March 16, 2009

Complete Release in PDF Format

Rice Ticket Page

Owls Conclude Homestand With Texas Longhorns Tuesday Night
The fourth-ranked Rice baseball team (10-5) wraps-up its current homestand with a game against a Texas team that is as high as No. 1 in the nation in some polls on Tuesday (Mar. 17). The first pitch with Longhorns (14-2) is set for 6:30 pm. There are a host of promotional activities coinciding with the Tuesday night clash at Rice's Reckling Park... The Owls then take to the road for their next five games for the remainder of the week (Mar. 18-22). The schedule with easy-links to the live stats/audio features is as follows.

Mar. 17 (Tue.), 6:30 pm, Rice vs. Texas
Watch the games live on OwlVision
Game Tracker
KTRU (91.7 FM) Listen Here
Home game promotion: Rice baseball is picking this St. Patrick's Day to "Think Green" and recycle. The first 1,000 fans at the game against the Longhorns (6:30 pm) will get a green Rice baseball hat. The Owls are also going to wear green hats that night, which the players will then sign for an on-line auction at RiceOwls.com. Fans will also receive green Mardi Gras beads from Methodist Hospital and get to participate in a number of activities that promote recycling.

Mar. 18 (Wed.), 6:30 pm, Rice at Houston (Game Two in the best-of-five Silver Glove Trophy series)
Game Tracker
KTRU (91.7 FM) Listen Here

Mar. 20 (Fri.), 6:30 pm, Rice at Southern Miss
Game Tracker
KTRU (91.7 FM) Listen Here

Mar. 21 (Sat.), 3 pm, Rice at Southern Miss
Game Tracker
KTRU (91.7 FM) Listen Here

Mar. 22 (Sun.), 1 pm, Rice at Southern Miss
Game Tracker
Internet (only) Listen Here

Fun At The Old Ball Yard
No baseball season would be complete without a full slate of promotional dates, and the 2009 Rice season is no exception. Rice recently had its first Dollar Dog Night (March 12) where hot dogs were just $ 1... Each Sunday of the home season, the Owls will offer a special Family Pack, which allows a family of four to buy four general admission tickets, and receive vouchers for four drinks and four food items from the Prince's concession stands for just $40. Also on Sunday's, another Rice tradition will continue, as all kids in attendance will be able to take the field with the Owls for the National Anthem, as well as run the bases after the game. Fans will not want to miss the inaugural "THINK GREEN" with the Owls this St. Patrick's Day against Texas.

97th Season Since The Start; 94th Season On The Field
The 2009 season marks the 97th year since Rice played baseball for the first time. Rice Owls baseball made its debut in the spring of 1913, just one semester after Rice opened its doors for higher education in the fall of 1912. The 2009 season is, however, only the Owls' 94th season on the diamond. The school did not field a baseball team for three years (1933-35) during the Great Depression. Rice returned to the diamond in the spring of 1936 and has been playing ever since.

Audio Broadcasts
Every Rice baseball game is broadcast live around the world on the Internet at RiceOwls.com and KTRU.org. A direct connection to the audio feed is provided at the above links. Each of the next three games, including Tuesday's showdown with Texas, is slated for a live radio broadcast in the greater Houston area on KTRU (91.7 FM). Broadcaster J.P. Heath has the call for the Owls this season.

All Home Games On OwlVision
A host of home games at Reckling Park are slated for a live broadcast on OwlVision. OwlVision is a subscription-based service which matches the play-by-play audio with a video feed to create a television-like broadcast on the Internet (either live or in an archived format). The service has proved to be very popular with fans and alumni living throughout the world. Information about the service and subscription prices are available here.

Live Stats On GameTracker
Live play-by-play text and statistics from every Rice game will be posted on RiceOwls.com. Look for the GameTracker links on either the Rice Athletics front page, the weekly series preview or the baseball schedule page.

National Ranking Update • Rice As High As No. 4
At press time the latest polls from Rivals.com had the Owls as high as No. 4 in the nation. Three different polls all had Rice in the Top 10. The 2009 national ranking roll call is as follows....
Rivals.com 4th
Baseball America 7th
NCBWA 10th
Collegiate Baseball 11th
USA Today/ESPN Coaches 12th
PG Crosschecker.com 13th
PingBaseball.com 14th
Rice has five starters returning to the regular lineup as well 10 experienced pitchers. The newcomers making their Rice debut in 2009 were tabbed as among the best recruiting classes in the country by a host of baseball publications.

