I hear T.C.U. beat Texas in the Super-regional, hosted by Texas. You are not supposed to lose if you host. T.C.U. was a tough pairing for Texas, they hit better and have some quality pitching.

Rice has some good arms but really only one dominate pitcher. T.C.U. and Texas both have several. But T.C.U. hits much better.

I'm sure the second guessers will say Texas got a raw deal having to play such a tough opponent, there were surely many other pairings that they could have won. I tend to agree. But I just cannot find any compassion to feel sorry for those Teasips. I thought they were just a little too smug announcing the Super-regional tickets sale before they had dispatched Rice. Nothing was ever openly said who would win but it was implied. It was too bad Rice could not ruin their plans. One wonders if the announcers was talking about College World Series tickets during the third game Sunday. If so they were speaking to the Horned Frog faithful.

Texas had a lot of experienced regulars but they are guys that should have been replaced by younger more talented guys. Texas has not been getting the hitting talent.

Texas has tricked up their stadium for pitching. Perhaps that has made it harder to get talented hitters. Who knows what is going on?

Of course they did lose only 11 games in regular season and won their regional. So one can easily overstate their weakness. They scored enough and played excellent defense.

So T.C.U. makes their first appearance in Omaha. That is heady stuff. Good luck to the Horned Frogs. I am sorry that I cannot got to watch.

OK, Rice plays second fiddle to Texas in Austin this weekend. This is the old fashioned double elimination tournament with four teams.

Rice plays U Louisiana Lafayette at 1 PM Friday. I will drive up in the morning and buy at the gate. This should not be a problem.

Then I will drive back to Houston as I have an important class at 8 AM Saturday morning.

So assuming Rice wins (never know) Rice will play in the evening Saturday night versus probably Texas. Again you never know.

Given all that I will drive back out to Austin around 1 PM this time packed for a few days. If all goes well I will put up in Austin Saturday night and be there until Rice wins or is eliminated.

I criticize my children for driving madly around the state now here I am doing it. Hopefully it is not too stressful for me or my car.

If Rice loses Friday and we play early I do not expect to get there in time to watch. I do not have it that together yet.

Oh, an expected ticket Rice vs. Texas on Saturday is already mostly sold out. General admission is available. There must be a limit to those too. I read one might be standing on the berm. I'll do it if necessary.

But I have put in a request for a Saturday ticket with the Rice ticket people. They are to call me Saturday on my cell. I hope I hear the ring.

It's exciting folks.

Rice lost the championship game Saturday night before a TV audience and the biggest Rice audience in a long time.

I wonder if the boys did not put undo pressure on themselves. They do seem to have trouble dealing with success sometimes.

They got a lot of hits off the first pitcher Innis but only got one hit with men in scoring position. They left a lot of men on base.

The second pitcher is the only one for USM who has gotten Rice hitters out this year and he continued that after the first pitcher left the game.

Now we Wait

Now we wait to see where Rice will go for the Regionals starting this weekend. I have a big conflict Saturday morning so I may not be able to travel this year. I am disappointed but that is life.

I walked over to UH with my soon to be California daughter and watched the Rice vs. ECU game Wednesday. The game started at 3:00. At 2:00 I was at work and she was shopping at Galleria. You would never have guessed it as we took about 25 minutes to walk from home crossing I-45 at Cullen in Rice hats. The beggars ignored us.

Anyway Taylor Wall did struggle at times but only gave up two solo home runs for five innings and ended up giving up what I think was an unearned run in the 6th. Rice was behind 1-0 in the bottom of the 1st but hit a home run of our own in the bottom of the 1st to take a 3-1 lead. Rice kept broadening the lead until it was 8-2 when Taylor Wall had pitched 6 innings and got to 100 pitches.

Rice used Holt McNair for two innings. Then Matt Reckling came in to start the ninth to a cheer from the crowd. He got three outs without incident to finish. Neither of these two figure to pitch in pressure situations. Rice won 11-3 getting a late home run from Diego Seastrunk. It was a satisfying game for the crowd.

Mention should be made of the great fielding by Rice. Rendon made a couple of great plays. There were some running catches, some diving catches, McNair started a clean double play after a great stab of a ground smash up the middle. There was one mistake on an attempted double steal by ECU late in the game. But ECU did not take advantage of the extra out.

East Carolina started a guy who had not started a game this year and who had a 9.00 ERA. He has pitched about 9 innings this year. Their second pitcher was also a lower rated guy. They seemed to be conceding this game. They have saved their best pitchers for the next two games in their pod. Does that make sense? I do not get it.

