#5 Owls Battle Cards in Mid-Week play; Cross-town Rival UH Awaits

Rice is ranked 5th in this week's NCBWA and ESPN/Sports Weekly Polls

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

After running their win streak to seven games with a win at home over Prairie View A&M followed by a road sweep at East Carolina, Rice hits the road for a mid-week match up with Lamar followed by a three-game series at Houston.

Rice will be in Beaumont on Tuesday for an out-of-conference game with Lamar. The Cardinals are 22-14 after losing two out of three games to Central Arkansas this past weekend.

Offensively, Lamar has been off the charts with a team batting average of .325, as they have five players batting higher than .340. Juniors Michael Ambort and Collin DeLome have been particularly impressive at the plate. Ambort is batting .404 with eight home runs and 48 RBIs, while DeLome is batting .381 with eight home runs and 41 RBIs. Bats like that in the lineup will make any pitcher in the country a little weary of challenging hitters.

Pitching is the downfall for the Cardinals. They have gotten solid pitching out of their top starter Brian Sisk, who has gone 5-1 with 3.21 ERA. Top reliever Tim Erickson has been stellar with a 1.52 ERA in 44.1 innings pitched, but the solid mound presence has ended with those two. The rest of the bullpen has had its struggles and Lamar’s team ERA is at 5.00.

Prediction:
Lamar may have impressive numbers at the plate, but a majority of it has come against Southland Conference competition and out of conference opponents that do not compare to Rice. The Owls are rolling right now and they will continue to do so when they come to Beaumont.

Cross-town rival and Conference USA foe Houston is on the horizon…

The Owls will travel across town to face rival Houston this weekend for what should be a very interesting series. The Cougars are 5-1 in C-USA play so far, taking their last two games from UAB. They will have a tune-up game on Tuesday against Stephen F. Austin before taking on Rice.

For the Cougars, power has been the name of the game. They have hit 26 home runs on the season, with ten different players having gone deep. As a team, they are batting .299 and are led by sophomore Jimmy Cesario’s solid .364 mark at the plate. Josh Stirneman has been the biggest offensive producer for Houston, leading the team in runs scored (28) and RBIs (28), while batting .333.

Red shirt freshman Wes Musick has been a steady starting arm on the mound for the Cougars having compiled a 5-3 record, while striking out 44 batters in 51.1 innings pitched and only allowing 18 earned runs. The bullpen hasn’t been reliable aside from Shea Hancock’s 3.47 ERA in 23.1 innings of work.

Prediction:
Houston has been solid so far this season, but has yet to play a real tough conference opponent. UAB was 3-0 after the first week of C-USA play, but they were under .500 coming into the conference schedule. The Cougars are a solid ball club but not solid enough to keep from being swept by a Rice team that is playing some fantastic baseball.