Saturday Sports Update: Baseball continues to roll with 4-3 win over Nebraska

By Meghan Hall     2/25/10 6:00pm

The Rice baseball team opened its season on a four-game losing streak, but the Owls rebounded last night with a 7-2 win over Elon in the Rice Invitational. They continued their success into tonight's came against Nebraska, coming away with a 4-3 win.The Cornhuskers got their bats swinging early against sophomore starter Taylor Wall. The southpaw looked to be working his way out of a first-inning jam, but with two runners on, two outs and a 3-2 count, catcher Patrick Tolentino lined a single into center to score two.

Wall gave up one more run in the second but quickly settled after that, and at one point he retired 12 batters in a row.

"[To start] I think he wasn't aggressive enough mentally," Coach Wayne Graham said. "Then everything came together; he pitched real well."

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After a 16-minute glare delay in the second inning, the Owls returned to the plate and picked up their first run thanks to two singles followed by a run-scoring double off the bat of junior first baseman Abe Gonzales. Junior shortstop Rick Hague then hit a fly ball to the warning track, scoring freshman designated hitter Chase McDowell.

Then in the bottom of the third, freshman second baseman Michael Ratterree led off with a home run to left field, his team-leading third of the season.

Wall left after seven innings, the last five of which were scoreless. He surrendered five hits and three runs while striking out five and walking none. Freshman Tyler Duffey replaced him in the eighth inning for his second appearance of the year.

With the score tied at three, redshirt sophomore Michael Fuda led off the bottom of the eighth with a hustling infield single. A balk sent him to second, from which he scored off a base hit by sophomore third baseman Anthony Rendon.

Duffey closed down the game in the bottom of the ninth and held onto the 4-3 lead. He did not give up a hit while striking out five in his two innings of work, good enough for his first career victory. Coach Graham was pleased with the diversity of his repertoire.

"He's throwing the ball hard, good curveball," Graham said. "He struck out a hitter on a great changeup and struck out another on a great curveball."

Rice will look to extend its winning streak tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

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