Rice-UT baseball: Game 2

Rice traveled to Austin today to play the second game between the Longhorns and the Owls. And they pulled off the clutch 7-4 win. While the Owls led the entire game, it never felt “safe” or “easy.” There were clutch plays made all around by the team. While we went through quite a few pitchers, that has become the norm ever since Berry and Ojala went out. It’s more of a Johnny Wholestaff approach then most Rice Owls fans are used to. Still, each pitcher contributed something to the game and kept it moving. And while we did issue 12 walks and throw 4 wild pitches, we still never trailed the game. Our offense was more productive. Our defense made the plays. In all, our guys gutted it out.

They showed their character and fiber in this game. These boys are anything but quitters. When the news first broke that Berry and Ojala were going to miss some major games the word creeping around the internet was a solemn whisper, “Win by whatever means neccessary.” And that’s exactly what this team has done. It hasn’t always been text-book pretty. Or picture perfect. But, every game, someone has stepped up. Be it a hitter, a pitcher, or a defensive player, these guys have made it happen.

It makes them so hard to watch.

It makes them so much fun to watch.

I love cheering for this team. I love the nail-biting, intensely-close, are-they-going-to-pull-it-out moments. I love that no game feels safe. I love that no game ever feels out of reach or un-winable. College baseball is always a game of ups and downs. A hitter can be 2-3 with 2 home runs and 2 walks in one game and be o-for the next. Does it make them any less valuable? Of course not. These guys make it happen on every side of the plate. Someone steps up every time. It is the definition of clutch. It’s exactly what the fans asked for. We are 15-4 since the announcement first came about our Friday-Saturday pitchers. And while, yes, Mike Ojala did come in for 5 innings against both ECU and Marshall, he still wasn’t at full strength. And we’ve been plagued by other injuries and illnesses. And they still find ways to keep winning.

People called tonight’s game ugly. We never trailed. Sure we issued more walks than I would have liked, but you know something, we also didn’t let UT take advantage of it. And we scored when we needed to. 9 of our batters accounted for our 10 hits. But, there’s so much more to it than that. Anthony Rendon was hit by three pitches. Jimmy Comerota had a huge RBI sacrifice. And on and on and on. I could start with every player in our rotation and go around and mention clutch play after clutch play, both at the plate and defensively. These boys have heart. And they use it to win games. I’ve never been more proud to root for a team of any kind, than to be known as a fan of this Rice Owls baseball team. I’m with them all the way. I will never doubt their heart, their courage, their guts, or their talent. Most of all, I’ll never doubt there coach. Rice fight, never die. Blue, gray, in the sky. Stand, cheer, drink more beer. Go, Go, Go Rice!

~The Countess~

Rice Baseball: Rice @ ECU: Game 1

I wish I could have been there tonight. I wish I was there right now. What a game this has been. We trailed at one point, 11-4 and we came back to win 15-11. A whole plethora of guys stepped up to the plate tonight. Mark Haynes put in quality innings to stymie the early offensive outpouring by the Pirates. Ryan Lewis substituted in for Rick Hague (still waiting on the reason that Rick left the game) and made a key hit and caught a key out. Chad Mozingo pinch-hit for a bases-clearing double to give Rice the first lead of the game at 12-11. Craig Manuel and Michael Fuda hit for a combined 7-8 with a walk. Clutch plays all around.

We trailed by 7 points twice in the game, once at 7-0 and once at 11-4. But the players didn’t give up and they proved that they are a scrappy team. It seems like whatever they are dealt, i.e., both Hague and Mozingo not playing in the game, they step up to the challenge and do whatever it takes to win.

Rice fight, never die. Blue, Gray, in the sky. Stand, cheer, drink more beer. Go, go, go Rice!

~The Countess~

Rice Baseball: Stringing together wins

Ever since the news broke that Ryan Berry and Mike Ojala would be out for awhile for the Owls due to muscle tightness the cry from the fans have been the same: We just have to win. Win dirty, win ugly, win any way neccessary, as long as we get the W.