Rice plays the host team Houston tonight at 7 PM. I think my Marble Falls daughter is coming with me tonight. Cool.

Rice Owls plays as the first seed in the C-USA tournament starting Wednesday over at the Houston Cougar field. So Rice plays at 7 PM on Wednesday Thursday and Friday. COME BY AN SEE. I should be fun.

Each day there will be three game at UH. So you can be there all day and watch baseball. But Rice will be last each day.

The Cougars qualified for their own tournament over the weekend. It did not look like they were going to for a while. Only six out of nine teams qualify and lot of teams were tied for sixth before the last game. Actually the Cougars may be able 4th after all is said and done. They won two out of three from East Carolina on the road. ECU has had tournament teams recently so that was a good weekend. Maybe the UH coach keeps his job after that. Maybe not.

I don't know if I mentioned that Rice lost the last game versus UAB on Saturday. UAB won 8-5. All their runs came on three home runs, two by their marvelous first baseman, making his count 22 for the year. The last three run home run came after they walked the first baseman. It was on the first pitch after pretending to pitch to him.

Rice came back from behind twice to tie but after this they did not really mount any more threats. They did not appear to be too intense but how can one know. Baseball is that kind of game, if you do not control your emotions you try too hard and are more likely to fail.

Sunday I also took in the final game of the Rice - Southern Miss series. The series was for first place in conference. It was not terribly pretty in some ways, especially pitching but Rice did get it done, winning the last two.

Fridays' game was rained out. Saturday morning the rain was still coming so the doubleheader make up was moved back to 3 PM. I think I must have written of this yesterday. Did I?

Rice scored a lot of runs this weekend, 41 I think.

Rice got behind 11-2 in the first game since the starter did not have it and the next two relievers got hit hard too. But then Rice had a big 8 run 8th inning after the starter finally tired. It seems SM has a worse pitching staff than we do. But also the Rice kids can really hit. Despite a few of them in batting slumps they are proving they can score in bunches. However the SM closer came in and got Rice out in the 9th to hold on for the win. I do not think he got the save since he gave up some of those runs in the 8th. But in the 9th he settled down.

Mike Ojala pitched well in the second game and Rice scored some later to take a 10-2 win. Abe Gonzales came in for the last three innings are earned a save, even with such a lopsided score. You have to worry about SM's hitting after watching them in the first game. They had Vollmuth, a hot hitter. I think he got almost as many home runs as Rendon. Did Rendon hit five home runs in the series? Maybe it was four. He hardly ever made an out. And Seastrunk was almost as good.

OK on Sunday I had church and could not get to the game until the top of the third. SM scored four, I think in the first and Rice's pitcher only went 2.1. Should I name names? Tradition seems to be you only list the names of guys doing well. I was walking to the park it was 5-2. By the time I got to the ticket taker it was 6-2. I believe it was 9-2 on a three run home run by the time I got to my seat. Graham brought in and replaced two pitchers in that inning. I guess they scored seven runs before the fourth pitcher, Anagnostou, got the final out. The group around where I sat wondered why I came to watch this carnage. It was now 11-2 going to the bottom of the 3rd.

The comeback was amazing. In the 4th I believe Rice scored seven runs making it 12-9. That looked closer but SM can score too. I figured they had plenty of time to score 20 runs. Why not? Rice's bullpen does not strike fear in opponent's hearts. We have a bunch of throwers who just do not seem to be able to get third strikes. They give up too many walks and hit batsmen.

But Anagnostou managed to hold up for six innings without giving up a run. He was getting ahead of hitters and spotting the ball very well. He had few real threats. Vollmuth kept hitting the ball but no one could drive him home. This is certainly his best performance this year.

In the next inning (5th?) Rice scored 5 runs and in the 6th Rice scored 5 more runs making in 19-12. Amazing. Amazing. Rice then got a single run in each of the 7th and 8th. So in the top of the ninth Rice had a 21-12 lead. I was late to my evening church choir practice so I headed out with two outs in the bottom of the eighth. I heard the final put out as I walked to my car.

In the car I can barely pick up KTRU but through the static I found that Anagnostou finally tired and after giving up a home run and walking another he was relieved with one out for Abe Gonzales. That's what I knew when I went in for the practice.

I found out when I got home that we won 21-14. A pretty good football score. I guess Gonzales gave up Anagnostou's runner before closing the game.

The fellow behind me had already left and the other fellow who sits next to him said he would leave too. He says "If they lose now, I do not want to be here to watch it." I can relate.

