The Rice Thresher, Vol. 94, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 2, 2007 Page: 15 of 24
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THE RICE THRESHER BASEBALL 2007 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2,2007
B7
L
2007 RICE BASEBALL SCHEDULE
February
April
3 CENT. MISSOURI ST. (2 p.m.)
l
♦MARSHALL (1 p.m.)
6 at Texas St. (6:30 p.m.)
3
PRAIRIE VIEW A&M (7 p.m.)
9 #Vanderbilt (noon)
6
♦at East Carolina (6 p.m.)
10 #Baylor (7 p.m.)
7
♦at East Carolina (5 p.m.)
11 #Texas A&M (6 p.m.)
8
*at East Carolina (10 a.m.)
13 UT-SAN ANTONIO (4 p.m.)
10
at Lamar (6:30 p.m.)
16 LONG BEACH ST. (4 p.m.)
13
♦at UH (7 p.m.)
17 LONG BEACH ST. (2 p.m.)
14
*at UH (7 p.m.)
18 LONG BEACH ST. (1 p.m.)
15
*at UH (1 p.m.)
20 DALLAS BAPTIST (4 p.m.)
17
TEXAS (7 p.m.)
23 &FL0RIDA ATL. (4:30 p.m.)
20
♦UCF (7 p.m.)
24 &NEBRASKA (1 p.m.)
21
*UCF (2 p.m.)
25 &A&M-CC (3:30 p.m.)
22
♦UCF (1 p.m.)
27 at SHSU (6:30 p.m.)
24
SHSU (7 p.m.)
27
*at UAB (7 p.m.)
March
28
*at UAB (2 p.m.)
2 at Cal St. Fullerton (9 p.m.)
29
♦at UAB (12 p.m.)
3 at Cal St. Fullerton (8 p.m.)
4 at Cal St. Fullerton (2 p.m.)
May
6 ST. JOHN'S (7 p.m.)
9
TEXAS ST. (7 p.m.)
9 !TCU (7 p.m.)
11
♦TULANE (7 p.m.)
10 !Texas Tech (7 p.m.)
12
♦TULANE (2 p.m.)
11 !at A&M-CC (4 p.m.)
13
♦TULANE (1 p.m.)
16 CAL POLY (7 p.m.)
15
BAYLOR (7 p.m.)
17 CAL POLY (2 p.m.)
17
♦MEMPHIS (7 p.m.)
18 CAL POLY (1 p.m.)
18
♦MEMPHIS (7 p.m.)
20 TEXAS A&M (7 p.m.)
19
♦MEMPHIS (2 p.m.)
23 *at So. Miss (6:30 p.m.)
23-27 C-USA TOURNAMENT
24 *at So. Miss (3 p.m.)
25 *at So. Miss (1 p.m.)
June
27 at Texas (6:05 p.m.)
1-4
NCAA Regionals
30 ^MARSHALL (7 p.m.)
8-11
NCAA Super Regionals
31 ^MARSHALL (3 p.m.)
15-25 College World Series
Home games at Reckling Park in CAPS
* Conference USA game
# Minute Maid Park College Classic game
& Crowne Plaza/Rice Invitational game
! Corpus Christi College Classic game at Whataburger Field
BASEBALL AMERICA RANKINGS
1.
Rice
14. Cal State Fullerton
2.
Miami
15. Tulane
3.
Clemson
16. Oregon State
4.
Texas
17. Nebraska
5.
North Carolina
18. Florida State
6.
South Carolina
19. Pepperdine
7.
Arkansas
20. Arizona State
8.
Vanderbilt
21. Evansville
9.
Virginia
22. Oklahoma State
10.
Wichita State
23. Winthrop
11.
Tennessee
24. TCU
12.
Georgia Tech
25. Mississippi
13.
