Wednesday's Sports Update: Baseball loots Pirates in search of C-USA title
Rice's journey in the Conference USA Championship began Wednesday afternoon at the University of Houston, where the Owls beat East Carolina University 11-3 at Cougar Field. Sophomore Taylor Wall (5-5) started for Rice Wednesday and was immediately awarded run support, a welcome development for the lefty. Junior right fielder Chad Mozingo led off the first with a double and scored on junior shortstop Rick Hague's homer to left field. Sophomore third baseman Anthony Rendon also scored thanks to a single by senior catcher Diego Seastrunk.
Meanwhile, Wall put together a solid if not spectacular performance with six innings, three earned runs and five strikeouts. Through the starter's recent struggles, Head Coach Wayne Graham has identified a pattern in his location.
"The problem is, he's not getting the ball inside," Graham said. "Last year when he was at the top of his game and this year when he was at the top of his game, he took the fastball inside."
However, Wall - who said his goals for today's game were "pounding the strike zone and getting the team back in the dugout"- did have moments that pleased Graham.
"There were a couple of innings when he did throw real well," Graham said. "So that's promising."
The offense kept plenty busy while building on the Owls (36-20, 18-7 C-USA) lead. A sacrifice fly scored one in the second, then RBI hits by senior center fielder Steven Sultzbaugh, sophomore designated hitter Jeremy Rathjen and Seastrunk bumped the score to 8-2 in the fourth.
The Blazers (31-26, 11-14 C-USA) picked up another run in the sixth after a wild pitch, and freshman Holt McNair (1-0) relieved Wall for the seventh inning. He tossed two scoreless innings, forfeiting only one hit, and sophomore Matthew Reckling relieved him in the ninth.
In the eighth, Rice increased its lead by three with an RBI single by Rendon and a two-run homer by Seastrunk, who led the team with three hits and five RBI. Seastrunk, who often follows Rendon in the batting order, relishes that challenge.
"You have to perform when you're hitting behind that guy, because they're going to walk him all the time," Seastrunk said. "I love having these guys behind me, I like putting them on my back. Coming up big with hits like that is fun."
The Owls will play Houston tomorrow night at 7 p.m. and Marshall University on Friday at 3 p.m.
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