When it as 11-2 we were wondering what OG, Wayne Graham, would say at the baseball dinner scheduled for Monday night, tonight. As it is there is quite a bit to complain about. But winning 2 out of 3 looks good. And remember we had a good chance to win the first game Saturday with just one or two more timely hits. What could have been. heh

Rice got rained out Friday. Houston much needed it. JB and I went to the park just to be sure. They had held out hope but soon after I arrived the rain did too in torrents. I finally got a nachos just before they called it off. They rescheduled a double header for Saturday...

I am just back from the doubleheader Saturday. Wall did not have it and only lasted two innings. Rice got down 11-2 before scoring 8 times in the 8th. But with one out and a man on third they could not score the tying run and lost 11-10.

In the evening Rice got the split with a 10-2 win. Ojala pitched well enough over six innings and left after having thrown 110 pitches. Abe Gonzales spread four hits and no walks over three innings to finish up and qualify for a save.

The games started out scheduled for 1 PM, later got moved to 3 PM by early rains. I left for the park at 3 PM and was there in plenty of time. The first game started around 3:45 PM. The first game took over three hours, closer to four.

Rice pitching led by Wall gave up seven free passes. That got them way behind. Also Southern Miss hit three home runs in the early game. They got their only two runs in the second game off Ojala on a home run by Vollmuth, their best hitter.

If was funny, the first Southern Miss starter had a ERA over five yet a record of 7-0. He extended it to 8-0 with the win. The second starter had a 2.45 ERA yet a 5-4 record. And he took the loss, so he is now 5-5. I guess the Friday starter usually gets a lot of run support.

Rice is now two games ahead of SM in the C-USA standings. We hope for a final win tomorrow. The weather cleared very nicely for the last game. I think it will hold up like this for Sunday's game at 1 PM.

Did I mention Rice beat Texas State something like 14-2 on Tuesday afternoon? The game was pretty quick. Few walks. Rice got our early and scored in every inning but one.

On Wednesday night Rice beat Texas Southern 16-9. That one took much longer, not because of the score. It was because each team had seven pitchers, there were about 10 hit batsmen during the game and quite a few walks on both sides. Rice fielded a bit better than TSU but Rice had their share of mistakes. Only TSU had errors, two of them on tough chances for the 3B. At least one of them could have been ruled a hit and no one would have minded. But they at times looked ragged in the field.

The scoring started slowly. TSU starter gave up only one run for three innings. Then they took the starter out and Rice went to town. Some of it was being patient and taking the walk. Meanwhile Rice starter J. T. Chargois did not give up any runs and left after five innings. Chargois did not look terribly dominate but he and his teammates managed to find a way keep runners from scoring. There was a pickoff at second base and a caught stealing in there. Rice scored their only run off the starter: with two outs, men on first and third, the runner on first attempted a steal of second but when the throw was made the runner stopped and the runner on third was able to score before the runner from first was tagged out in a run down. Cute. Rice tried it later again but this time TSU was ready and threw out the runner at home catcher to 2B to catcher. That too was a nice play.

Rice was ahead 14-0 when TSU scored five in the 8th. Several pitchers were ineffective giving up hits and walks. Rice got two back in the bottom of the 8th. Then Matt Evers was allowed to start the 9th. The crowd groaned. Was the 16-5 lead big enough for Evers? Bless his heart Evers just has not been effective for about two years now. Apparently the answer was no as he allowed the three batters he faced to reach and he was taken out. Tyler Duffey was finally brought in to finish. It was not a save situation but coach was nervous. We all were. Duffey gave up a long three run home run to cap the four run inning for TSU but then did get the final outs. One was a line drive snared by Rendon, a very nice play.

Rice had three non-standard DP's in this game. Two were line drive, catch the runner off base plays. I cannot remember what happened on the other one. Maybe it was a like DP played against Rice.

Rice has three games this weekend. With the game Tuesday that is five games in six days. Rice coaches were trying to get through these first two games with backup, less used pitchers. It worked out fine. Aside from Duffey all the pitchers were guys who needed work and were trying to show the coaches they deserved to play in more important games.

The last two games versus ECU were close and exciting. But the Rice Owls got a sweep of the three game series this weekend. It helps a lot. It does not hurt.

No the student/athletes have time off for finals. The next game will be Wednesday week against Texas Southern University.

Pitching is still spotty. But WG said ECU is a great hitting team, you have to give them credit. I absolutely agree. ECU does have a bunch of great hitters. The Friday game they had some fielding problems, especially trying to throw out players stealing second base.

But Rice hitters are doing better, much better.

