March 6, 2007

Box Score

Baseball: HOUSTON -- The eighth-ranked Rice baseball team rallied for a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth inning and had the tying run in scoring position, but visiting Saint John's was able to hold on for a 7-6 win over the Owls Tuesday night at Reckling Park in Houston.

Trailing 7-4 to start the ninth, Rice strung together a double by Brian Friday, a single by Aaron Luna and ground-rule double by Joe Savery to get some late-game heroics started. A one-out walk loaded the bases and sacrifice fly by Jared Gayhart cut the margin to one, 7-6. St. John's closer Chris Lynch, however, worked out of the jam with a ground out to preserve the Red Storm's third win in a row.

Rice tied a season-high with 16 hits and out-hit St. John's 16-9, but the team fell to 11-7 on the season with a second-straight loss.

The Owls opened the scoring with a run in the bottom of the third inning. Junior Chad Lembeck singled up the middle and he moved into scoring position on Travis Reagan's sacrifice bunt. Lembeck advanced 90 feet on Jimmy Comerota's ground ball to the right side. Lembeck scored on the first of Friday's two doubles for a 1-0 lead.

St. John's came right back and scored two unearned runs in the top of the top of the fourth. Sam Deluca singled through the right side and Chris Joachim walked to put men on first and second. The Owls had a chance to get out of the inning with two away, but a Rice fielding error scored Deluca and allowed Joachim and Gil Dayas to take second and third, respectively. Brendan Monaghan followed with an infield single to take the lead, 2-1.

The Red Storm added two more in the top of the fifth. Brian Kemp drew a leadoff walk and Ryan Mahoney slugged a home run to right to stretch the margin to 4-1.

The Owls answered with two runs in the bottom of the frame. Tyler Henley and Friday led off with back-to-back singles. Luna doubled to left-center to score Henley while Friday took third. He scored on Savery's sacrifice fly to right to make the score 4-3.

St. John's right fielder Anthony Smith slugged a home run to start the sixth and the Red Storm moved ahead 5-3. SJU added to the total with single runs in the eighth an ninth. Both scores were unearned after the fourth Rice fielding error of the night. The Owls were able to push a run across in the eighth when Jared Gayhart doubled and scored on a single by Diego Seastrunk. The Owls sent seven men to the plate in the dramatic ninth inning.

After just one home game this week the Owls get right back out on the road to participate in the Whataburger College Classic in Corpus Christi, Tex., on March 9-11. The four-team round-robin tournament is held at minor league stadium Whataburger Field, home of the Houston Astros' AA franchise the Corpus Christi Hooks. The tournament field features some of the state's top teams including Texas Tech, TCU and host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.