Owls lose to Middle Tennessee State on the road

By Evan Neustater 4/1/14 4:49pm

The Rice University baseball team faced Conference USA foe Middle Tennessee State University this past weekend in Murfreesboro, Tenn. For the first time this season, the Owls lost a three-game series, dropping two of three games. Thirty games into the season, the Rice Owls are 21-9 while posting a 9-3 conference record.

Beginning Friday night, junior pitcher Zech Lemond had the ball in hopes of securing a series-opening win for the Owls. Just a few pitches into the game, Rice took a 1-0 lead on a first-inning home run by junior Skyler Ewing to deep left field. The lead would not last long, as Blue Raiders senior Hank Larue connected for a solo home run to tie the game up.

After another solo shot off of Lemond, the Owls were down 2-1 headed into the seventh. The Owls tied it up on a double by senior Michael Aquino after catcher John Clay Reeves reached second base on a throwing error. Lemond pitched 6.1 innings, giving up six hits and two runs. In the eighth inning, the Blue Raiders scored a run off of sophomore pitcher Matt Ditman and held on for the 3-2 victory.

In Saturday’s game, sophomore Blake Fox was on the mound in the crucial second game against MTSU. The Owls went to work on the Blue Raiders and won with a final score of 8-0. The scoring began in the fourth inning when Aquino lined a two-out single to bring in senior Chase McDowell and give the Owls the early 1-0 lead. Rice scored two more in the fifth and four in the seventh to take a 7-0 lead. Four MTSU errors helped the Owls during that span. Ewing capped off the game with his second home run in as many games to make it 8-0. Ewing, Aquino, junior Ford Stainback and senior Shane Hoelscher each had three hits in the ballgame. Fox threw 8.0 innings of shutout baseball and struck out seven to secure the win.

In the final and deciding game of the series, the Owls started senior pitcher Chase McDowell. McDowell got off to a great start, retiring all nine batters he faced in the first three innings. The story of the game, however, turned sour due to untimely hitting by the Owls. Despite scoring a first-inning run off a Keenan Cook triple and an Ewing double to left, the Owls could not tack on more runs. The Owls left eight men on base in the first half of the game yet still managed to go into the fifth inning with the ballgame tied 1-1. MTSU scored a total of five runs off of McDowell and the relief pitcher, Matt Ditman, in the fifth inning. The inning included five Blue Raider hits, a walk and a wild pitch. The Owls did start a rally though, as they scored three runs in the top of the eighth to make it a 6-4 ballgame. Unfortunately for the Owls, the rally was in vain as they gave up two more runs in the bottom of the inning and lost with a final score of 8-5.

Aquino said he believes there is a big lesson to be learned from this past weekend.

“Obviously we would rather have won that series, but you know you can’t win them all,” Aquino said. “Even if [MTSU is] not a ranked team, it’s still a Division 1 [team], and we played a team that came out ready to beat Rice.”

Freshman pitcher Jon Duplantier said the one thing to be taken away from a disappointing weekend performance is the mentality to go into every game as a must-win.

“The series loss to a team that is overall under .500 tells us we need to show up to play every day and not take anything lightly,” Duplantier said. “We have to believe that every game is a game we must win.”

Duplantier said, despite the series loss, he is excited to continue to learn from the Rice pitching coaches.

“It’s pretty awesome to be able to watch and to learn from the [Rice Owls pitching staff],” Duplantier said. “I know it’s already making me a better pitcher just by talking to them and picking their brains so that I can continue to get better.”

The Owls will return to Conference USA competition when they host East Carolina University in a three-game series this upcoming weekend. The Pirates are currently tied for second-place in conference, behind only Rice. The first game is scheduled for Friday, April 4 at 6:30 PM.