Friday's Sports Update: Owls push through rain to defeat Thundering Herd

By Dylan Farmer     4/16/09 7:00pm

Battling both the Marshall University bats and bouts of intermittent rain, starting pitcher Taylor Wall and reliever Jordan Rogers held off a late-game rally to preserve a 7-5 win for the baseball team on Friday night at Reckling Park.Heavy rainstorms doused the Houston area in the mid-afternoon, pushing the game's 6:30 start time back an hour and leaving less-than-ideal conditions in their wake.

Despite that, however, the Rice offense applied pressure early in the game, putting runs on the board in both the second and third innings after grounding into a double play in the first. In the second, designated hitter Diego Seastrunk walked, and a single by first baseman Jimmy Comerota put runners on first and second. Catcher Craig Manuel laid down a bunt to advance the runners a base each, and a subsequent wild pitch from Marshall's Dan Straily plated Seastrunk.

The Owls scored another four runs in the bottom of the third, loading the bases with one out Seastrunk. Seastrunk walked, scoring right fielder Chad Mozingo, and after Comerota popped out, a single from Manuel helped two more runs cross the plate. The next batter, left fielder Ryan Lewis, hit a single to score Seastrunk for the final run of the inning. Rice added another run in the fifth for a 6-0 lead.

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Meanwhile, Wall was dealing from the hill for the Owls. The left-handed freshman took a no-hitter to the fifth inning, and a shutout to the seventh, collecting eight strikeouts and allowing five hits and a walk. He struck out the side in the second inning, and after giving up a leadoff double in the fifth he induced a fly out and recorded two punch outs to end the threat.

The rain started falling harder in the top of the seventh inning, perhaps contributing to Wall's sudden loss of command. He gave up a seeing-eye single to left before collecting a strikeout and ground out for the first two outs, but a walk, followed by a double and an error plated two runs for the Thundering Herd. When third baseman Anthony Rendon couldn't get a throw to first in time for the final out, another Marshall runner scored, making the score 6-3 in favor of the home team.

Rogers came in to end the threat in the sixth, but after Marshall's Josh Valle reached on a leadoff single, teammate Victor Gomez sent a one-out line drive over the right field wall to cut the Rice lead to just one run. But Rogers stifled any Thundering Herd hopes of taking the lead with two straight strikeouts.

Rice added an insurance run in the bottom of the frame. Left fielder Michael Fuda slapped a single to center field, and center fielder Stephen Sultzbaugh put down a bunt to send him to second. However, a quick-thinking Fuda headed to third base when he saw nobody covering it, and a futile throw by Marshall sailed into foul territory, giving Fuda the chance to run all the way home. The Owls could not put any more runs on the board, but it turned out not to matter, as Rogers shut down the Thundering Herd in the ninth.

Saturday's game, previously slated for 2 p.m. at Reckling Park, has been moved to a 7:30 p.m. start time.

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