After late-season bumps, Rice sprints into postseason

By Meghan Hall     5/14/09 7:00pm

The baseball team is used to blitzing through the heart of the season, but with two recent losses, this year has been a bit different. Fortunately, the second-ranked Rice baseball team has finally righted its ship injury-wise and is sailing toward the postseason. The Owls (34- 13, 15-6 Conference USA) got junior starter Mike Ojala (3-0) back from injury before their week-long break for finals, and junior starter Ryan Berry (5-0), second on the team in wins, returned in the first game back.

Rice headed into its break with a 7-4 win over the University of Texas (35-12-1). The team then headed back home to Reckling Park to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Islanders (17-36) scored the first two runs of the game, but the Owls responded in the fourth and never looked back in their 14-2 win.

Seven Rice players had multi-hit games as part of a 17-hit attack. Sophomore left fielder Michael Fuda finished with four hits while junior right fielder Chad Mozingo drove in four runs to head up the offensive blowout.

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The pitching, led by junior starter Jared Rogers (3-1), was also solid in its return. The game was highlighted by the return of Berry, who came back from a five-week break to throw a scoreless seventh inning with two strikeouts.

Although he's returned to the mound, Berry is still limited.

"I'm still on a little bit of a pitch count," Berry said. "I lose [control] with my fastball, but what I need to do is accomplish throwing strikes with the fastball."

Next up for the Owls was resuming the Silver Glove Series with the University of Houston. In the first game of the conference series at Cougar Field, Rice found itself on the wrong side of a 7-4 decision. Three fielding errors by the Owls led to four unearned runs for Houston (24-27, 12-9 C-USA). Down 7-2 in the sixth, Rice scored two and was prepared for more, but the Cougars worked out of a bases-loaded jam and the score held. Freshman designated hitter Craig Manuel and junior first baseman Jimmy Comerota had two hits each. Freshman Taylor Wall (5- 5) got the start and the loss with 4.2 innings of work, allowing four walks and six runs.

Rice came back in the second game of the series, and with the win, captured the Silver Glove Trophy for the ninth consecutive year. Berry was brilliant in his first start since returning from injury, throwing five innings with no unearned runs and four strikeouts. The Owls went up 4-0, but another error led to Houston's first run. Freshman third baseman Anthony Rendon hit a home run in the seventh to make the score 5-2, but by the bottom of the eighth inning the Cougars had tied the game.

Mozingo, who was named C-USA Hitter of the Week on May 3, led off the ninth inning with a double. With two outs and Rendon on first after an intentional walk, Fuda singled to left to score Mozingo. Manuel then drove in Rendon with another single to increase Rice's lead to two. Senior Jordan Rogers (7-2) walked the first three Cougars in the bottom of the ninth but was able to close out the game, uphold the 7-5 score and get the win.

The Owls rode the hot bat of junior shortstop Rick Hague to take the rubber game 6-5 and clinch the series win. All of Rice's six runs came off home runs. Freshman designated hitter Jeremy Rathjen, who has seen his playing time drastically cut from the beginning of the season, hit the first homer of his career in the third, and Hague hit another later in the inning for a 3-0 lead.

Houston tied the game in the fourth and it stayed that way until the eighth when Hague's second home run of the day gave the Owls a 5-3 lead. Rendon - who captured the Silver Glove Series' Most Outstanding Player award with his .571 average and four homers against the Cougars - made it back-to-back with his 15th home run of the year.

Houston came back in the ninth, but freshman Matthew Reckling entered the game to get the last two outs, capturing the save and preserving the win for sophomore Matt Evers (4-2).

The Owls traveled across town and came home to Reckling Park for their last regular season homestand. First up was unranked Texas State University, to whom the Owls fell 4-1. The Bobcats (37-12) scored two in the first and two in the fifth, which was enough to get the victory over freshman starter Andrew Benak (1-1).

Rice made it two losses in a row when the team lost the opener of the conference series versus the University of Central Florida. Although the Owls collected ten hits, they could not push any runs across and fell 5-0 to the Golden Knights (20-32, 7-14 C-USA). Wall was tagged for another loss, hurling 5.1 innings but allowing four earned runs.

Junior second baseman Brock Holt had two hits and Mozingo had three, but it was not enough as Rice squandered run-scoring opportunities and hit into three double plays.

The next day, however, was a different story. Berry got the start and gave the Owls momentum, capturing the win with two earned runs over seven innings.

Graham said he is pleased to see his two top pitchers back healthy and ready to contribute long starts.

"Berry certainly pitched well," Graham said. "He pitched good baseball and put us in a good position where we could win the series, which turned out to be a monster series. . We couldn't do anything without him."

Berry agreed with the assessment and is prepared to see his productivity increase as time goes on and his injury keeps healing.

"Everything feels fine out there," Berry said. "Just need to work up arm strength and hopefully go over 100 pitches in my next outing."

The game was tied after the first, thanks to a home run by Holt, but Rice got the lead for good in the third. Rendon drove in one then Hague followed up with a double that scored two more.

Four more runs came in the sixth, thanks to Mozingo's two-run double. Junior Mark Haynes (2-0) pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth, and Rice reached the final score of 10-2 after Rendon's home run in the eighth. His 16 home runs lead the team, and he is now tied with former Owl Aaron Luna for most home runs by a Rice freshman. He also leads the team with a .386 batting average.

The rubber game of the series with the Golden Knights was a back-and-forth affair. The Owls struck first in the opening frame, thanks to an RBI single by Rendon and a steal of home by Mozingo. UCF scored one in the second and four in the fourth - off starter Ojala and reliever Reckling - before Rice got one back in the fourth on a home run by junior center fielder Steven Sultzbaugh.

Ojala threw three innings with one unearned run, one walk and four strikeouts before being relieved by Reckling.

"Certainly Ojala pitched well enough to suggest with the proper rest and the proper medical care that he might be able to give us a five inning start next time, which is big because we're not getting much out of anybody else," Graham said.

One more run came for the Owls in the sixth, but UCF broke out for two in the seventh to increase their lead to 7-4. In the bottom of the frame, however, Rendon singled, Fuda walked and junior catcher Diego Seastrunk tied the game with a long homer to right field.

A wild pitch scored Comerota for the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth, but the excitement was not over. The Knights had two runners on in the ninth before first baseman Kiki Vazquez singled and Fuda threw out Austin Smith at the plate to clinch the game, the 8-7 win for Evers and the series. The Owls are now in sole possession of first place in the C-USA standings.

On Tuesday, Rice rounded out its home schedule with a 7-2 victory over the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. Holt jumped on the Ragin' Cajuns for five RBIs, and Jared Rogers picked up his third win of the year.

With only one series left, a weekend road swing against the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Rice looks poised to make yet another postseason run, beginning with the C-USA Championship. The conference tournament begins May 20 in Hattiesburg, Miss., and will be followed by the NCAA regional May 29.

Graham knows that a lot is ahead for his team, and he is aware of what his squad needs in order to get there.

"What we have to have more than anything else is quality pitchers," Graham said. "We've got to have more good efforts from people like Reckling - who had a great effort against Houston - and Evers has got to play into that. ... Haynes has done a good job, and Rogers has got to get back his swagger."

Berry also recognizes the team's need for good pitching, and he says the staff is ready to deliver.

"I think it's just mentality of the pitchers," Berry said. "We relied heavily on our hitters throughout the year and now it's time for the pitching to step up and put it on ourselves to go out there and win the game. . Our starters need to go out there and throw strikes.

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