Yes, I am a bit bitter.

Rice baseball lost to the eventual college champions - AGAIN!

I agree with others. It may have been tough to beat LSU on a neutral site. I give us a good chance at home.

Still it would have been nice to get do it in the finals at Omaha.

Rice would have won as a road team in at least half of the superregional home sites. It would have been no problem.

I'm told we beat Texas, the runner-up, twice this year 2-0 record. I thought we lost to them once, but I did not look. Texas has gotten better and some of their hitters went crazy hot in the post season but Rice has also gotten better as the season progressed. We got our two starters back for the post season.

Texas' vaunted pitching held LSU down for two games but could not do it in the third game. Rice did not go as well.

But I think Rice would have beat those other teams. I think you can easily make the argument that Rice is the second best team in college baseball this year. SIGH.

Sour grapes
I cannot stand it. I thought since Rice lost and is done for the year that I would not be interesting in the college world series. But I cannot keep away. I am listening to the radio broadcast from Omaha every chance I get.

I cannot watch it, I don't have cable. I think I could watch online but I'd have to pay for that too. And online feeds are notoriously fickle.

This is the radio feed that I listen to on the radio when I am in Omaha. 1620 AM. The announcers are pretty good.

So now L.S.U. and Texas are into the winners bracket. It is highly likely these two teams will play a best two out of three for the CWS championship starting next Monday.

We are keeping it in the family so to speak. Next door neighbors and frequent opponents. Rice won two out of three from Texas during the season and I'd bet they would do it again if they had been paired in the super-regionals. But Rice was paired with L.S.U. on the road. Rice lost two in a row in a tough ballpark. Hey lets play them in a more neutral field, say in Omaha. I'd take my chances there.

We lost too many games to weak teams during the regular season. Therefore we did not get to host a Super-regional this year. It's our own fault. Ironically the team is still ranked #7. The polls say we should have been in Omaha. But games are played. It's not a beauty contest. Sour grapes.

I have to think we again lost to the eventual champion. We have done that in several years since Wayne Graham came in 1992. Sour grapes I know.

The boys had a great season. It fell short of the College World Series in Omaha this year. I am feeling a bit lost that I am not there. But there are other things. I'll get over it, eventually.

The regional was last weekend at Reckling Park. The four teams included were Kansas State University, Xavier, and Sam Houston State.

This looked on paper to be an easy regional. Of course you do not want to say that until it is over.

But we did have a tough first two games. Sam Houston State was a tough 4th seed. We had played them twice so they knew us well. They played tough and close, but we did win. Taylor Wall pitched pretty well as did their ace.

The next day we faced Kansas State in the winners bracket game. Since the third seed was about as easy as they came they had saved their ace for us. Their other starter was pretty good but not like their ace. Still we scored a few runs on him, more than most other teams did. And we had our ace, Ryan Berry. They nicked him too. A reliever for Rice did not have it so when Berry left some of the runners he left on base scored. We we down 4-3 until one bad relief job took us down 7-3. But in the ninth we scored three times on their ace who was going to finish the game, win or lose. He made 140 pitches and managed to hang on for a 7-6 victory.

That put Rice into the losers bracket having to play an extra game before we could reface KSU.

So on Sunday Rice had to play Xavier in the first game. Sam Houston State must have had a big letdown to let Xavier beat them on Saturday but they did. Xavier really had little left. Rice skipped pitching their third best starter going with Jerad Rogers. Jerad had been the one who let Southern Miss back into the game last week but today he did very well. He had a rough first inning but after that was strong for seven innings. By then Rice was well ahead and a couple of other pitchers finished the game.

Now Sunday night was faced KSU again. Rice pitched our third starter Mike Ojala. Mike does not look fully healed from his injuries of this season but he pitched well, had good off speed pitches, kept the hitters offstride and threw strikes. KSU had no chance. So we won handily. That set up the Monday decider which would come at 6 PM.

I missed my other commitment to see this game. It was great. They started a top reliever. We started Jordan Rogers a reliever who has not been going well of late. Jordan did not have it. He gave up a couple of runs in 2.2 innings. So WG put his genius cap on and found Matt Reckling. Reckling got out of the third and pitched scoreless ball into the seventh. Then Ryan Berry finished again as he did in Hattiesburg. Meanwhile Rice had been hitting anyone KSU put out there. Rice got 18 hits and 13 runs. Was it 13-2 or 13-4 I cannot recall without looking. Anyway it was decisive and Rice won the Houston regional despite losing the second game. KSU really had little left after their ace was used up. After pitching 140 pitches on Saturday he was not available any more.