UCLA
C-USA PRESEASON COACHES POLL
1. Rice (9 first-place votes)
2. Tulane
3. Houston
4. Southern Miss
5. East Carolina
Central Florida
Marshall
Memphis
UAB
Preseason All-Conference
P Ricky Hargrove, UH; Sean Morgan. Tulane:
Joe Savery, Rice; Cole St.Clair, Rice
RP Daniel Latham, Tulane
C Luis Flores, UH
IF Adam Amar, Memphis: Brad Emaus, Tulane
Brian Friday, Rice; Trey Sutton, Southern Miss
OF K.K. Chalmers, Memphis; Tyler Henley, Rice;
Aaron Luna, Rice; Warren McFadden, Tulane
Player of the Year: Joe Savery, Rice
Pitcher of the Year: Cole St.Clair, Rice
Owls travel the West Coast in 2007
There are not many teams
near Houston that match up
well with the baseball team.
The University of Texas
does — the Longhorns have taken
nine straight games from the Owls
dating back to Rice's 2003 College
World Series championship season.
Other than Texas, however, most
teams in the region fall short of offer-
ing Rice the top-tier competition they
hope to face in post-season play. The
Southeastern Conference has some
of the better teams geographically
close to Texas — the University
of South Carolina, the University
of Arkansas and Vanderbilt Uni-
versity — but they remain mostly
unwilling to leave home during their
non-conference schedules, simply
because the SEC games are competi-
tive enough for pollsters to take into
account. Most other major confer-
ence teams in the area have the same
approach. In order to find talented
competition, Rice has turned to the
West Coast for a number of its non-
conference opponents.
'ITie Owls have three-game sets
scheduled with California State
University-Fullerton, California State
University-Long Beach and Califor-
nia Polytechnic State University,
all of which have season schedules
ranked in the top 10 in difficulty.
Rice and Fullerton will match up in
California March 2-4 after a three-
game series at Reckling Park last
March—a 2-1 series Rice secured be-
hind third baseman Josh Rodriguez's
late heroics in both the first and sec-
ond games. Both teams advanced to
the 2006 College World Series.
The Owls host Long Beach in
Houston Feb. 16-18. Last season the
Dirtbags dominated Rice 4-1 in the
Coca-Cola Classic at Reckling Park
behind second-round draft pick
Andrew Carpenter's three-hit,
eight-strikeout performance. Cal
Poly makes its trip to Houston
March 16-18.
Head coach Wayne Graham said
these types of series force both Rice's
coaches and players to identify and
eliminate mistakes as early as pos-
sible, because good-caliber teams will
take advantage of sloppy play.
"When you start playing the Cal
State Fullertons and the Long Beach
States of the world, it makes certain
coaching points critical because
they play the complete game," Gra-
ham said. "After you've played them,
it's easy to coach certain things. If
your pitcher is not holding runners
on. they're going to steal on you,
and if your third baseman plays
back and can't field well, they're
going to bunt."
The Houston College Classic Feb.
9-11 will give the Owls an early-season
challenge — they start the weekend
with a 12 p.m. Friday game against
eighth-ranked Vanderbilt University,
which will likely start potential No.
1 draft pick pitcher David Price on
the mound. Price had a brilliant
summer season as a teammate of
junior Cole St.Clair on Team USA,
racking up a 5-1 record, 0.20 earned
run average and 61 strikeouts in 44
innings pitched. Rice will follow its
game with the Commodores with
bouts against Baylor University Sat-
urday and Texas A&M Sunday. The
Bears—who reeled in the top recruit-
ing class for the 2007 season as ranked
by Baseball America — dropped
each of their three games with the
Owls last year, including two in the
Houston Regional. Rice beat the
Aggies 11-6 in the teams' only meeting
of the season.
The Owls will host their an-
nual Rice Invitational Feb. 23-25, with
Florida Atlantic, No. 17 Nebraska and
Texas A&M Corpus Christi rounding
out the four-team bracket. Nebraska
caused Rice some trouble in last
year's tournament until then-sopho-
more Chad Lembeck scored the go-
ahead run on then-freshman Aaron
Luna's single in the seventh inning,
giving the Owls a 3-2 victory.
For the second consecutive year,
Rice will attend the Corpus Christi
College Classic, hosted by Texas
A&M University-Corpus Christi and
played at Whataburger Field — the
home of the Corpus Christi Hooks,
the AA-affiliate of the Houston Astros.
Aside from the Owls and the Island-
ers, No. 24Texas Christian University
and Texas Tech University complete
the four-team field of the tournament,
scheduled for March 9-11.