Head Coach Wayne Graham
Four-time national coach of the year and Texas Sports Hall of Fame inductee Wayne Graham (Texas, 1970) is in his 18th season at Rice... He is 797-304 with the Owls (487-103 at home, 237-156 in road games and 63-45 at neutral sites). His Rice winning percentage is .724, the best in school history. Another way of looking at Graham's .724 win percentage is that it is the equivalent of a major league team winning 117 games in a single year - then winning 117 games a year for 17+ years in a row... Graham's record against this week's foes is as follows: 20-30 vs. Texas (9-11 home, 5-15 road, 6-4 neutral); 57-24 vs. Houston (34-7 home, 23-17 road); and 7-3 vs. Southern Miss (5-2 home, 2-1 road)... Under Graham, the Owls clinched another postseason bid in 2008, making 14-straight seasons for Rice to earn an NCAA appearance. The 2003 bid culminated with the Owls' first national championship. Rice played in the 1994-95-96 Southwest Conference tournaments (winning the final league title in '96), won the 1997-98-99 WAC tournaments, shared the 2000 WAC title with San Jose State before winning the 2001-02-03-04-05 titles outright. He won the C-USA regular season crowns in 2006, 2007 and2008, as well as the C-USA tournament championships in `06 and `07. Rice has advanced into the NCAA tournament in 1995-96-97-98-99-00-01-02-03-04-05-06-07-08... Graham was named the WAC Coach of the Year in 1998, '99, '02 and the Co-Coach of the Year in '03. He was named the Keith LeClair C-USA Coach of the Year in `06, his first year in the league, and again in `07 and `08... Rice has seven appearances in the NCAA College World Series under Graham (1997, '99, `02, `03, `06, `07, `08)... Graham has led the Owls to number-one rankings for seven weeks during the 1999 season, for six weeks during the '01 campaign, two weeks in '02, six weeks in 2003 (the last of which established some staying power), three weeks in 2004, 12 weeks in 2006 and five weeks in `07... Graham's San Jacinto Gators dominated the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Colo., in the 1980s, winning five national titles in six years (1985-86-87, 89-90)... The Austin American-Statesman named Graham its SWC Coach of the Year in '95 after he led the Owls to their first NCAA tournament appearance... Collegiate Baseball was especially cognizant of Graham's efforts at San Jac. He was named the newspaper's Coach of the Decade for all levels in the 1980s after winning those five junior college national titles, and CB tabbed him the NJCAA Coach of the Century... He was named the 2007 Division I college Coach of the Year by FieldTurf... One of the few current collegiate coaches to have played in the major leagues (N.Y. Mets in 1963, Philadelphia in 1964), Graham is aided by assistant coaches Mike Taylor (Prairie View A&M, 1997; ninth year), David Pierce (Houston, 1988; seventh year), Patrick Hallmark (Rice, 1995; fourth year)... Taylor coaches at third base this year while Hallmark coaches at first base.

1,372 Wins • A Baseball Odyssey
Wayne Graham owns 797 career wins at Rice, but he also has 1,372 victories when including his 11 years at San Jacinto North College where he won five national championships. Graham's overall collegiate record is 1,372-417 in a 28-year career that began in 1981.

One More Thing To Consider
Rice started its baseball program in 1913. In the 76 seasons where there are verified won-loss records from 1913 to 1991, the Owls won a total of 838 games. In the 17+ years since 1992 when Wayne Graham was named the head coach, the Owls have won 797 games.

C-USA Honors Continue To Pour In For Berry - Part III
Not only did junior Ryan Berry become the first player in Conference USA history to earn league Pitcher of the Week honors in three consecutive weeks, he also picked up the weekly award for a C-USA record seventh time in his career the conference office announced Mar. 16... Berry posted a third-straight nearly flawless outing in the Owls' 4-1 win over No. 20 San Diego last Friday (Mar. 13). The right-hander from Humble, Tex., pitched a complete game, one-hitter for his third-straight win. He carried a perfect game into the seventh inning and no-hitter into the eighth, but finished with a complete game one-hitter (where he also hit a batter). For the third week in a row, Berry did not walk a batter and he struck out a least eight. He saw his streak of 26.1 consecutive innings without allowing any runs come to an end, but he still has a streak of 28.2 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run. In four starts this season, Berry has maintained a 1.42 ERA and he has held all opposing hitters to a composite .088 batting average... This is Berry's seventh career C-USA Pitcher of the Week honor, the most in league history. Shane Nance and Brad Sullivan, both of Houston, had previously held the record with six weekly honors... The C-USA Hitter of the Week honor went to UAB junior catcher Digger Towe, who batted .571 (12-of-21) with 16 RBI and 10 runs scored while leading the Blazers to an undefeated 6-0 record. Towe hit two home runs and five doubles for a 1.095 slugging percentage last week.

