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March 29, 2008

Box Score

HOUSTON -- The tenth-ranked Rice baseball team collected 14 hits and pitchers Chris Kelley and Matt Evers used a total of five double plays from the Owl infielders to post a 9-0 shutout victory over visiting Southern Miss in the second game of the three-game Conference USA weekend series Saturday afternoon at Reckling Park.

After being shut out by the same Southern Miss team in the series-opener less that 24 hours earlier, Rice returned the favor in game two. The Owls jumped on the scoreboard with six early runs while Kelley, Evers and the defense kept USM in check. Kelley scattered five singles over 6.2 innings with six strikeouts to improve his record to 3-1 on the season. In the top of the first inning he worked out of a runners-on-first-and-third situation with strikeout. The senior from Sugar Land, Tex., then induced double-play ground outs to avoid danger in the fourth, fifth and sixth.

Evers relieved him the seventh and though he surrendered leadoff base hits to start the eighth and ninth, nearly identical second-to-short-to-first double plays helped keep him out of jams. The five twin-killings are the most for a Rice team since turning five against Baylor in a home NCAA Regional win on May 27, 2001. The Blue & Gray turned six double plays in a game against San Jose State during the 2000 season.

To avoid a repeat of Friday's outcome the Owls worked quickly to put a pair of runs on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning. Junior Jared Gayhart singled to right field and opportunistically hustled to second base when a USM fielder bobbled the ball. Gayhart took third on a bloop-hit to center by Diego Seastrunk, and Seastrunk dashed for an extra base when the Golden Eagles threw the ball back toward home to hold Gayhart at third. The next batter, Aaron Luna, grounded a ball to third base and Gayhart was safe when the defense elected to try and make the play at home plate. Seastrunk scored from third on a sacrifice fly by Adam Zornes to give Rice a 2-0 lead.

The Blue & Gray batted around for a big four-run second and when the dust cleared the team had more runs (6) than hits (5). The Owls drew three walks and RBI singles by Jimmy Comerota, Luna and Zornes stretched the margin to 6-0.

Zornes led off the bottom of the fifth with a base hit and Rick Hague followed with his team-leading fifth home run of the season. The long ball to left field extended the freshman's hitting streak to 12 games and made the score 8-0. In the seventh Abe Gonzales singled and scored on an RBI double by Gayhart for the ninth and final run of the contest.

Rice snapped a two-game losing streak to improve to 19-8 overall and 4-1 in Conference USA action. Southern Miss, which entered with a three-game win streak, dropped to 16-8 on the year and 3-2 in conference. The weekend series between the two teams concludes Sunday at Reckling Park. Start time is set 1 pm.