And that’s what Rice has been doing. There have been times when it hasn’t been pretty. Time where we’ve given up 6 unearned runs in an inning. Times where we’ve loaded the bases with 0-1 outs and brought no one home. But, there have been times when it’s just been a pure joy to watch. When we light up their pitchers. When our defense gets our pitcher out of a jam. When we got long innings or desparately needed outs from unexpected sources.

The Rice Owls have come together. And they are winning. Since the series at USM, where Berry and Ojala both pitched last, Rice is 5-1. They won a hard fought 12-inning game against Lamar. Rallying late to score 2 runs to end the game after having held the lead for most of the game. In the home conference opener, we lost the first game, before rebounding to take the second two. This past Wednesday night the Owls rallied from two 6 run deficits to win the game 11-8. The offense has been putting together the runs when neccessary. We’ve been turning the crucial double-plays. We’ve gotten quality pitching from Abe Gonzales, Travis Wright, and Jared Rogers. All of our hitters have come together to get multiple hits in every game, or execute the sac flys and bunts to get the scores.

And tonight, in the opener against Tulane, it all came together. Rice won 11-3. Jared Rogers was dominating in 7.1 innings on 100 pitches. Mark Haynes and Andrew Benak closed it down well. The offense tallied up 7 stolen bases on 7 attempts. The batters continually pounded the ball, with Chad Mozingo, Anthony Rendon, and Daniel Gonzales-Luna all going deep tonight. (Side note: This was DGL’s first career home-run at Rice) They also showed patience, with 5 walks drawn.

The team has heard the cry from the fans. At times, it hasn’t been pretty and at times it has been a beautiful sight to behold. The 2009 baseball team is truly living up to the Rice cheer: Rice fight, never die. People were worried about how having the Friday and Saturday starters, who have been so dominant, out, would affect the Owls. And they have shown that they aren’t giving up. Cheers to the boys, and, best of luck for the next two games against Tulane.

~The Countess~

Rice Baseball: Pitching Update

It appears that the “tightness” that caused Mike Ojala and Ryan Berry to be pulled early in their games last weekend is going to keep them out a while. The word on the street is that Ojala will be out for 1-2 weeks and that Berry will be out for 4-5 weeks. Here’s hoping that they both get healthy and come back on time or earlier. One, we could use their arms and two, we don’t want to watch their draft prospects get hurt by these injuries. Info leaked here.

However, there is light in this darkness. We have plenty of good pitchers on our team: from freshmen Matthew Reckling, Taylor Wall, and Andrew Benak to  Matt Evers and Mark Haynes, we have several guys who are good for long innings. In addition we have Jordan Rogers who has shown that he is more than capable of covering middle and late innings. And that still leaves Abe Gonzales, Jared Rogers, Zack Harwood, and Doug Simmons to cover middle innings too.

And of course, we can’t forget, Diego Seastrunk. He made his pitching debut on Tuesday night and showed quite a bit of promise. His fastballs were right on the mark. I think he’ll prove that he’s got the stuff to handle pitching. And Craig Manuel has proven that he can catch anyone on the roster. Actually, come to think of it, I think he did on Tuesday night. Regardless, we are going to miss Berry and Ojala, but I think we can manage while they are out. And maybe, have a reliable bull-pen when they come back. Though, we are going to have to generate more offense, since we can’t ask any of our pitchers to duplicate Ryan’s complete game, low hit, no run outings. Rice fight, never die.

~The Countess~

The Beauty of Baseball

Tonight’s game was a nail-biter. It started at 6:30 and ended just before 11:00. If I kept track of the innings correctly Rice finally won 9-8 in the bottom of the 12th. Now that I’ve spoiled that for you, let’s go on and talk about the beauty of baseball. This game had everything and then some. Rice pitched 8 pitchers. Including crowd favorite Diego Seastrunk. We had clutch double plays to end innings and missed double plays that allowed the game to tie. The top of the 9th featured the obliteration of Rice’s three-run lead. The following innings were intense with both teams stranding runners at various points. In the bottom of the 11th, Rice had Rick Hague on third with one out and the game tied 7-7. He didn’t make it around that trip. After Lamar scored on a solo homer in the 12th it truly became clutch for Rice. And they pulled it out. Chad Mozingo tied it and the game winning run was scored by Jimmy Commerota. Over four hours after first pitch Rice won and the team and the faithful fans still in the stadium erupted with joy. And that, is the beauty of baseball.