Wee takes on the Longhorns in
two weekday games — March 27 the
Owls travel to Austin, and April 17
Texas comes to Reckling Park.
I^st year, Rice rolled through
C-USA with a 22-2 record, winning all
eight weekend series and setting new
conference records for best winning
percentage (.917) and fewest losses.
The Owls also won 17 consecutive
conference games between March
4 and May 12.
Unanimously picked to finish first
in C-USA by the conference's coaches,
the Owls open this season's C-USA
schedule March 23 at the University of
Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.
After a homestand against Marshall
University and a trip to face East Caro-
lina, Rice squares of f against cross-town
rival University of Houston at Cougar
Field April 13-15. The Cougars handed
the Owls their second and final con-
ference loss last season behind Brad
Lincoln's five-hit shutout, but Rice
won the final two games of the series
to take the Silver Glove trophy for the
sixth consecutive year. The two teams
met again in the C-USA championship
game, with Rice winning 11-5 behind
six shutout innings from StClair and
fellow junior Will McDaniel.
The Owls will spend three of their
last four conference series at Reckling
Park — they host the University of
Central Florida April 20-22, visit the
University of Alabama-Birmingham
April 27-29, and return to Houston
to face Tulane University May 11-
13. Rice closes the regular season
against the University of Memphis
May 17-19.
SCOUTING REPORT: CONFERENCE USA
Tulane Green Wave
2006 record: 43-21
C-USA: 15-9 (3rd)
Postseason: Advanced to the NCAA
regional round forthe ninth consecu-
tive season, losing to to Ole Miss
and South Alabama.
Returning position starters: 6
Returning starting pitchers: 2
Outlook: The Green Wave performed
well last season despite hardship
and will be Rice's main competition
in C-USA this season.
Central Florida Golden Knights
2006 record: 23-33
C-USA: 5-19 (9th)
Postseason: none
Returning position starters: 6
Returning starting pitchers: 3
Outlook: UCF's strong freshman
class from last year remains, but
the loss of ace pitcher Tim Bascom
will be a tough hole to fill.
Southern Miss Golden Eagles
2006 record: 39-23
C-USA: 13-11 (t-4th)
Postseason: Southern Miss man-
aged one win in a regional appear-
ance last season, but fell twice to
Troy to end its season.
Returning position starters: 5
Returning starting pitchers: 2
Outlook: Second baseman Trey Sutton
will lead the Golden Eagles to another
regional appearance.
Houston Cougars
2006 record: 39-22
C-USA: 18-6 (2nd)
Postseason: Went two-and-out in the
nation's toughest regional, losing to
Oklahoma and Wichita State.
Returning position starters: 6
Returning starting pitchers: 2
Outlook: UH returns a strong team
but will have to replace the massive
void left by National Player of the Year
Brad Lincoln.
East Carolina Pirates
2006 record: 33-26
C-USA: 10-14 (6th)
Postseason: none
Returning position starters: 6
Returning starting pitchers: 2
Outlook: For the first time in seven
years, the Pirates missed the field
of 64 This season will be equally
difficult for second-year head coach
Billy Godwin. Expect the Pirates to
play inspired though in the aftermath
of former coach Keith LeClair's death
from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Alabama-Birmingham Blazers
2006 record: 19-38
C-USA: 6-18 (t-8th)
Postseason: none
Returning position starters: 8
Returning starting pitchers: 1
Outlook: UAB returns eight starters
in the field for first-year head coach
Brian Shoop. UAB will be better this
season.
Memphis Tigers
2006 record: 32-28
C-USA: 13-11 (t-4th)
Postseason: none
Returning position starters: 7
Returning starting pitchers: 3
Outlook: Adam Amar will lead Mem-
phis back into the top four of C-USA
this season. Memphis has the poten-
tial to make a run at a regional.
Marshall Thundering Herd
2006 record: 22-32
C-USA: 6-18 (t-8th)
Postseason: none
Returning position starters: 2
Returning starting pitchers: 2
Outlook: First-year coach Jeff Wag-
goner has a tough road to till with a
lot of newcomers at a school with its
athletic focus away from baseball.
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Brown, David. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 94, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 2, 2007, newspaper, February 2, 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443111/m1/15/: accessed June 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.