Saturday's Sports Update: Baseball falls in final regular season game
Rice had one strong pitching performance Saturday, but it was not enough to overcome shaky relief work and a bevy of opposing home runs in its 8-5 loss to the University of Alabama-Birmingham this afternoon. The Owls (35-20, 17-7 Conference USA) could not capture a sweep and lost their last regular season game of the season.After the pregame festivities honoring the team's seniors and their parents, junior right hander Boogie Anagnostou (3-3) took over the spotlight. He faced the minimum through the first three innings and finished with one earned run and only three hits over his 5.1 innings of work. Anagnostou left with the lead, thanks to an RBI single by freshman second baseman Michael Ratterree in the third inning.
However, sophomore southpaw Taylor Wall (4-5) forfeited a grand slam - with one run unearned and another credited to Anagnostou - in the same inning and left the game with the Blazers (28-25, 11-13 C-USA) leading 4-1.
The Owls clawed back in their half of the inning with RBI hits by sophomore third baseman Anthony Rendon and senior center fielder Steven Sultzbaugh. A sacrifice fly off the bat of left fielder Michael Fuda then tied the score at four.
Freshman J.T. Chargois (3-2), who was the pitcher of record, pitched next and gave up a solo home run of his own in the seventh. The Rice offense responded yet again with a sacrifice fly by senior first baseman Jimmy Comerota, but junior reliever Abe Gonzales (4-3) surrendered a three-run shot in the eighth - putting a cap on a day of pitching that Head Coach Wayne Graham was not pleased with.
"Boogie pitched real well, he just had to come out because his ankle was bothering him," Graham said. "So we had one promising pitching job and three awful ones."
Though the Owls had baserunners in the eighth and ninth innings, they could not mount another rally against UAB and ended their five-game winning streak.
"It's tough when the pitchers keep giving it up," Graham said. "You get it back, they give it up. You get it back, they give it up. It can be discouraging."
Next up for Rice is the C-USA Championship beginning next Wednesday at the University of Houston.
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