Club baseball proving two can play at this game

By Joseph Angus     2/10/11 6:00pm

Since Head Coach Wayne Graham stepped on campus 20 seasons ago, Rice baseball has been synonymous with winning, and winning with class. Owl baseball is the first impression of Rice for many people - excellence in all facets. From its inception in 2004, club baseball at Rice has not always created the same impression. With more engineers than legitimate "ballplayers," the club baseball team was like the National Club Baseball Association's own version of the Chicago Cubs, the league's "lovable losers." Struggling to field a competitive team in its first couple of seasons, the Owls piled up losing records. Up against seemingly insurmountable odds, playing against schools 10 to 20 times larger than their own, the team continued to practice every week and play every weekend. Fast forward to the 2009 season, and the squad knew right away they had a special group. Rice finished its spring season with an 18-3 win over Vanderbilt University and rode that momentum into conference play. The spring season was not without bumps, but the Owls' passion for the game and desire to compete pulled them through. An especially-motivated group of freshmen pushed the Owls to practice more often, and an old saying, "baseball is a game of repetition," held true on IM Field 7. Every day, there was visible improvement in the team's defense spurred on by many "player's practices," extra practices called by the players, not the leadership.

In their final conference series, it was the team's commitment to each other and the game that pulled them through. On Saturday, the Owls exchanged blowout victories with the Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets in College Station, Texas. Left with a bitter taste in their collective mouths, the team spent that Saturday night at the batting cages, unsatisfied with anything but a singular outcome - victory. The extra work paid off, as several clutch hits propelled the Owls to a 3-2 win and an NCBA District VII title. With their regular season complete, the Owls had won every series and dominated every opponent at least once en route to an NCBA World Series berth.

Hosted in the tiny city of Johnstown, Pa., about an hour east of Pittsburgh, the NCBA World Series featured the top eight teams of the 84 playing nationally in their division. Given their past struggles, it is not hard to understand why the Owls were underestimated. Two wins later, the Owls had knocked off top-ranked College of William & Mary and fourth-ranked Western State College of Colorado and were poised for a showdown with the No. 5 Northeastern University Huskies in the semifinals. The Owls gave the Huskies their closest game of the tournament, but fell 6-3. Northeastern went on to beat Pennsylvania State University the following day for the National Championship.

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The largest problem looming over all college athletics is managing turnover and trying to replace graduating players. Fortunately for the club baseball team, the 2010 team was exceptionally young and lost no starters heading into 2011. The team had by far the best defense and pitching staff in its conference, sporting a sub-3.50 earned run average as a staff. The team also produced one of the top lineups in the area, with a team on base percentage of nearly .400.

Returning stars include team MVP Chris Walker (Will Rice '13) (3-0, 1.75 ERA, .382 batting average), team President Chris Brown (Baker '12) (.370 regular season B.A., .538 World Series B.A., 2 homeruns), and team Captain Fred Carbone (Brown '11) (.400 World Series B.A.). Both Walker and Brown won District VII batting awards; Walker added a District VII pitching award to his résumé. Senior pitcher Dan Bianculli (Baker '11) (5-0, 2.05 ERA) was the only other Owl to win a District VII award, Pitcher of the Week.

In the past months, the Owls have added impact arms and bats to what is already the deepest team in the conference. Head Coach Joe Cialone (Wiess '10) said, "There is no way you can ever have too much pitching or too much hitting talent, so we are thrilled to have the new players around." He added that the team also has a history of adding one or two players every spring.

The team gelled quickly in the fall. Following two losses at the hand of perennial contender Baylor University, the Owls swept Southern Methodist University and split with Tulane University in New Orleans. Rice also brought home some hardware following a second place finish in the Gulf Coast Invitational, a wood bat only tournament in Richardson, Texas. The Owls rode dominant outings by Martel freshman Mike Vatcher over Texas State University and Lovett freshman Daniel Kaplan over the University of North Texas all the way to the title game. Rice eventually fell to Texas A&M in the championship, but not before earning the respect of the attending NCBA officials and the region's best teams.

In the spring, the Owls are looking to take care of business again using pitching depth and fundamental play. They will also have to contend with a new element, the pressure that comes with being highly ranked. After their surprising run in the 2010 World Series and strong showing in the Gulf Coast Invitational, the Owls start 2011 ranked fourth nationally. So far, however, the Owls have found that this added pressure makes playing baseball even more fun. The Owls will start the fun tomorrow at the St. John's School in Houston with a double- header against Texas A&M at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and the final game of the series on Sunday at 2 p.m.

More information about the Rice Club Baseball team can be found on its website (riceclubbaseball.wordpress.com) or by e-mailing President Chris Brown (chris.brown [at] rice.edu).

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