The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, February 20, 2009 Page: 23 of 28
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Friday, February 20,2009
Baseball 2009
SPORTS B3
st
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4
4
Rice]," Holt said. "It's a good place to
be. I am looking forward to [the sea-
son]. It's going to be new to me, but
I'm looking forward to getting started
and doing all the traveling and playing
big-time ball. I'm not used to it yet."
Hague holds his position at
shortshop after a successful 2008
debut that earned Freshman All -
American honors. Hague hit .348
last season with 19 doubles, tied
for the team lead, and 54 RBIs. His
eight home runs in 2008 are the
most among returning players, and
he also led the team with a .549
slugging percentage.
Rounding out the infield will be
junior Jimmy Comerota, who shifts
from second base to first base follow-
ing a breakout year in which he start-
ed 51 games, more than his previous
two years combined. Comerota also
hit especially well near the end of
the season last year, becoming Rice's
leading hitter in the regional round
and accumulating a .429 average in
the College World Series in addition
to his team-leading 12 stolen bases.
Headed for the fences
Following what seems to be an
overarching theme for Rice baseball,
the Owls' outfield will need to rebuild
during the 2009 campaign. Fortunately,
the outfielders will be anchored by a fa-
miliar face: sophomore Chad Mozingo.
It appears that Mozingo's days as a cen-
ter fielder are over, for the left-hander
will be starting the season in right field.
Mozingo had a successful debut in
2008, starting 58 games and finishing
with a .301 batting average, including a
.417 clip in the NCAA Tournament.
Junior Steven Sultzbaugh, a trans-
fer from Weatherforcl College, will re-
place Mozingo in center field. In 2008
Sultzbaugh was the North Texas Junior
College Athletic Conference player of
the year with a .514 batting average, 65
RBI and a .850 slugging percentage.
The left field starter is still up
in the air, though the options have
boiled down to either freshman Jer-
emy Rathjen or sophomore Michael
Fuda. Rathjen is a graduate of near-
by Memorial High School and is a
two time all-district selection, while
Fuda, a former two-sport athlete who
also played football, will rely on his
speed and fielding prowess to earn a
spot in the lineup.
Rounding out the line-up
If there is one glaring hole in the
lineup, it comes on the pine. Both the
bench and the designated hitter posi-
tion could be affected by the team's
lack of seniors and consequent lack of
reserves with extensive experience.
Graham said he sees senior Jess
Buenger becoming somewhat of a util-
ity man for the Owls, playing some
infield, catching and acting as a des-
ignated hitter. When Buenger catches,
the Owls could rest Seastrunk from
the field, but use his bat at DH.
Buenger played in just 28 games
last season because of a foot injury
he suffered in April during a game
against Texas A&M. lie hit .258 last
year in only 68 at-bats but posted a
.306 average in 2007, when he started
55 games. He contributed 12 doubles,
seven home runs and 47 RBI in 2007.
Another option with the stick is
redshirt sophomore Trey Crain — the
second transfer from Weatherford
College who could see some time at
first, third and designated hitter. Gra-
ham also mentioned the "very good
possibility" that freshman l.uke Will-
son, a reserve tight end for the foot-
ball team, could get playing time as a
designated hitter or first baseman.
Other players who could come off
the bench for Rice include sopho-
more Nick DeBiasse and freshman
Daniel Gonzales-Luna. DeBiasse had
nine at-bats last year, while Gonza-
les-Luna is a 2008 graduate of Lamar
High School and was named to the
all-district team three times.
What's on the slate
After the team's four preseason
games, official spring practices did
not start until Feb. 1, giving the players
just under three weeks to work before
today's season opener in San Louis
Obispo, Calif., against the University of
California-Polytechnic. After a double-
header tomorrow, the team will come
home to Reckling Park, where it will
host C-USA rival University of Houston
in the home opener on Wednesday at
4:00 p.m. This game will be Houston's
only regular-season trip to Rice, while
the Owls will play four games at Cougar
Field on March 18 and May 1-3.
Following that game, the Owls
will again participate in the annual
Houston College Classic held at Min-
ute Maid Park from Feb. 27-March 1.
The other teams that will attend
this year are top-ranked Texas A&M,
No. 8 Baylor University, No. 9 Univer-
sity of California-Los Angeles, No. 12
University of California-Irvine and
Houston. The tournament features
an unprecedented five teams that are
ranked in the top 12 in the country.
Rice also hosts its annual tour-
nament, The Academy Sports &
Outdoors Rice Classic, March 6-8,
which will feature Notre Dame Uni-
versity, Washington State University
and Oral Roberts University. In mid-
March the Owls will host a four-game
series against nth-ranked University
of San Diego, followed by a single
game against Texas.
After the conference season gets
into full swing on March 20 at the
University of Southern Mississippi,
the Owls will return home to face the
Aggies one last time on April 14 be-
fore traveling to Austin to play Texas
a week later. C-USA play will then re-
sume with the conference champion-
ship in Hattiesburg, Miss., on May 20.
Rice's 52-game schedule is pur-
posefully difficult, all in hopes of
raising the team's NCAA Ratings
Power Index, which comes into play
when the NCAA determines the na-
tional seeds and which teams host
regionals in the spring.
