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March 4, 2005 > Sports > No. 12 Owls dominate Cardinals

No. 12 Owls dominate Cardinals

Savery earns WAC Player of the Week as baseball wins two at tournament

By Jonathan Yardley | Thresher Editorial Staff

The baseball team’s bullpen uncharacteristically blew a late-inning lead Sunday in a 6-3 loss to the University of Nebraska, but the Owls responded with an equally surprising 10-0 shellacking of traditionally pesky Lamar University on the road Tuesday. Rice has now won four straight against the Cardinals after losing three in a row during the 2002 and 2003 seasons.

Junior right-hander Ryne Tacker, making his second consecutive midweek start, worked seven shutout innings, while senior first baseman Adam Rodgers and junior rightfielder Lance Pendleton had breakout games offensively to give the Owls, ranked 12th nationally by Baseball America,

momentum heading into this weekend’s Round Rock College Classic at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas.

“It’s good for us getting ready to go into conference [play],” Rodgers said. “Any time you can play ranked teams, especially in a place like Round Rock, it’s going to be really fun.”

The Round Rock Express, the Houston Astros’ AAA affiliate, is hosting the tournament, in which Rice (11-2), No. 15 Texas A&M University and Texas State University will take on a national field of No. 23 University of Southern California, the University of Notre Dame and Nebraska. Rice faces Nebraska today at 2:30 p.m., USC tomorrow at 3 p.m. and Notre Dame Sunday at 6 p.m. Freshman left-hander Joe Savery, who will start today against the Cornhuskers, said the Owls expect to make up for Sunday’s loss to the Cornhuskers.

“We don’t feel like that team is better than us,” Savery said. “We feel like we just didn’t close the door when we had to, so we’re not worried about them.”

After rain cancelled Saturday’s games at the Crowne Plaza/Rice Invitational, Rice played Western Carolina University at

Reckling Park Sunday in place of its scheduled game against New Mexico. Rice swept both games from the Catamounts, winning 9-1 Friday and 8-4 Sunday, behind the standout hitting of Savery and his fellow freshmen shortstop Brian Friday (5-for-10) and centerfielder Tyler Henley (4-for-8). Savery, Henley and freshman catcher Danny Lehmann boast three of Rice’s best five batting averages, on-base percentages and slugging percentages.

“They’re talented guys,” head coach Wayne Graham said. “They’re also the right kind of people. They love the game and they’re willing to pay the price to be good.”

Savery was named Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week for his efforts at the plate last week and continued his hot streak Tuesday, when he went 3-5. Savery started the season 6-for-25 before an amazing 12-for-14 streak last week and now leads the team with a .439 batting average.

“I know that I’ve got the backing from the coaches and that even though I struggle, I’m still going to be in the lineup every day,” Savery said. “That took the pressure off of worrying about playing my way out of the lineup.”

On the mound, Savery earned the win with seven strong innings Friday against Western Carolina, and the Owls got another strong start from junior right-hander Josh Geer (3-0, 1.07 ERA) against Nebraska Sunday, but Rice could not take advantage of seven Nebraska walks and led only 3-1 going into the eighth inning.

Junior right-hander Bryce Cox, who had dominated in four prior relief outings, allowed a solo homer, suffered through an eight-minute glare delay and eventually surrendered a game-tying single. Nebraska third baseman Alex Gordon then crushed a three-run home run to right-center field to give the Cornhuskers a 6-3 lead. Rice went quietly in the bottom of the eighth, at which point the game was called to allow Nebraska to make its flight home.

Rodgers said the loss turned into a positive for the inexperienced Owls, who had three consecutive come-from-behind wins last week.

“It was good for us in that we understand we have to play all nine innings now,” Rodgers said. “They pulled on us what we’ve been pulling on some other teams. We just keep making errors. I don’t think that necessarily cost us that game, but it lets you know that if you don’t play all nine [innings], … you’re not going to come out on top very often.”

Rice made nine official errors in its four games last week and is fielding just .962 on the season.

“The defensive side of our game right now is the same as hitting,” Rodgers said. “We all know how to field a ground ball, we all know how to make the plays, we’re just [being] our own worst enemy right now on defense.”

In Sunday’s second game, junior left-hander Matt Ueckert was shaky in his third start of the season and left after three innings with soreness in his elbow. Graham said Ueckert could miss the rest of the season and the third weekend starting spot could go to Tacker, junior right-hander Eddie Degerman or freshman left-hander Cole St. Clair, depending on individual matchups.

Degerman got his first win of the season in relief of Ueckert Sunday and has a 4.09 ERA in 11 innings with a 7:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Degerman will likely start Sunday against Notre Dame, but Tacker was exceptional Tuesday. After struggling with his control and allowing the first two hitters to reach base, Tacker allowed just one hit and one walk in the next 24 batters he faced. Tacker also benefited from Rice’s best offensive game of the season, as the Owls set season highs in runs and hits. Rodgers went 4-for-6 with three doubles and drove in three runs, while Pendleton (3-for-5, 3 RBI) and sophomore second baseman Josh Rodriguez (2-for-3), who had both struggled previously, each contributed key hits.

“Some of our really good hitters haven’t been hitting so well,” Graham said. “We knew Rodgers was going to hit, and he had a real big night tonight — [he] carried us. We’ve just got to get everybody functioning on a high level.”

Senior third baseman Adam Morris homered in consecutive games Sunday and Tuesday — his first two round-trippers of the season — but Graham said he thinks junior utility man Greg Buchanan, a switch-hitter who has started at third and in the outfield, will bolster the Rice lineup when he returns from a foot injury. Sophomore catcher Travis Reagan started his first game Tuesday after arthroscopic knee surgery in the off-season, and sophomore outfielder Adam Hale has had few at-bats because Rice has faced more left-handers, seven, than right-handers, six, this season.

Rice’s biggest strength could still be its pitching depth — the Owls have 11 healthy pitchers with ERAs better than 4.10 — but Graham said the team’s speed could prove critical this weekend.

“When you’re playing the top opposition in the country, … you just want to gain consistency and you want to compete,” Graham said. “You want to do the things that are critical — quality at-bats, good defense, throwing strikes and changing speeds. And we’d like to put people in motion, too, because we think we can run a little bit.”

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