Stephen F. Austin
No. 10 Rice
SFA Strikes First But Falls to #10 Rice 13-1
2/25/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
#10 Rice 13, Stephen F. Austin 1
Reckling Park • Houston, Texas
Records: SFA (2-7); Rice (6-3)
Up Next: vs. South Dakota State • Friday, Feb. 27 • 6:30 p.m.
HOUSTON – Stephen F. Austin drew first blood, but 10th-ranked Rice dominated over the final five innings, racing past the Lumberjacks for a 13-1 victory at Reckling Park. SFA falls to 2-7 on the season, dropping its fourth-straight against the Owls.
Coming off an 8-7 victory over Louisiana-Monroe Sunday, SFA carried a bit of momentum against the 10th-ranked Owls. The ‘Jacks struck in the top of the second inning as Garrett McMullen ripped a solo homerun to left field, the first round-tripper of the season for SFA, as the Lumberjacks took an early 1-0 lead.
But after that, the SFA bats went silent as Rice retired the next 14 Lumberjack batters, holding SFA to just six hits on the night. McMullen had two of the six hits for the ‘Jacks with Anthony Soriano, Cameron Salvaggio, Conner Fikes and Holden Holsomback totaling the other four.
Starter Jarred Greene had a productive outing on the hill for SFA, limiting the Owls to no hits through the first four innings. He ended his day with 4.1 innings pitched, giving up three runs (one earned) on two hits with a pair of strikeouts but picked up the loss.
The Lumberjack bullpen struggled the rest of the way against Rice, as six different pitchers allowed 10 runs, all earned, on 11 hits and just two strikeouts as the Owls scored all 13 runs in the fifth through eighth innings. After notching three in the fifth to take the lead, Rice broke free with six in the sixth, one in the seventh and three more in the eighth to preserve the win.
After five-straight road games, SFA returns to Jaycees Field for a three-game series against South Dakota State this weekend. Game one against the Jackrabbits is at 6:30 p.m. Friday evening, followed by a 2 p.m. first pitch Saturday and a 1 p.m. start Sunday.
-SFA-
