Owls to open season against Baylor at Astros College Classic

Owls
to open season against Baylor at Astros College Classic
…………………………………………………………………

Rice will take
on other top college baseball teams at the 2002 Astros College
Classic, an eight-team tournament to be held in conjunction
with Astros FanFest.

The tournament
is scheduled for Feb. 7-10 at Enron Field. Rice will start
play tonight at 7 p.m. against Baylor. The Owls also will
play Texas A&M Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m. and Texas Tech Feb.
9 at 12:30 p.m.

Five of the
teams competing in the Astros College Classic — Rice,
Baylor, Houston, Texas and Texas Tech — advanced to
the NCAA Championships last year, and Rice, Tech and Baylor
closed out the 2001 campaign listed among the top 25 in
the polls.
In the midst of the college tournament, Astros FanFest will
be held Saturday, Feb. 9, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The family
oriented event offers fans the opportunity to meet Astros
players and coaches, play interactive baseball games and
participate in baseball clinics. The purchase of a ticket
for either day’s baseball games also will be good for
admittance into FanFest.

Tickets for
the Astros College Classic and the Astros FanFest will be
available at the Enron Field Box Office starting today.
Single ticket prices are $30 for the entire tournament,
$10 for Thursday admission and $12 for daily admission Friday-Sunday.
Children’s tickets, for ages 4 through 14, are half-price.
Student tickets also are half-price and only are available
at the Box Office with a valid student ID. The Box Office
is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Classic packages,
priced at $30 for adults and $15 for children 4 through
14, may be purchased by calling 1-800-ASTROS2.

Meanwhile, the
Owls will start the baseball season with high expectations.
For the sixth year in a row, Rice has been selected to win
the Western Athletic Conference regular season baseball
crown in a vote by the league’s six head coaches. The
coaches also voted on a preseason all-WAC team, and Rice
led the way with four players making the team, including
the preseason player of the year, senior third baseman Hunter
Brown.

The preseason
all-WAC team included Rice sophomore outfielder Austin Davis
(last year’s WAC freshman of the year), senior outfielder
A.J. Porfirio, sophomore shortstop Jose Enrique Cruz and
Brown. Brown was picked as the player of the year after
hitting .335 with 25 doubles, seven home runs and 44 RBI
in 2001.