It's been a while. Rice won in Hattiesburg. The last game versus Southern Miss was pretty rough. The crowd was loud and boisterous. The place was almost full. People can tailgate out behind right field. Regular contributors can use a private area chained off from the public. Hattiesburg is hilly. Behind right field is a rise that makes for perfect viewing while grilling whatever you want.

The stadium is old, build a bit like Reckling used to be before the last upgrade. But the seats are even older. Maybe they are a bit wider though. That's good.

There are a few more Rice faithful here today. You could count them on two hands on Wednesday but today there are maybe triple that.

We got ahead, they caught up, we got ahead again, they caught up again. Then we scored two in the seventh or eighth, can't recall from memory. Then WG brought in Ryan Berry to pitch the last two innings. He delivered and we won 8-6.

It made the trip back much more fun. I took I-20 west to I-59, a trip that turned out to be at least 100 miles longer. It was not worth it. Next time, if there is a next time, I will know.

The only saving grace was passing by historical Vicksburg. I'd forgotten that was in Mississippi. I could have detoured to see the Civil War battle site but I did not.

I drove into our driveway about 11 PM. It took close to 10 hours to get home.

I got up early Wednesday morning and drove to Hattiesburg for the C-USA conference tournament. I have never been this far into the southeast. It is a bit greener here. But it is not that much different. The area is inundating, gently sloping, but not flat really.

I made it just in time for Rice's 12:30 start. The game officially got under way at 12:35.

Taylor Wall as starter did well. But it looked like it was as much the Marshall kids mailed it in. Wall got the ball up a few times when the Marshall batters popped up or flied out. Wall walked four or five and was behind on quite a few hitters. But he also made some very good pitches.

The bats, on the other hand were hot. The Marshall starter Straily is actually a pretty good pitcher. But he gave up three runs in the first and four in the third capped off with a three run Rendon home run. Then a procession of relievers came in, most of whom got roughed up. The score ended 13 - 0 and was called early for the 10 run mercy rule. The game was ended after seven innings so Taylor Wall got a complete game shutout.

The baseball team lost to Texas State 4-1 last night (Tuesday, May 5, 2009) There were some Cinco de Mayo specials.

I had to miss it, having a prior engagement. I missed all the specials. I was able run over in time to see the last five outs. Their pitcher looked pretty good retiring all the batters in the ninth.

The game was on the radio so I could keep track as I drove over. And I heard some of what happened before.

Andrew Benak started but gave up two runs in the first. Coach Graham took him out on the first inning. He must not have had it.

Texas State got 13 or 14 hits. It is amazing that they did not score more.

Mark Haynes pitched four innings and gave up the other two runs. Matthew Reckling pitched after that doing well giving up no runs. Oh Diego Seastrunk got in too. He was relieved in the ninth after walking a batter.

When we arrived Jordan Rogers was pitching and Texas State had men on second and third with one out. He managed to get out of it without giving up a run. But it was to no avail as Rice could not muster a rally in the bottom of the ninth.

Jess Buenger got to pinch hit in the ninth. It would be good to get him healthy.

Rice got back from their finals break to play a disappointing Texas A&M - Corpus Christi team Wednesday night. This year TAM-CC came in 17-29. Their pitching staff has an ERA over 7. Rice won. The final score was 14-2.

Rice started Jared Rogers. He seems to be our midweek starter of choice. He has great stuff but often not so much control. Tonight the plate umpire seemed to be calling a very wide zone both inside and out. This certainly helped Jared. The umpire called it consistently for all three strikes meaning there were several called strikeouts.

Rogers went four innings. Then Mark Haynes went two innings. Then we got a pleasant surprise. Ryan Berry started the seventh inning. His velocity was good. He had a little trouble with control but mainly he had trouble getting his infielders to make plays. It looked like balls coming off the bats were knuckling. Anyone he got four outs and finally retired the side. Then Diego Seastrunk pitched the eighth and the first batter in the ninth. After get a lot of full counts in the eighth he struck out the first man in the ninth in dominating fashion. WG seemed to have seen enough so he came out and replaced him with Matt Evers. Evers got the last two outs. It was good to see a few pitchers get to air it out and get some of the rust out.

Rogers gave up two solo home runs, one to the opposing starting pitcher. Rice was down 2-0 before the onslaught. After the starter, who someone said was their closer, they pitched two seldom used relievers with ERA's well over 10. Natch, we struggled against them. But after getting one run in the third I think and then breaking through for three in the fourth off the starter Rice got rolling. Rice got three more in the sixth. In the eighth, with Rice up 7-2 the AM-CC manager brought in a starter to mop up. Natch, this is the guy we beat around. We scored seven in the eighth to break it open to 14-2. The starter got tagged for all of them.

