Rice will host Prairie View A&M on Tuesday before rollin' to #22 East Carolina

The 8th-ranked Owls are 5-1 and tied with Tulane atop the CUSA standings

Rice will start the week again with an out of conference opponent before hitting the road for more C-USA action.

Rice will finish up its four-game homestand on Tuesday with a match up against Prairie View A&M. The Panthers have posted a 21-10 record on the year, and a dominant 10-1 record in SWAC play.

For Prairie View A&M the damage has been done with the bats, with the team hitting at a .322 clip on the season. Leading the way has been Michael Richard who is batting .462 with 15 doubles and 26 RBIs. The Panthers have also been very patient at the plate, drawing 133 walks in 31 games, for an average of better than four walks per game.

Rice has clearly been putting up big numbers offensively, and this game should be no different with less than stellar pitching on the mound for the Panthers. The aces of the staff have been Wrandal Taylor and Matthew Chase who have combined for very impressive numbers: a 12-3 record, an ERA under 3.00, and 92 strikeouts in 99.2 innings. Aside from those two though, the rest of the staff has not been overly impressive for the Panthers. The bullpen has been hit hard and only converted three saves all season.

Prediction:

Taylor and Chase have been impressive for Prairie View A&M but they haven’t faced the type of offensive firepower that the Owls bring to the plate. If Rice gets into the Panther bullpen, which they will, this game will be over quickly.

The Owls will hit the road and travel to Greenville, NC this weekend for a three game series against C-USA opponent East Carolina. The Pirates dropped their first two games this weekend with Tulane, before winning game three 11-7. Overall, ECU is 21-8 on the year and 4-2 in C-USA play.

The Pirates have been led by steady hitting at the plate and great pitching. As a team ECU bats .295, but it is very balanced, with four players batting over.300 and four players having driven in 20 or more runs.

The big bats have been junior Dale Mollenhauer and senior Ryan Tousley. Mollenhauer leads ECU with a .383 batting average, while Tousley has provided the power with a .325 average to go along with a team-leading seven home runs and 33 RBIs.

Things get even better when looking at the Pirate pitching staff. Starters Josh Dowdy and Dustin Sasser each have ERA’s of around 2.40, but have seven no-decisions between the two of them. The bullpen has been very impressive with Brett Butts, Jason Neitz, and Shane Matthews having thrown 64.1 innings, striking out 74 batters and only having allowed 16 earned runs.

Prediction:

This is going to be a very even series. Rice certainly has the advantage at the plate, they are just a strong offensive team. However, the Owls are going to have to get their hits off of ECU’s starters as the Pirate bullpen has been lights out this season. Rice will get just enough offense to allow their pitching staff to relax and take 2 of 3 from ECU.