HOUSTON – Rice's Jack Riedel connected on a go-ahead, 3-home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to ignite a 5-run inning and push the Owls past the Sam Houston Bearkats, 7-3, on Tuesday night at Reckling Park.
The Kats (2-2) outhit the Owls (1-3) 11-6 on the night, but two of Rice's five hits left the yard, accounting for each of the home team's first five runs on the night.
Lane Brewster had just given the Kats a 3-2 lead with a 2-out RBI single in the top half of the inning, his second hit of the night. He was joined by Jeffrey David, Easton Loyd, Jake Tatom and Jace Martinez with two-hit games for the Kats.
The loss fell on Bearkat reliever Chandler David, who worked out of a jam in the seventh before surrendering Riedel's bomb. The homer came just one batter after the Kats' first defensive miscue of the night.
Davion Hickson earned the win for Rice, despite giving up the go-ahead run in the eighth. He followed up that frame by taking the mound for the ninth and retiring the Kats in order, finishing with five strikeouts on the night.
Rice starter Ryland Urbanczyk also struck out five in 3.0 innings of work before giving way to Robert Fernandez out of the pen. Bearkat starter Gavi Coldiron matched Urbanczyk through three frames before the second Rice error of the night set the Kats up to take a 1-0 lead in the fourth on a grounder by Jeffrey David which scored Jake Tatom.
That advantage lasted only a half inning when the second Owl hit of the night left the ballpark with two outs off the bat of Manny Garza, plating a pair and putting Rice up 2-1.
But the Owl defense faltered again in the fifth. A double by Loyd was followed by a sure single by Janek, but Rice left fielder Brendan Cumming misplayed the base hit, allowing Loyd to come in and retie the game at 2-2.
Logan Hewitt entered in the sixth and worked a clean inning of relief, but quickly ran into trouble after the first two Owls of the inning reached base. The Kats then turned to David who got a strikeout before picking up a pair of outs in the air to strand the runners and keep the game knotted up.
The Bearkats will now return home to host Dartmouth for three games, beginning Friday night at 6:30 p.m. at Don Sanders Stadium. The series opener is set to be aired on ESPN+.
GAME NOTES
- With hits on Tuesday, Walker Janek, Easton Loyd, Jeffrey David and Jace Martinez have now hit safely in all four games this year for the Bearkats
- Gavi Coldiron went 5.0 innings in his first start of the year, marking the third time in his Bearkat career he has had an appearance of 5.0 or more innings
- The loss was the first for Chandler David in 32 career appearances, dropping his record to 7-1
- The Kats have now dropped five consecutive games in the series to Rice dating back to 2022, the longest in the series since the Kats dropped 12 in a row to the Owls between the 1995 and 1999 seasons