So I am quietly confident about our chances in the post season. I do not believe they are still assured of making it yet. If they keep up the momentum I will be traveling a lot to see the team play during the post season.

Rice vs ECU today, Saturday. Pretty exciting. The umpire called a wide strike zone consistently, the pitchers Ojala and Maness pitched very well. But Rice was down 2-0 in the bottom of the eighth. Rice managed to get two men on and the ECU coach decided it was time to put in his closer.

The closer had to face Rendon. On a 2-1 pitch Rendon took him deep three run home run. Rice went from 0-2 down to 3-2 leading.

Then Rice brought in their closer Tyler Duffey to pitch the ninth. He retired the ECU batters with three straight outs. It was great. It was exciting.

JB and I then went over to look at Rice playing UCF in the C-USA tournament semi-finals. We watched what is called "the doubles point". Three doubles matches that are played to an eight point set. Rice quickly got behind in all three matches. They lost on the third court but came back on the 1st and 2nd courts to win those two matches and get the point. That was exciting too. But we decided to go home and not stay for the singles matches.

I went to see the Rice Aggie game Tuesday night. I was treated shamefully in the stands but that is not a big problem.

I was angry with the results of the game. The team had one horrible inning and several innings where the team did not take advantage of their opportunities. I was frustrated and angry as I drove home.

I think the umpires were terribly biased. But it is not that we have not seen similar help at home. You can still win if you get the clutch hits. We just did not do that.

The Aggie fielders were uniformly steady and even flashy. You gotta hand it to them for their great defense and the starting pitcher completed the game with 122 pitches. He seemed to make some good pitches. He seemed to be getting help from the plate umpire too. (Grrrr bias I know.)

Rice won 2 out of 3 in South Florida this weekend. While this is a good accomplishment and the young men were hitting well, except the middle game, which we lost, pitching is still not deep enough.

South Florida has a pretty good record but we still ought to sweep all these teams. I know, my expectations seem high. And it probably too late to do anything about getting a regional.

Now we are working to prepare ourselves for the C-USA tournament. A win there gets us into post season and a chance. This team could be trouble in the post season.

I guess there will be regionals in Fort Worth, Austin, and College Station in the state of Texas. We are probably a third, maybe a second seed in one of those regions. Let's see how we do with that. I'll be there, God willing.

Tomorrow we have a game in College Station. JB and I will travel up there and hopefully get a ticket.

Yesterday a couple of us drove up to Huntsville to see Rice play Sam Houston State. Rice came back from a 7-3 score in the 7th to win 8-7 scoring the go ahead run being scored on a Seastrunk HR in the top of the ninth. Cool. Jeremy Fant was a surprise mop up pitcher. He went over two innings of good relief before someone else finished and got the win.

Tonight I could not make it but Rice scored early and often against Texas A&M - CC and won 23-1 or 23-2. I drove up to the stadium around 8:50 and found the game long over the visiting playing loading up the bus to go home. I thought the scoreboard said 23-2. But the news report I saw on twitter said 23-1. Lots of pitchers pitched. That seems to be the way right now. Rice has a lot of good arms but no one seems to be able to be consistent for a long period. We are getting some of the weekend starters becoming more consistent.

Ojala has pitched well since coming back. He is still on a limited pitch count. But he might be a leader who shows the other pitchers how.

I am heading with a friend up to Huntsville tonight to watch Rice play Sam Houston State. I expect good seats are still available. I will also take the road to College Station next Tuesday to see Rice play Texas A & M.

This weekend Rice won two out of three, the last two, in New Orleans against Tulane. Tulane has a pretty good club.

I read on the Rice site that Rice's RPI is 42. That is probably too low to get an at large bid to postseason. It is borderline. Rice has to win the conference tournament to be sure of getting in. And it looks like we will be a second or third seed in someone elses regional.

Despite being second or third in conference they have the best RPI by far. So our RPI is not likely to get better because most of the tough non-conference games are over. The rest of the games will be against conference teams that are much weaker.

I got to arrive at the Rice Houston finale around the 8th inning. I think the Cougars too the lead in the top of 8th, the score was 7-6. Then Rice tied it in the bottom of the 8th. They had a few chances in the ninth but later won on a home run by Manuel in the 12th.

It looked like everyone was trying to hit a home run after the ninth to get a walk off win. It finally happened. Manuel had come close to the same right field his last time up. The last time he hit a low liner that went over near the foul pole.

From where I sat in the bleachers down the right field line I could not tell if it was fair. I had to wait to hear the cheers. I did get a close look at the ball flying out. I just could not tell about the angle.

