owlTX

Well pitched game by your two pitchers! Impressive stuff for freshman.

Our offensive magic had to end at some point.

Oh well, there's always next year.

For tonight's game:

-Evan Kravetz, Lefty, ERA in the mid 4's is available for a bunch of innings...
-Zach Esquivel, started against TSU yesterday but only threw like thirty pitches could probably go a couple... Usually good but hasn't been lately.
-Jackson Parthasarathy, 6.14 ERA but pitching well lately (didn't pitch until March because he was coming off injury)
-Addison Moss, 6.45 ERA (Also will probably play 1B)
-Then everyone's favorite GLENN OTTOOOOOOOOO (but probably only a couple innings at most)

Tomorrow:

-Matt Canterino (who started on Friday) probably comes available for a couple innings
-Willy Amador (who pitched against LSU in last year's regional) could probably pitch too... He threw ~45 pitches yesterday.

Generally speaking, if you see any of the following guys trotted out, we are either f***** or up by a bunch of runs: Schwarz, Orweiler, Schragger

Graham said in his postgame press conference that he was probably going to start Kendall Jefferies against SLU this afternoon. Jefferies doesn't have great stats but did notch some nice midweek W's for us this year against regional teams in UH and Sam Houston.

If we are lucky enough to win this afternoon our normal 3B, Dane Myers, will probably get the start. He's got good stuff, with a fastball in the mid 90's and a complementary curve. Still, he might be tired from playing in the field early.

We've got a couple of guys who are pretty well rested that can come out of the pen. Addison Moss, Evan Kravetz, and Jackson Parthasarathy to name a few... None of them are great but they can theoretically give us innings.

But to answer everyone's question, if it's a 4-3 game in the 8th inning of the nightcap, Graham will probably put Otto in the game.

Yeah that does appear to be correct based on this page: LINK

I don't even follow baseball recruiting to be honest.

To reply to a few of the comments on here:

On Canterino's oddly low BAA vs. ERA: I'm not exactly sure how to explain it, but I have a bit of a hypothesis. He often pitches really well (like All-American, unbeatable) for ~5 innings. He really relies on striking folks out, so his pitch counts can get pretty high. He then hits a wall, where he walks/gives up hits to several in a row before getting yanked. As a result, a common stat line for him is like 5.2, 3 ER, 4 hits, 3 BB, with 2 of those hits and 2 BB coming in that last .2 of an outing.

With regard to our slow start: There were 3 or 4 losses that were directly attributable to terrible fielding. When Tristan Gray came back, that sured up our infield. It took him a while to get his bat going, which is when we really got cooking. Also, we lost our most experienced pitcher and Saturday starter Ricky Salinas to TJ in week 3 of the season. As a result, we have a totally new weekend rotation this year (lost Blake Fox and Jon Duplantier to the draft). But it is true that most of our offense is back, and has improved. As a result, we are batting .291 as a team vs. .273 last year.

With regard to the scholarship issue being part of our decline: I'm not going to touch that one with a ten foot pole as its too complicated for a forum post, but you can find plenty of discussion of that on our board.

Rice has had a tale of two seasons. After starting 13-25, Rice went 18-4 down the stretch and won the C-USA tourney to finish 31-29. At mid season, many fans were calling for Coach Graham's head, lamenting that we haven't been to Omaha since 2008 and although 22 straight years of regionals had been nice, Rice has higher standards. Even after this great stretch run, it would take an idiot to not notice our drop off. Anyhow, we are here so might as well enjoy the ride.

Rice has 8 wins vs. the RPI top 25 (2 vs. UT, 2 vs. Stanford, 2 vs. UH, 2 vs. USM) which is in line with several of the hosts, so it's not as if we are scared of/can't play top competition. Rather, its an issue of which Rice team shows up to play, as we also lost a home series to #195 Pepperdine.

I am unsure as to what order Rice will throw our pitchers, because Canterino pitched yesterday, but I will lay them out in the order of which they typically pitch...

Starters:

Matt Canterino, Fr, 5-4, 3.94 ERA, .190 BAA
Zach Esquivel, So, 6-5, 3.62 ERA, .261 BAA
Willy Amador, Jr, 4-5, 5.43 ERA, .274 BAA

Key Relievers:

Glenn Otto, Jr, 3.97 ERA, .223 BAA (Preseason All-American, pitched VERY poorly early in season but has been better lately)
Dane Myers, Jr, 4.09 ERA, .250 BAA (Also is our 3B and 2nd best hitter)
Evan Kravetz, So, 4.72 ERA, .302 BAA (Would probably start a game if we play four or five)
Kendall Jefferies, So, 5.01 ERA, .274 BAA
Addison Moss, Fr, 6.45 ERA, .269 BAA
Other Guys, Various Ages, None Very Servicable

As you can see, our pitching isn't exactly what Rice is accustomed to but they've been better lately and our offense is better than usual so that partially makes up for it. Still, expect Graham to ride Otto as hard as he can.

Offensively, these are our key guys:

Dom DiCaprio, C, .365, 6 HR, 47 RBI
Dane Myers, 3B, .360, 6 HR, 38 RBI
Darren Sheppard, 1B, .315, 7 HR, 50 RBI
Ford Proctor, SS, .309, 4 HR, 35 RBI
Tristan Gray, .299, 6 HR, 34 RBI (Only played in 43 games due to suspension at beginning of season)

Ryan Chandler, our center fielder, only bats .270 but always seems to be the guy who gets the clutch hit when we need it, so lookout for him.

Neither of our corner outfielders, Dayne Wunderlich and Charlie Warren, are particularly scary at the plate, though Warren had a great C-USA tourney.

Obviously, LSU is the favorite, but I do think we are a different ball club than the one that lost 2/3 to SeLA early in the season (though they're a respectable team). If our pitching is servicable (doesn't have to be great), I think our offense is good enough to pose a threat.

Anyhow, may the best team win!

I like our chances in this regional, especially now that we know the ground rules ;)