Anyway there might have been a few jitters after getting down 0-2. We certainly wondered what a loss to these guys would do for our RPI. But the kids battled hard.
The three run fourth was done on an interesting play. The bases were loaded, full count and two outs. So the runners took off with the pitch. The alert start by the runner on first allowed three runs to easily score on a single. That was an unusual play to say the least.

The pitcher who hit the home run tagged it very well to left field. It was well over the berm out there. That was his twelfth home run of the year.

Diego Seatrunk can bring it hard and his ball has amazing movement. I suspect he will be projected as a reliever. He needs to work on command but he has a major league arm.

Rice baseball beats Texas 7 - 4 Tuesday night in Austin. Forget the Rockets, Rice wins! Rice wins! Speaking of officials. You always have to beat the team and the officials when you play Texas anywhere in the state.

Rice is now off for over a week for finals. So they used all pitchers who were rested enough. Rice used six pitchers. Even Diego Seatrunk got to face two batters.

I was doing something else so I when I was done I got in the car and turned on 91.7 to hear the call of the bottom of the ninth. Taylor Wall was pitching. It sounded like he was struggling to get the ball in the strike zone. But he managed to get enough in and the game ended on a double play ball. How exciting for those who were able to make it to Austin!

I was glad to hear the end.

After Sunday the people in the stands were not confident about playing Texas. Texas has won about ten in a row. But hey that just playing Big-12 teams. They are not playing Rice. I'm sure Texas did not play their front line pitchers but they did close with a weekend starter, just like we did.

The Rice hitters got 13 hits and left eight on base. Texas only got five hits but Rice pitchers walked Texas 12 batters. Was that the umpires giving Texas the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps. I was not there but I can wonder.

Dallas Baptist Patriots April 1, 2009

An easy game, right? A lookover game. Yeah.

I got there early and took a lap around the campus. I have been edging on sick and taking medications but I am getting over it. A three mile walk helped.

I was surprised to see Abel Gonzales starting. I expected Reckling or Benak. Maybe they will start this weekend. The DBU lineup has some strong leftys. That may be why Abel.

Abel was strong for two innings. He threw his first non-strike pitch at the end of the second inning. Eight strikes in the first and three outs, with one strikeout. It was eight or so strikes in the second before a ball, then a second ball. But he got through that one without a base runner.

But I think he got tired in the third. He gave up a few hits. But he also got no support in the field. There were two infield errors and one other drop by the catcher on a throw home that would certainly have beaten the runner for the third out. So he gave up six runs but by my calculation none of them were earned. He was finally relieved after giving up a three run blast. It was a tremendous line drive over left field. Mark Haynes got the last out.

Rice got two back in the 4th on a two run home run to the deep right field power alley. Balls hit there seem to just carry and carry. That was Mozingo.

DBU got two more back off Evers in the sixth. Evers walked one and hit Enos. Enos got hit twice by slow curve balls. It looks like he moves up and leans into them. The last one looked like it might have been a strike if it had continued on the path it was on. But Rice did not always help him in the field either. The second run scored on a grounder to third. The runner had third did not hesitate to run home. It was not a force at home but it looked like a good bet that the ball would easily beat him home. Maybe because of the last time Seastrunk had a chance to tag a runner did not turn out so well Rendon chose to take the out at first. But that allowed the eighth run to score and made it 8-2.

However Rice scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth. Rice is starting to hit. Some guys seem to have their hitting shoes on Holt, Mozingo, Hague. Gonzales-Luna is still hitting line drives everywhere. Even Fuda is getting into the act. Sultzbaugh continues to be mired in his slump. He has one bad at bat after another. Everyone hopes he will get it straightened out. But Rathjen has been no better.

The last two runs scored on an ole play by the DBU first baseman. When I was in little league 40 years ago my coach would always yell "get in front of it!" He always explained if you miss it, it hits you and you still have a chance to make a play. The first baseman could easily have moved over and got in front of it. It was not that hard hit. So it never touched the glove. As a result the batter got a hit and credited with two RBIs. That brought us with 8-6. The DBU fans had to be pretty worried. The DBU team had to be worried too.

But nothing happened in the 7th. Meanwhile after Ever was relieved by Travis Wright the Patriots were held down convincingly. Where has this guy been? Wright came in as mop up in the Memphis loss last Friday and pitched effectively. Wright did it again last night retiring eight in a row with four strikeouts. He was relieved by Jordan Rogers after walking a man in the ninth. Wright looks to be sneaky fast with a little drop curve. Perhaps his very slow pace on the mound gets batters impatient. Wright is hitting spots using the whole strike zone. Anyway if he keeps being effective he will get more time.