I was good for Rice. It completes a sweep.

Graham was using little used pitchers after I got there. There were five pitchers used I think. Boogie A. was the winner. I think he went close to two full innings.

Rice has seemed to rebound lately. Pitching has been pretty strong against Lamar and Houston. I got to go Friday. The move of games back one day has been bad for me. I had to miss Thursday and probably today too. Sad for me. Good that the kids get to be off for Easter.

After losing two out three games in Memphis, finally winning the final game, Rice beat Lamar and today Houston, while I was busy.

I hope to see the Rice game versus Houston tomorrow and also on Saturday.

I guess Rice is celebrating Easter on Sunday.

Couldn't go to San Marcos but the Rice Owls shut out the Texas State Bobcats 5-0. Abe Gonzales, a talented lefty got the start and went 5.1 innings. He has gotten some good outings in lately so he earned this start.

After quite a few bad outings in Palo Alto the pitching has looked great.

After losing their first four games, the team has now won five in a row and of course have a 5-4 record.

Tonight Rice plays Texas at MM Classic. I must miss it and the Sunday game. Hopefully I will be able to make the Saturday night game. Oversubscribed. Sigh.

OK Rice was leading UH Cougars 6-2 in the seventh when I had to leave yesterday. I had to go to play politician.

Rice did a great job. Some good clutch hitting. Jared Rogers started for six innings and was tough. Hopefully the pitching has righted itself now.

Rice finally won 8-2, saw it reported on the 10 o'clock news. I am always amazed when college baseball is reported on the local news. It must have been a very slow news day.

From memory I remember Rice got two home runs and Houston got one.

Great news from this last weekend. The pitching has seemed to right itself. There was some clutch hitting. There was some power. For the most part the fielding was steady. None of the errors hurt.

We won all three games in our invitational versus good quality teams. Elon was 4-0 when Rice won Friday. Nebraska is a talented team which we beat 4-3 Saturday with the help of a controversial balk call in the bottom of the 8th. That helped Rice score the go ahead run. Sunday Rice beat a game Texas A&M - Corpus Christi team 7-2. It was 3-0, then 3-2, then Rice broke out late. They scored three or four runs in the bottom of the 8th. I think they scored one in the 7th and three in the eighth. Anyway it was close for a long time.

Doing this from memory I cannot remember the Friday pitcher. Saturday it was Taylor Wall and Tyler Duffey holding a tough hitting Nebraska team down. They scored 21 runs on T AM-CC Friday. Sunday it was Cingrani, the new junior transfer and Matt Reckling finishing. They did great.

So Rice is now 3-4 against tough competition. A few guys still have not started hitting. Some say heresy but I think Hague may get a day off soon.

Rice is coming back it seems. First they beat Elon Friday night in the cold.

Tonight they beat Nebraska, a very good baseball team 4-3 behind Taylor Wall's seven innings and Tyler Duffey's dominating final two innings. Duffey gets his first college win as Rice scored the go ahead run in the bottom of the 8th.

It was exciting. There was a balk that contributed in that 8th, which the Nebraska coach felt was unfair. He argued with the home plate umpire at the time, between innings and later as well. I myself do not understand how a righthander can balk to first base. There are ways of course but I did not see it. Of course one usually does not see the balk when it happens. That what we miss without TV replays.

The weather was slightly warmed tonight and I came much more prepared tonight.

The Duffey family sits in front of us. So we know who to congratulate from now on.

I'm going to see the Rice Elon game today at 4:30. There was supposed to be rain coming. Is it still predicted? The sky is bright and we has 70 degrees on the outside thermometer at my house.

Rice Owl baseball finally opened yesterday. They lost at home last night. They got swept at Stanford last weekend. Pitching is a big problem. Hitting and fielding seem OK, maybe above average. Last night as the innings wound down several freshmen got to try out. Anyone who shows a spark will get more time.

Game started at 4. There was a 10 minute glare delay, that happens every spring. The game ended a little after 7.

They team ERA is well over 10. There seem to be no dominate pitchers. It's been a long time since it has been like this. There are lots of arms, lots of potential but no one is taking the opportunity.

There is lots of season left. And there are several pitchers who have not gotten a chance yet. I remain hopeful.

The weather was sunny and clear and not really cold. But as the sun went down around 5:30 the temperature dropped rapidly. It got really cold before the end. Quite a few people gave up and went home, the score had something to do with it maybe the cold was just the excuse. The two together drove people home early.

Baseball is coming soon. I am excited.