's loss today to Tulane.

The first part of the game was quick and hitless until the bottom of the third when a walk and a single by junior first baseman Jimmy Comerota were enough for freshman rightfielder Jeremy Rathjen to score. Marshall halted the threat, though, and the Owls left the inning with the bases loaded.

Junior Mark Haynes (1-0) got the start for Rice, and his no-hitter was intact through 3.1 innings. He forfeited three hits in the fourth, but kept the Thundering Herd scoreless until the fifth when two singles and a groundout led to Marshall's first run.

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The Owls loaded the bases in the fourth on no outs, with sophomore leftfielder Michael Fuda's leadoff triple and two walks by freshman designated hitter Daniel Gonzales-Luna and junior centerfielder Steven Sultzbaugh.

Sophomore Chad Mozingo-who leads the team with four bases-loaded hits-then came off the bench and fired a single into short left field to score Fuda. Junior second baseman Brock Holt worked a walk for another run, and Comerota picked up the third one of the inning with a sacrifice fly to right.

The Herd scored again in the sixth, on two singles and a double, which precipitated the exit of Haynes. He was relieved by freshman Matthew Reckling (1-2), who gave up a run and was quickly replaced by senior Jordan Rogers (5-2). Rogers walked the first man he faced and Marshall tied up the game.

Sophomore Matt Evers (2-2) became the fourth pitcher of the inning, and on the first pitch he gave up a hit and with it gave Marshall the lead. A groundout by centerfielder Ben Jurevicius ended the four-run inning.

The Owls quickly tied the game in the bottom of the frame with Comerota's second sacrifice fly of the day, but the back-and-forth continued when, in the seventh, designated hitter Victor Gomez hit a two-run shot to right-center field and Marshall was up 7-5. The bleeding didn't stop when Marshall picked up four runs in the top half of the eighth off junior Jared Rogers (2-1) with Gomez's second homer of the day.

Coach Wayne Graham was not happy with the state of the team's pitching today, but he is able to keep it all in perspective.

"I thought we had a poor game," Graham said. "I didn't think we hit well and we didn't pitch well at all. Those two balls that that young man hit out of the ballpark, we were ahead in the count and threw the ball right down the middle. . But things like that happen and they happen to everybody."

Rendon did provide a bright spot for the Owls with his team-leading 12th home run in the ninth inning. The Owls scored their last run of the day on a wild pitch for the final score of 11-7.

Rice travels to the University of Texas for a standalone game on Tuesday, then they have an eight-day break before taking on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Reckling Park next Wednesday.

Coach Graham is grateful for the break. Besides the obvious benefits for the pitching duo of juniors Mike Ojala and Ryan Berry, who are in the midst of returning for arm injuries, Mozingo and senior Jess Buenger, who are both battling minor injuries, and the rest of the team will benefit as well.

"We've had some pretty chaotic series when you're trying to win when the staff is missing its top two pitchers and wasn't very deep to begin with," Coach Graham said. "They've been winning, and that's emotionally draining.

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