Sunday Sports Update Baseball splits series with Cal with Sunday matinee victory

By Meghan Hall     3/11/10 6:00pm

Coming off a game yesterday with 37 total runs and 41 hits, one would expect both Rice and the University of California to be moving a little slower today. But the Owls were still riding high from yesterday's offensive exhibition and scrounged up enough runs to beat Cal 7-4 and split the four-game series. Rice (10-7) picked up its first run in the second, with sophomore catcher Craig Manuel's single that scored sophomore third baseman Anthony Rendon. In the third inning, senior first baseman Jimmy Comerota walked and later made his way around the bases to score on a sacrifice bunt by junior shortstop Rick Hague.

The Golden Bears (9-5) scratched out a run in the first, but they took a 3-2 lead after the fourth inning off Rice starter Boogie Anagnostou (1-1). Manuel stepped up again in the bottom of the fifth, sending a two-out, 3-0 pitch deep to left-center for a two-run double and 4-3 lead for the Owls.

Cal did not go down without a fight and posed a threat in the seventh with a triple and a double to lead off the inning. Anagnostou-who left the game with four earned runs and one strikeout over 6.1 innings-was replaced by junior Doug Simmons (1-0), and the two combined to hold the Bears to one run in the frame.

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The Owls struck back in the seventh and loaded the bases with no outs. Manufacturing runs then became the name of the game: Rice picked up three runs on two wild pitches and a sacrifice fly by sophomore Jeremy Rathjen.

Senior Mark Haynes pitched the final two innings for the Owls and notched the save, while Simmons collected his first career win.

There was a marked difference in Rice's play from the first two games of the series to the second two. Play on all sides of the ball was much sharper, a turnaround that Coach Wayne Graham attributes to a simple talking-to.

"We just basically told our team they've got to forget about all this delayed adolescence and grow up," Coach Graham said. "They've got to be men. And I thought today they played like men."

This change happens at an opportune time for the Owls, who play third-ranked Texas for the second time this season on Tuesday. Rice lost to the Longhorns (16-3) at the Houston College Classic in a hard-fought 2-1 game and will host the team at Reckling Park at 6:30 p.m.

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