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.