Rice opens with upset of Florida Atlantic
BILOXI, Miss. — The home run ball and a timely contibution from a freshman sent Rice to a 5-3 victory over Florida Atlantic on Wednesday to open the Conference USA baseball tournament.
Solo home runs from Tristan Gray and Dominic DiCaprio in the first and third innings, respectively, helped Rice to a 3-1 lead. DiCaprio’s RBI double in the seventh and Charlie Warren’s RBI single in the eighth kept sixth-seeded Rice (2829) in front even though Florida Atlantic was staging its own home run derby.
Esteban Puerta, Tyler Frank and Stephen Kerr hit solo home runs for third-seeded FAU (3320-1).
That wasn’t enough to deter from freshman Matt Canterino’s day on the mound. He made it through a season-high 72⁄3 innings with 11 strikeouts, saving Rice from diving deep into the bullpen early in the tournament. Glenn Otto got his eighth save of the year.
“You almost have to do it or you’re in real trouble,” Rice coach Wayne Graham said. “Canterino pitched a great game. (FAU) is a great hitting team. They’re going to get some runs, but he pitched a great game.”
Rice plays Old Dominion at 4 p.m. Thursday in a winner’s bracket game.
BIG 12
Blake Battenfield threw six scoreless innings to help eighth-seeded Oklahoma State to a 3-0 win over top-seeded Texas Tech as the No. 1 and 2 seeds fell on the opening day of the Big 12 tournament at Oklahoma City.
Battenfield allowed four hits and walked two while striking out four for the Cowboys (27-25), who reached the College World Series last season but struggled to an 8-14 record in conference play this year.
Starter Davis Martin allowed five hits and three runs in 31⁄3 innings for Texas Tech (42-14), which shared the conference title with TCU but has now lost three of four to Oklahoma State this season.
Cade Cabbiness and Garrett McCain each had sacrifice flies to account for Oklahoma State’s first two runs, while Jon Littell added a run-scoring single in the fourth inning. Colin Simpson finished 2 for 4 and scored twice for Oklahoma State.
In the day’s second upset, Brett Vosik had a two-run single in a fourrun eighth inning and seventh-seeded Kansas beat second-seeded TCU 7-3.
TCU (39-15) tied it at 3 in the seventh on Austen Wade’s RBI single. But Kansas (30-26) responded in the eighth with four hits and a walk, capping the outburst with Vosik’s run-scoring single.
Taylor Turski started and allowed two runs in 61⁄3 innings for the Jayhawks, and Blake Weiman (5-1) earned the win in relief.
Sean Wymer (4-4) took the loss in relief for TCU after allowing four runs without getting an out in the eighth.
In the first game of the day, West Virginia scored seven runs in the bottom of the first inning and defeated Baylor 11-1.
The Mountaineers (33-22) sent 12 batters to the plate in the first on a windy day at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, with Kyle Gray’s three-run triple highlighting the onslaught.
Richard Cunningham had two hits and scored the only run for the fifthseeded Bears (34-20).
West Virginia freshman Isaiah Kearns threw a complete game against a Baylor squad that was second in the conference in batting average during the regular season.