Feb. 25, 2007

Box Score

HOUSTON -- Junior outfielder Jordan Dodson had career-highs with two home runs and six RBI to help the fourth-ranked Rice baseball team break a one-run game wide open on the way to 14-1 victory over visiting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the finale of the Rice Invitational sponsored by Academy Sports Sunday afternoon at Reckling Park in Houston.

The Owls' opportunistically put a run on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning by taking advantage of two Islander fielding errors. Rice added another in the second inning when Dodson led off with a double to right-center. He advanced to third base on a one-out hit by Diego Seastrunk and scored on Tyler Henley's sacrifice bunt to put the Owls ahead 2-0 after two.

The Islanders answered with a run in the top of the fifth. Jon Kourie led off with double to straight-away center field. He scored on a two-out hit to center by Bryan Gerondale that Henley made a dramatic dive for in an attempt to end the inning. The Islanders still had two on base in a 2-1 game, but junior starter Joe Savery pitched out of the jam with a strikeout. When Savery left after scattering five hits and striking out three in a predetermined 5.0 innings of work, the Rice offense exploded for 12 more runs and 13 more hits.

The Blue & Gray broke the game open with six runs in the bottom of the fifth and then proceeded to add another six runs in the sixth. Both big innings were on six hits and the big blow in both frames were Dodson's matching two-out, three-run homers to left field. The first was on an 0-1 pitch that made the score 8-1. The second was on a 2-0 count and it stretched the margin to 14-1.

Dodson was 3-for-4 with two homers, a double, six RBI and three runs scored. A number of Owls up and down the lineup contributed to the new season high for runs (14) and hits (16) in a game. Chad Lembeck had three hits and Brian Friday, Aaron Luna, Danny Lehmann and Seastrunk all chipped in with two hits each.

Savery moved to 3-0 on the mound this season. He was relieved by Kyle Gunderson, Bryan Price and Mike Ojla, who combined to hold the Islanders to no runs on just three hits over the final four innings.

Rice won its sixth game in a row to improve to 9-4. The Islanders fell to 9-4. After an eight-game homestand the Owls next play four-consecutive games on the road. Rice travels to Huntsville, Tex., on Tuesday (Feb. 27) for a 6:30 pm game against Sam Houston State. The Owls then play a three-game weekend series at national power Cal State Fullerton March 2-4.