~The Countess~

Rice-UT Baseball: On “The” Call

It seems that Tuesday night’s win by the Rice Owls baseball team over the Texas Longhorn’s is going to be marred by Longhorn fans because of “the” call. This call involved a Rice runner at second base (Chad Mozingo) Rice batter, Anthony Rendon at the plate, and UT outfielder Russell Moldenhauer. Rendon hit a deep fly ball to the wall that Moldenhauer had to run and lay flat out to catch. The field ump signaled a trapped ball and Mozingo scored a run. UT protested, which they should have, and the call was over-turned to an out, but the run scored by Mozingo was allowed to stand. The ump maintains that he saw Mozingo tag up, I don’t agree with this, I was there, he didn’t get more than half-way back to second before the ump signalled a playable ball. Chad trusted the ump’s call and ran home.

And there is the dillema, do they send Chad back to second? Because, with his speed even tagging up he would have made at least third. UT fans argue that the speed of Moldenhauer’s throw in from the wall would have caught Mozingo at third if he had tagged. Except that Moldenhauer did throw the ball in and Chad did score, which indicates that he probably would have beat the throw to third. But, even then, there’s no real way of knowing. So, Chad would have either stayed at second or advanced to third, and, the very next batter hit a single, that would have scored Chad regardless of whether he was at second or third. The boy is a fast runner. Anyways, the score would have been 6-3 at the end of the inning regardless of this call.

And the game ended with that score. UT had more opportunities to close the gap and they couldn’t convert the runs. For their fans to say that this play threw the game for them is sour grapes. I understand it was a momentum change, but why didn’t they use their indignation at the call, which again wouldn’t have changed the score, to rally and score runs?

Was the call a good one? The answer is no. Moldenhauer made an amazing catch, and props to him for that. It has to be one of the best plays I’ve ever seen, in that regard. Second, Chad did not tag up, but, if it had been signalled a catch he would have either returned to second and stayed, or more likely, beat the throw to third, because he is fast. So, the umps probably should have sent Chad back to third, in which case he would have scored on the very next play. And, it’s not like this was a bottom of the ninth, squeaked out one run win by Rice. Even if they hadn’t scored that run, they still would have won the game. The only way the call could have been worse was if the umps had called Mozingo out on a double-play after signaling that the ball was in play.

So, let’s not tarnish what Rice accomplished, knocking off a top ranked team for the second time this season, by saying they would have lost except for this call, because, it just isn’t the case.

~The Countess~

Rice-UT Baseball: Game 1 March 17, 2009

It was a gorgeous day for a ball-game yesterday at the Rice-UT baseball game at Reckling Park. A record crowd of 6, 193 fans agreed with me. And it marked the second time this season that Rice has picked off a number one ranked team. The final score was 6-3 and it was a great game. It had everything, home-runs, steals, and screaming coaches.

The game started off quiet with good pitching and defensive plays for both teams through the first two innings. In the bottom of the third Rice tallied a lone run that was matched by UT in the top of the fourth. UT pulled ahead in the top of the fifth with an unearned run. It was the bottom of the fifth where Rice reclaimed the lead and broke things open, scoring four runs, on the back of a Rick Hague two-run homer. UT came back in the top of the sixth with a run, closing the gap to 5-3. That’s as close as they would get when in the seventh Chad Mozingo scored on what was first called a dropped ball in the outfield but was then recorded as an out. The umps allowed the score to stand even with the call of the out. The point became moot, when the next batter singled, which would have scored the run even if the umps had pulled Mozingo back to third instead of allowing his run on the previous play. UT coach Augie Garrido spent a good deal of time yelling at the umps that inning, first because of the call they reversed (the dropped ball into a fly-out) and then because he wanted the score removed.

The final innings were scoreless for both teams as the pitching and defense pulled it in. All in all, it was a game that was well-played by both teams.

