Longhorns break out the bats to keep Owls at arm’s length
Texas rode a five-run third inning to an 11-4 victory over Rice at Reckling Park on Tuesday night.
“It’s just not good enough,” Rice coach Matt Bragga said. “Didn’t pitch well enough early, and defensively it’s not been good for four games honestly.”
It looked promising for the Owls early, though.
In just his third start, freshman Antonio Cruz got Rice (2-2) on the board first when he singled in Dominic DiCaprio in the second inning.
But it didn’t take No. 14 Texas (3-1) long to respond.
Eric Kennedy’s single scored Bryce Reagan despite a diving outfield effort by Cruz in left field. A batter later, Zach Zubia singled in Duke Ellis to put the Longhorns ahead for good. But the third inning wasn’t over as D.J. Petrinsky tripled in a pair of runs and scored on an error for a 5-1 lead..
Rice had a shot an equalizer in its half of the third with the bases loaded. But the Longhorns replaced freshman pitcher Ty Madden with Beau Ridgeway, who struck out Cade Edwards.
Texas put three runs on the board in the fourth as a result of RBI singles by Petrinsky and Austin Todd and a sacrifice fly by Zubia, who also homered in the sixth.
Rice has scored the majority of its runs in the fifth inning this season and that trend continued with a three-run burst Tuesday to trim its deficit to 8-4.
The Owls loaded the bases after DH Andrew Dunlap was hit by a pitch. Rice strung three consecutive hits together to push Bradley Gneiting and Trei Cruz home. Edwards capped the rally when his single plated Dunlap.
But Texas extended its lead from there.
“Depending on what rankings you look at, we’ve got all five games this week against Top 25 opponents, so this is a very challenging week (and) we knew that coming in,” Bragga said. “I think morale has been pretty good; I just think we played bad baseball tonight.”