"We've got an outstanding sched-
ule," Graham said. "It's a good
schedule from the fan's standpoint;
one of the best we've ever had."
Final thoughts
With the Owls, the areas to keep
an eye on are left field and the bull-
pen. The coaches are using the
spring practices and early games to
figure out who will consistently man
left field, which players will be their
strongest arms in the bullpen and
who will start the midweek game.
And although the team only has
two seniors, the coaching staff is not
worried about seniority being an issue.
"I don't think |the lack of seniors]
is any problem at all," Graham said.
"Berry always has been (a leader|. And I
think most of our players are fairly quiet
and lead by example with hard work."
But their talent, leadership and fo-
cus do not erase any sense of intrigue,
for there is still a wide landscape of oth-
er very capable squads whose desire to
reach Omaha is just as great.
"The immediate goal, of course, is
to win the conference championship,
but we always have a goal of getting
to Omaha, no doubt of that," Gra-
ham said. "There's about 30 teams
that can say we've got a good enough
team to go to Omaha now, and we're
one of those."
April 10,1963
Graham has first at-bat
After being signed by the Philadelphia Phillies in the
1957 Amateur Draft as a third-baseman and outfielder,
future Rice head coach Wayne Graham made his major
league debut against Cincinnati, going 0-2. In 22 at-bats
that season, he hit .182. The following year, he batted
.121 in 33 at-bats with the New York Mets and never made
it back to the big leagues.
May 18,1996
Rice wins final Southwest Conference game
In a game Graham called "the biggest win in the team's
history," Rice defeated Texas 16-8 to claim the South-
west Conference championship. Following a .286 win-
ning percentage in the conference, the Owls entered the
tournament as the underdog sixth seed. After winning
four straight games, they upset top-seeded Texas to win
their first and last SWC championship. It would be the
final game ever to be played under the confines of the
SWC and redefined the nature of the rivalry between the
Owls and Longhorns.
June 1,1997
Rice loses first CWS
Auburn defeated the Owls 10-1 to eliminate them from
their first ever College World Series. Rice was the first
team eliminated after losing to Louisiana State, 5-4, on
the first day of the tournament. Two Owis would go on
to be drafted in the first round of that year's draft. Ace
pitcher Matt Anderson was chosen first overall, and fu-
ture all-star first baseman Lance Berkman was picked
16th overall.
■i
I
june 23, 2003
National Champions
The Owls won the College
World Series and brought
home Rice's first-ever na-
tional championship. In the
decisive game 3, Rice beat
Stanford University 14-2.
The win set a record for larg-
est margin of victory in the
history of the CWS.
july1, 2005
Rice moves to Conference USA
After nine successful years in the WAC, Rice begins the
C-USA era in an attempt to cut down on travel costs and
to reduce travel time for student athletes. The Owls
swept the C-USA tournament the following year, but ulti-
mately lost to Oregon State University in the semi-finals
of the College World series.
March 17,2007
Graham notches 700th win
In their 16th win of the season, the Owls topped Califor-
nia State Polytechnic State University to give Graham his
700th win as head coach of Rice. He currently has 787
wins as an Owl and 1,314 overall in his career with a .768
winning percentage.
February 1992
Wayne Graham comes
to Rice
Following five National Ju-
nior College Championships
at San Jacinto College over
an 11-year tenure, Graham
became head coach of the
Owls. Before his arrival,
Rice had finished in the bot-
tom half of the conference
72 times, with 24 appearances in last place. Since then,
Rice has won 13 straight conference championships and
appeared in the College World Series seven times.
February 1997
Rice joins Western Athletic Conference
The Owls began their nine-year stint in the Western Athlet-
ic Conference with a raised level of fanfare following an ex-
plosive finish to the 1996 campaign. They were ranked 4th
and 10th in the nation in two separate polls. Rice would
go on to finish at the top of the WAC every single year the
school was a member.
February 8,2000
First game at Reckling Park
Rice lost to UH 6-2. Since then the Owls have been 219-42
in the stadium, a .826 winning percentage. The stadium
was built on the site of Cameron Field, which was home
to the Owls from 1978-99. It is named after the principle
donor and former Rice player Tommy Reckling.
sfasJ'wwi
June 7,2004
Most players picked in first round
Rice had a record of three players chosen in the first round
of the baseball draft. The New York Mets selected Philip
Humber third overall. Jeff
Neimann was selected
immediately afterward by
the Tampa Bay Devil Rays,
and Wade Townsend was
then selected eighth. All
three were right-handed
pitchers who contributed
to the Owls' 2003 National
Championship.
January 3,2008
Baseball America names Rice the best
In a survey that covered all 293 Division 1 baseball programs
from 1999, the year the NCAA tournament was expanded to
its current 64-team format, to the present, Baseball Amer-
ica concluded thai Rice was the top-ranked program in the
nation. "It's very gratifying, because it shows the tenacity
and persistence of the players," Graham said. "It's not just
one good year. You have to have several good years and the
players have responded to the different challenges every
year. Day in, day out, they do what it takes to be the best."
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Chun, Lily & Farmer, Dylan. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, February 20, 2009, newspaper, February 20, 2009; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443169/m1/23/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.