Hot-Hitting Mozingo
Sophomore right fielder Chad Mozingo batted a composite .364 (4-for-11) last week as the Owls went 2-1 against a nationally-ranked San Diego squad. Mozingo blasted a home run, had a double, led the team in runs scored (3) and RBI (4). He also had a walk, stolen base and sacrifice bunt. Mozingo had a team-best .727 slugging percentage and a .417 on-base percentage.

The Rough Stretch Continues
Rice is in a pretty tough gauntlet of games recently. The Owls have recently played an Oral Roberts team that won 48 times last season, three games against a San Diego team that won 44 games last season and No. 1 Texas on Saint Patrick's Day to cap it off. Texas, San Diego and Oral Roberts is a three-team, five-game group that averaged more than 43 wins last season. The Owls also have up-coming games against two more teams, Houston and Southern Miss, that advanced to NCAA Regionals last season.

This & That
Through 15 games Rice (10-5) is ahead of its won-lost pace from the same point last season. In 2008 the Owls began the year 9-6, but wound up reaching the College World Series for a third-consecutive year... The Owls were scheduled to play a four-game series against nationally-ranked San Diego, but rain in the Houston area forced the cancellation of one of the games... For the first time in four games, second-baseman Brock Holt was back in the starting lineup. The junior from Stephenville, Tex., was sidelined from starting duty, but returned to face San Diego. Holt had a pair of hits, including a double, in his most-recent outing against the Toreros... True freshman Anthony Rendon is quickly making name for himself on offense and as a third baseman. The young star from nearby Lamar High School leads the team in hitting (.356), RBI (18) and home runs (4)... Ryan Berry's outings the last three weeks have been impressive, but one of the most notable things is that he's done it all without that much offensive support. In Berry's last three starts, the Owls have hit a composite .208 and averaged an otherwise dangerously-low 5.0 runs per game. The team's top hitter in each of Berry's last three starts has been his newly designated catcher, Craig Manuel. The freshman receiver from Satellite Beach, Fla., has caught each of Berry's last three gems, where he has hit a team-best .364 (4-of-11) with a double, walk and three runs scored... Rice junior right-hander Mike Ojala has moved into the Friday night starting slot for each of the past three weekend games. Ojala's results for the full season have been sound and solid, but also a little under the radar while Berry has been in the spotlight. In his four starts, Ojala has averaged 6.2 innings per outing, maintained a 1.67 ERA and averaged 11 strikeouts per nine innings. His strikeouts-to-walks ratio is 4.1-to-1.

Historical Longball 101
In the 13-6 win over 2008 NCAA Tournament participant Dallas Baptist (Mar. 4), Rice hit four home runs in the game, including three that were back-to-back-to-back by Chad Mozingo, Diego Seastrunk and Rick Hague. The last time Rice hit at least four home runs in a game was on May 26, 2007, against Memphis in the semifinals of the C-USA Tournament held in Greenville, N.C., when the Blue & Gray had six round-trippers. That was also the last time the Owls hit three home runs in the same inning as Jess Buenger, Aaron Luna and Danny Lehmann all slugged the ball out of the park in the top of the ninth (with Buenger and Luna going back-to-back). The Buenger-Luna-Lehmann trio in fact just-missed a back-to-back-to-back that inning... Mozingo and Seastrunk were the first two-thirds of the three-consecutive homers against Dallas Baptist, but the teammates have hit back-to-back home runs once before. In 2008 Mozingo and Seastunk went yard on consecutive at bats in the 10-4 win over Texas at Minute Maid Park (March 1)... The last time Rice has hit a grand slam was Seastrunk's four-run, walk-off shot to beat UAB on April 13, 2008. Rick Hague also hit a grand slam last season. Hague cleared all the bases with one of his two home runs in the win over Winthrop on St. Patrick's Day 2008.

