Sloppy play sinks Owls in opener against Wildcats

Rice has done enough winning over the past 20 years to know one porous season opener won’t ruin the year.

Friday’s season opener still won’t sit right with coach Wayne Graham.

Mostly uncharacteristic play slowed Rice in an 8-1 loss to Arizona on Friday at Reckling Park. Arizona scored four runs off three Rice errors.

“Very uncharacteristic,” Graham said. “We’ll come back from it. It’s just one of those really bad games. I didn’t expect it, but we will overcome it.”

The errors were an issue at times last year, too. Rice had 82 errors in 2015, third most in the conference.

After Cody Ramer’s tworun single in the second, Ryan Aguilar scored off first baseman Connor Teykl’s error in the third. Two other runs came from Louis Boyd and Justin Behnke in the fourth off shortstop Tristan Gray’s error, which game Arizona a 5-0 lead.

Rice’s third error came in the eighth when Jared Oliva stole second base. An errant throw from catcher Hunter Kopycinski allowed Oliva to take third and Boyd to cross home plate for a 7-1 lead. Bobby Dalbec added the RBI single afterward.

“They played aggressively and for some reason, we did not stay ahead in the pitching, we stayed behind the count all the time,” Graham said. “It gave them the opportunity to run the bases, and when they ran the bases, we didn’t handle it well.”

Maybe the most uncharacteristic note of the night was the loss by lefthanded starter Blake Fox. That’s only happened three times in the Conference USA Preseason Pitcher of the Year’s Rice career. The senior went 6-0 in 2013 and 12-0 in 2014 before going 8-2 last year.

Arizona lefthander J.C. Cloney gave up four hits, an earned run and no walks while striking out nine in seven innings.

“He’s got a history, and he pounded the strike zone,” Graham said of Cloney. “We just weren’t quite ready. He had some deception. He had good control. We just weren’t quite ready for him.”

Gray’s leadoff home run to right field in the seventh was the only real breakthrough for Rice at the plate.

Rice tallied only three singles other than the home run.

Rice enters this season as winners of 20 straight conference regular-season or tournament titles. The program is fresh off its 21st consecutive NCAA Tour- nament berth.

A busy schedule early in the season gives the Owls a chance to improve. After the three-game series against Arizona, Rice hosts Dallas Baptist on Tuesday, Texas State on Wednesday, then takes part in the 2016 Houston College Classic against Arkansas, TCU and Louisiana-Lafayette on Feb. 26-28 at Minute Maid Park.

“It’ll mature us,” Graham said. “It better.”