So in the eighth DBU brought in a different pitcher. The previous guy had been pretty effective but his ERA seemed to imply he was not considered one of their better pitchers. So they brought in the setup guy. He quickly got into trouble. So the manager brought in their closer. This guy has four saves. I don't think anyone else has save for DBU. But Chris Haney could not get anyone out either. He allowed the runners he inherited to score. He capped it off by giving up a no doubter three run home run to Brock Holt. It hit off the scoreboard in right. So that made it 11-8. Rice has come back to lead in their last at bat. A nice stat.

Wright walked the first batter in the ninth so Graham replaced him with Jordan Rogers. Graham certainly has changed his philosophy about pitching since I first started watching. He used to much prefer to allow a new pitcher to start an inning. Now he is willing to pull a pitcher during an at bat. Earlier Haynes was relieved with two outs and no one on. I suppose he was being saved for the weekend. Graham would probably say he is simply coaching the players he has. I can't argue with that.

Before Graham had a lot of starters. One would got five or six innings. The next one would finish. Now he is using many pitchers are short relievers. They are not expected (or trusted) to go more than two innings or maybe 30 pitches.

So Rogers got the first two batters and the crowd got excited. But superstar hitter Enos got a double down the left field line to get people a bit worried. Runners on second and third. The runners accurately understood there was no point in risking an extra base since these two runs only helped if the next one after them scored. So the runner on first made no effort to go home. The batter-runner followed him into second base.

But the next hitter popped out to end the game and earn Rogers a save. Wright gets the win. He was the pitcher when Rice came from behind and he certainly deserved it. He has come from being a squad player to a man who will be expected to contribute in the future.

I got to see the last 2.5 innings at Cougar Field. Fortunately for me that meant I saw half of Rice's runs. There was a home run by Andrew Rendon that barely cleared the left field wall. The last two came in on a play of errors. I think they only scored one but there were at least two. The Cougar kids were ready to say uncle.

We had close to half the spectators in the seats.

As I drove over I found the game was actually on the radio - 91.7. Benak was getting out of the sixth on a double play as I drove along. I do not have a hand held radio that will pick up 91.7 as I walked to the stadium.

As usual I sat on one of the wheelchair seats right by the entrance.

Benak must have started. He lasted until the 7th. Matt Evers came in and ably finished the game. I guess that means he earned a save.

Houston is starting the year slowly. Often they pick it up as April and May come. Hopefully for them conference play revives them. I like to see both teams in the post season.

I ended up talking to a man sitting on the back row who was wearing a OU hat and an OSU jersey. He started out by asking how old Wayne Graham is. I hear that from a lot of rival supporters. They are obviously hopeful he will retire or be gone somehow, the sooner the better. (heh, pun) When people ask me that I would not tell even if I could remember. Why jinx it? I do not remember, I hope Graham goes on forever.

This man had obviously been thinking hard about that. Probably he had been discussing it with the small group he was with. His son mentioned a friend who spoke of being with him when he was young. I forget the details. We discussed his pro ball experiences, as I remember them.

It seems his son, who sat next to him, plays baseball at a junior college in Oklahoma. He said the boy's coach is about to break the record for most career wins for a JC baseball coach. I acknowledged the accomplishment. He also said he is a former coach, in what I'm not sure. But he said he was a swimmer at Oklahoma University in the 70's. I guess swimming does not age you. He looked pretty young.

Evers finished the ninth strong and we all left. I took a long walk to finish off the day. Rice won 8-1.

The largest crowd at Reckling Park saw Rice beat Texas 6-3 Tuesday March 17, 2009. Texas used three freshman pitchers in the first six or seven innings. They closed with Austin Wood, one of their senior veterans and a lefthander. He has beaten Rice a few times in his career. I suspect none of these guys are front line starters. Wood might not be any more. But I'm not sure.

Rice started freshman pitcher Matt Reckling. He went into the fifth inning. Yes he is related, a grandson of the man the park is named after. He has good stuff but he is having trouble making the third strike. His control has to improve a bit. But he shows promise. He got into trouble in the first and third but only gave up one. He got a no decision, Rice scored 4 in the sixth to break it open. They were down 2-1 at the time and took it to 5-2. My guess is that Evers did not get the win as he did not pitch effectively. Jordan Rogers, the third pitcher, got the win. Abe Gonzales is the designated pitcher against a strong lefthanded hitter. So he pitched to one in the eighth. Then Mike Ojala finished for us. He pitched 1 2/3 innings and got four strike outs. He struck out the side in the ninth. He earned a save.

