COLLEGE BASEBALL: LOOKING AHEAD TO THE 2021 SEASON.
Bragga’s team ‘can’t wait’ to begin season
The Rice baseball team should have been kicking off its 2021 season against Arkansas-Little Rock on Friday night at Reckling Park.
After almost a full year since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the end of the college baseball season last March, the Owls were set to finally get back on the field in a weekend round robin that would’ve also featured games against Washington and Houston Baptist.
But Mother Nature threw another twist in Rice’s plans. Winter storms forced millions of Texans to go without power and water for days, while also forcing another delay to the start of the Owls season.
“For everybody, whether you’re a coach (or) an athlete at a college or not, it’s been a rough week for everyone in the area,” coach Matt Bragga said.
Nothing about the situation was any easier for Bragga and the rest of the program.
Throughout the week, Bragga said, he had numerous players who lost power and water. Some players lived off oatmeal for days without access to hot meals during the worst of the storm.
Bragga himself was on the phone constantly (he made 75 calls on Tuesday alone, well above his average in a single day), communicating with the staff at Rice as well as staffs from other schools to salvage what was already looking like a lost weekend.
Wednesday morning, Bragga received a call from the staff at Washington. The Huskies had received an invitation to play a series at UC Irvine. Because of the uncertainty surrounding the games in Houston, Washington took the offer to play in California instead.
“I don’t blame them. I mean, there were some uncertainties here,” Bragga said. “That was the first time I was like, ‘Uh oh.’”
Later that evening, Bragga received a call from Baylor, who had lost its own series due to the conditions on its field in Waco. Bragga thought he could just plug the Bears into the Huskies’ spot, and everything would work itself out.
But by Thursday morning, upon finding that the main water line to the field broke, there was no way to guarantee the visiting schools would even have power in their hotel, let alone be able to play a baseball game.
Bragga then decided to call off Friday and Saturday’s games.
And to pile on, COVID-19 still hasn’t gone away. One of his pitchers woke up Sunday with a sore throat, and Bragga told him to stay home and get tested Monday. His roommate, another pitcher on the staff, was told to remain home, too.
But because of the storm, the pitchers weren’t able to get tested until Thursday. Though the tests came back negative, Bragga is still upset his players had to sit for things out of their control.
“(The tests) were negative, which is great, but they have missed five days of practice and they’re not even positive,” Bragga said. “But it’s no one’s fault, there’s nothing anyone could do. We are going to deal with that all season, quite frankly.”
But through the hardships the last year, and especially the last week, has brought, the Owls are still set to play baseball this weekend.
Bragga said they are now getting players back who have had to sit because of health and safety protocols. Houston Baptist, which had been in constant communication with Rice throughout the week, agreed to play a three-game series that starts Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
The water line that leads to the field was able to turn on, meaning the Owls could host all three games against the Huskies. And the teams agreed to play during the day to conserve the energy needed to play night games.
The situation in Houston is still not back to normal, and COVID-19 still has the potential to derail everything, but things are coming together in time to finally get Rice back on the diamond.
“Oh man, we can’t wait,” Bragga said. “It’s going to have been 345 days since the last time Rice has taken the field, so we’re champing at the bit to get out here and let these guys go play.”