~The Countess~

Further Proof

In case the previous posts weren’t warning enough, some interactions with friends today proved that my thesis really is causing me to go insane. Three vignettes from my afternoon.

Vignette 1

(Setting: Rice University Blue on Gray scrimmage. (It is important to note here that Rice’s colors are meant to represent the Union and Confederate colors from the Civil War) Subject: Questionable calls by the ump, aka a coach in favor of the Gray team while they are pitching.)

Friend One: Are you serious? Ahem. What? Those are some liberal calls ump.

Me: Isn’t the ump calling liberal calls in favor of the South a kinda antithetical?

Friends One and Two: *Silence*

Friend One: Is the ump calling liberal calls in favor of the South antithetical?

Me: You know, the South is generally cast as being conservative, liberal calls?

Friends One and Two: *Silence*

Me: I’ve been working on my thesis too much.

Friends One and Two: Yep.

Vignette 2

(Setting: Same baseball practice.)

Friend One (to me with the sun setting behind me): These sunglasses are so good, I can look right at you.

Me: Really? That’s strange, because I can see your eyes.

Friend Two: Your glasses aren’t reflective? Now a girl is going to know if you’re looking at her or checking out another girl.

Friend One: *Taking off glasses to see if he can see through them* Really? You can see my eyes?

Me: Yep. I can see that you have blue eyes on.

Friend One: Blue eyes on?

Me: Shut up. Thesis. (As if this is an excuse against anything I say being utterly stupid.)

Vignette 3

(Setting: Me driving to a friend’s house to work on my thesis. Friends Three and Four call)

Friend Three: So, Four and I have come up with a name for your thesis.

Me: A name?

Friend Three: Yeah, you know since it’s taking up all your time, so we can refer to it by name.

Me: Okay, what is it?

Friend Three: Well, we wanted it to apply to your topic. And, since it’s kinda killing you slowly. We named it “Wilke.”

Me: You named my thesis after the guy who killed President Lincoln?

Friend Three: Yep.

Friend Four: (in the background) Supposedly killed Lincoln. And I helped.

All of this combines to be incontrovertible proof of my further descent into madness.

~The Countess~

Rice-UT baseball Scrimmage No. 1

Rice and Ut scrimmaged this afternoon for 14 innings. Rice won it 13-6.

Both teams showed a lot of promise today. I don’t know a lot about UT’s team, but they started really strong and confidently. They had a couple of big hits from Cameron Rupp, who does still need to work on his throws to second, and got some really excellent pitching from Austin Woods at the end. Augie was switching things up all the time. It seemed like they rarely played the exact same line up inning to inning. They started with the kind of confidence you would expect from UT, but then lagged in the later innings. I’m not sure if that was fatigue, nerves, the Rice boys settling down, or the constant shakeup in the line up. Still, they promise to be as big of hitters this year as they were last year.

Rice actually started off pretty shaky. It was a 6-1 game at one point. Ryan Barry took a little bit to settle in, and where Augie switched his pitchers every two innings at the beginning, Barry actually stayed in for three. He was followed by Mike Ojala who also took a bit to settle in. Eventually our hitters settled in and started showing why Rice baseball is the powerhouse that it is.

Rice played the first nine innings with the same line up, except for some changes at catcher and pitcher. After that they did some shakeups but still kept the same essential folks on the field. Rick Hague played at short stop the whole game, though his bat was missed and we’ll all be glad when he’s hitting again. Jimmy Comerota started at first and did a good job there, although he showed his prowess at second when moved there for the final six innings. Catcher was a veritably rotating door, with Diego Seastrunk, Dave Peterson, Craig Manuel, and John Hale all doing a stint there.

All in all I felt like this exhibition game was a really good thing. Both teams got a chance for a long game against someone other than their teammates. And, in a week they’ll get a chance to test each other again. I believe that this is such a good opportunity for both teams. They get to try out different lineups. They get to test their players in a nothing at stake but pride match. And they get to make some adjustments and square off again. It’ll be good to see both teams in Houston at Reckling Park next Sunday.

I’m so glad that baseball is back!

~The Countess~