The C-USA Favorites
IRVING, Tex. - Led by the junior tandem of Ryan Berry and Diego Seastrunk and sophomore Rick Hague, the Rice baseball team was ranked first in a preseason poll of Conference USA's nine head coaches, the league office announced on Jan. 28. The three preseason honorees are the most in the conference from any one school. Last season Berry was an all-conference pitcher who led the team in strikeouts (86), starts (16) and innings (104). The 6-foot-1 right-hander from Humble, Tex., has been the ace of the Rice staff since he earned freshman all-America honors in 2007. Hague earned freshman all-America honors last season as the starting shortstop for the Owls' College World Series team. The standout from Spring, Tex., batted .348 in his Division I debut and .379 in the Blue & Gray's run through the NCAA Tournament. Seastrunk is such a respected switch-hitter around the league that the C-USA coaches voted him to the preseason all-conference team even though the former third-baseman is projected to start at a completely new position (catcher) in 2009. A year ago the Channelview, Tex., star led the team in hitting (.353) and finished among the C-USA's best in hits, doubles, RBI, total bases and sacrifice flies.

2009 PRESEASON BASEBALL COACHES POLL
(as selected by C-USA's head coaches)

PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH
Rank, School (First Place Votes) Pts.
1. Rice (9) 81
2. East Carolina 67
3. Southern Miss 62
4. Tulane 55
5. Houston 49

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Nate Lape, Marshall (Sr., Outfielder)

PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Seth Maness, East Carolina (Soph., Righthander)

ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM
P Ryan Berry Jr. Rice
P Seth Maness So. East Carolina
P Wes Musick Jr. Houston
RP Chase Dempsay So. Houston
C Diego Seastrunk Jr. Rice
IF Brian Dozier Jr. Southern Miss
IF James Ewing Sr. Southern Miss
IF Rick Hague So. Rice
IF Seth Henry Sr. Tulane
IF Adam Yeager Sr. Marshall
OF Stephen Batts Jr. East Carolina
OF Brint Hardy Jr. UAB
OF Nate Lape Sr. Marshall
DH/UT Rob Segedin So. Tulane

Legends Of The Fall
The fall of 2008 saw the Owls in a very different training format from years past. In place of only having Blue-Gray scrimmages, Rice elected to play four exhibitions against other Division I universities. The exhibitions counted against scheduling dates in the spring, but did not count in the NCAA standings or for a player stats. Playing exhibitions meant that Rice could only schedule 52 games for the spring instead of the max that the NCAA allows (56)... Coach Graham liked what he saw of the Owls' practices from the fall. It turned out Rice had intense and focused practices because the team was practicing for something at the end of every week (an actual opponent). So how did the Owls look when playing other Division I opponents in the fall? Rice hit a composite .348 with a 2.21 ERA to win all four exhibitions. Opponents were mistreated to a .210 average and an 8.20 ERA... Junior Jimmy Comerota moved from second to first base and led the way with a .519 batting average and a .630 slugging percentage. Newcomer Brock Holt, a junior middle-infielder from Navarro College, batted .474 and shared the team lead in doubles.

Cooled By A Draft
A total of 11 Owls were selected in the 2008 Major League Baseball amateur draft, including junior right-hander Bryan Price as a first-round supplemental pick (the 45th player taken overall)... Bryan Price was taken by the Boston Red Sox organization in the supplemental round, the so called "sandwich" round between the draft's official first and second rounds. He was the first pitcher taken by the Red Sox, the defending World Series champions. Price was also the 13th right-handed pitcher taken overall. Six Rice juniors and four seniors were drafted last June... The total of eleven drafted players was three-off the Owls' school record of 14 draftees the team had taken in 2007.

Rnd Player Pos MLB Team
1A Bryan Price RHP Boston Red Sox
7 Cole St.Clair LHP Los Angeles Dodgers
7 Adam Zornes C San Diego Padres
9 Aaron Luna OF St. Louis Cardinals
11 Matt Langwell RHP Cleveland Indians
12 Jared Gayhart OF Detroit Tigers
18 Bobby Bell RHP Toronto Blue Jays
21 Lucas Luetge LHP Milwaukee Brewers
24 Chris Kelley RHP Washington Nationals
29 Jonathan Runnels LHP Los Angeles Dodgers
44 J.P. Padron 1B Washington Nationals