The sixth Rice run was pretty controversial. I always say every game you see something new. It is amazing how many times you see something you rarely or perhaps never have seen before. Last night that sixth insurance run scored on a two base sacrifice fly. The runner tagged up and scored from second base. At least officially that is what happened. A liner was hit to the right field wall. The rightfielder made an amazing diving attempt at the ball. Everything was behind the play and could not be seen well by the umpire who ran out. But after a second he called it safe. He called the ball was dropped. The man on second took off and slid into home. The hitter stayed on first. He was as confused as everyone. The Texas players threw the ball to second and someone tagged the base, thinking to get the double play. But the original call was RBI single despite the desperate attempt to catch it.

The Texas players were livid. Augie Garrido, the Texas coach came out and talked to the first umpire, then to a second umpire. Wayne Graham came out and got an explanation. He never did argue. The three umpires confided with each other and decided that the ball had been caught. Whoever the batter was, I cannot remember, walked off the base. We expected the man who had scored to go back out to second. They really could not call him out since the second base umpire had emphatically called the ball not caught. That would not be fair. All this time Garrido was still arguing. We really could not see what it was about. He did a lot of ejaculating and waving his arms. He marched back towards the dugout, then decided to talk to the home plate umpire. But then it dawned on the crowd. The sixth run was put on the scoreboard. The ball was given to the pitcher and the next batter approached. The umpires has decided to say the runner had scored! Wow. It still seemed like a compromise. The guys behind me were sure the runner had not tagged up. He may have been close to the bag, but he did not tag up.

They showed a replay which I saw the end of. It looked like the outfielder was picking up the ball. So I think maybe he did bobble it around and dropped it.

After the ball was put in play the pitcher toed the rubber then threw back to second to appeal whether the runner had tagged up. After a few seconds of the umpires looking at each other, the third ball umpire called safe. So it was so. Finally. The batter got credit for a sacrifice fly (right?). The runner scored from second on the wild catch in far right field. The Texas players had not really tried to catch him at home. They figured they had him at second for not tagging up.

I'm sure the Texas chat site lit up after that play. But it seems to me the alternative was to call the batter safe and the runner still would have scored.

Rice versus Texas tonight. 6:30 PM

The excitement builds. It will be a big crowd tonight. The weather will be about perfect I think.

As a promotion for St. Pat's the first 1,000 coming in get a green Rice baseball cap. In addition the players will wear the same green hats and these game worn hats will be later auctioned on the Rice website.

I'm sure there will be green beer sold in the tent down the left field line.

We mostly exhausted our pitching this weekend. Graham states he will not wear out the front line pitchers for this weekend's conference series opener. We also have a game Wednesday night versus the UH Cougars at the Cougar Field.

So we are going to likely give some lesser used pitchers a chance to show what they can do. We may see Reckling, Benak, and others get to pitch a few innings. If not tonight, then tomorrow night. Some of the weekend starters may get innings too.

On March 14 rain kept away baseball. I actually went to the stadium twice. First about 1:30 PM where we found they'd put the game off, due to inclement weather until 4 PM. I was going to skip it but it got put off until 7 PM. So after a lazy afternoon I got up and went a second time. I called a friend and he came. We had a nice chat catching up a little. We could have done more.

But then at 7:45 the game was called rescheduled as a double header tomorrow starting at 11 AM. I think after preparing the field, and it looked good. But I'm told that the drizzle came back and the coaches decided to not play in unsafe conditions.

Sunday March 15 I'll have to come after church. I will be late.

I dropped off my wife and started for the park. But then the heavens opened up. I was determined anyway but finally decided to come to my senses and headed back home.

While watching the Rice Parliament someone said the tarp was coming off at 2 PM or thereabouts. So I headed out.

Rice had some bad luck against a great pitcher. They were losing 6-0 when I had to leave in the bottom of the seventh inning. We did not get in the fourth game. Too bad.

But we did win the first two on Thursday and Friday. San Diego had some great piching but the fielding fell apart a couple of times.

I am trying to juggle other commitments and I missed the Thursday game. I had hoped to take in three games. The warnings about the weather: weather smeather. I figured it would hold off. But it didn't. We have gotten close to six inches around Houston this weekend. We needed the water. That was great. And the field held up very well. The improvements showed their value on Sunday.

Tuesday we host Texas. The website is advertising the game. They ran liners between innings at the park. Rice expects a big crowd if the weather holds. It is supposed to be cleared off and warm for Tuesday. The field should be drained and perfect.