Walking from the Rice clubhouse to the Rice dugout, right past the trainer’s room, you pass a dry erase board. There was a message on that board Saturday afternoon. A message reading “Plunder the Pirates. Go Owls.” And if one word can be applied to describe what the Rice Owls did to C-USA foe East Carolina Pirates, then plunder is, indeed, that word.
The Owls have been part of a tight race for first place in C-USA, and coming into this weekend’s series, the Owls were on top of second-place East Carolina by a half game. But after a 20-3 victory on Friday, a 3-2 come-from-behind victory on Saturday, and a 11-9 final on Sunday that saw Rice coming back from a 5-1 fourth-inning deficit then holding on after giving up four ninth-inning runs, the Owls are safely atop the C-USA standings as they head into a break for finals.
“Every game is really important at this point,” hitting machine Jimmy Comerota said yesterday. “It makes the break a little bit easier, and I think everybody is going to be a little bit more relaxed when they go to the library tonight to study. I think all that is psychology, if nothing else, real big, but every game that we play, especially in conference at this point, is going to be critical.”
East Carolina was never in Friday’s game. The Owls took a 3-0 lead in
the first inning and never looked back as a lineup that had recently
been shuffled — Rick Hague moving from shortstop to DH, Abe Gonzalez
moving from the bullpen to first base, and Comerota moving from first to
short — fired on all cylinders, led by Comerota who was four-for-five
with a homer, three runs, and four RBI.
Hague was four-for-six with a
homer, three runs, and three RBI.
“I think that’s what [Coach Wayne] Graham had in his mind [with the
lineup changes],” Hague said. “I could just focus on one thing at one
time. Everyone knows that shortstop has been like a dark spot here for
me lately, so just being able to get away from it, and maybe just focus
on hitting, it made a lot of things easier.”
Lost in all of Rice’s scoring was another superb pitching performance
from Tyler Wall, who held the hot-hitting Pirates to two earned runs in
seven innings while striking out a season high of nine batters.
“He obviously had good stuff, because that’s one of the best hitting
teams around,” Graham said. “You look at their stats, and they’re one
of the best. And they don’t strike out a lot either. So I thought he
used his fastball on the inside part of the plate maybe better than he
ever has tonight. And it shocked them. They weren’t looking for a
lefty to pop them inside. That sets up everything else.”
Saturday’s game was a quick-paced, thrilling pitcher’s duel that saw
Rice win the game when stud third baseman Anthony Rendon hit a two-out,
three-run homer to put Rice up 3-2 and get the win.
But if not for the
pitching of Mike Ojala, making his best start since off-season Tommy
John surgery, the Owls might not have been in position for that win.
Ojala, who didn’t get the win, went seven innings, giving up only one
earned run while striking out a career-high East Carolina batters.
“He’s there,” Graham said of Ojala. “He can win a regional game right
now. He could get better. If he gets any better, it’s something,
because he can win right now with what he’s throwing. There’s not many
teams that are better hitting teams than East Carolina out there.”
Ojala has 16 strikeouts in his last two starts, and any doubts and
concerns from the surgery are finally escaping his mind.
“It feels like a long time that I haven’t been able to just go out there
and not have to worry about anything,” he said Saturday. “I’ve never
thrown a complete game at Rice, so that’s a goal this year, and I feel
like my stuff’s good enough to do that right now.”
But as April draws to a close, the star of the month has been Comerota.
Comerota, who was hitting .167 in mid-March, has been on a tear and
after yesterday, he’s now hitting .348 with 28 RBI, an on-base
percentage nearing .500, and four homers. While DH Michael Fuda’s
homers in the seventh and eighth inning guaranteed Rice’s 11-9 win, it
was Comerota’s three-run double in the fourth that tied the game at 5-5
and put Rice on the track to the win in a day where all of the Rice
pitchers had problems stopping the ECU batters.
“I felt like I’ve been swinging well all season,” Comerota said after
yesterday’s win. “I went through a slow start last year where I really
didn’t feel good at the plate, and this year, I felt good. I just
needed them to fall.”
And despite the numerous hot bats in the Rice lineup, including Rendon
and outfielder Jeremy Rathjen, Graham credits Comerota with being the
fuel of the Rice offense.
“One thing that has caused a lot of that to happen, I think Jimmy
Comerota needs a lot of credit,” Graham said. “Because he’s been giving
us everything we needed all of the time. Other guys stepped up
[Sunday], obviously. But actually, Jimmy has been a leader with the bat
and getting the job done.”
So plunder the Pirates did, and as the Owls head into a break that won’t
see them play again until next Wednesday when they host TSU, they can
sit back and reflect on a hot month of April which has seen their
overall record improve to 26-16 and their conference record improve to
11-4.
Their nearest conference competitor is now Marshall, who sits two
games behind Rice.
This article appears in Apr 22-28, 2010.
