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.