Rice faces LSU in today’s 6 p.m. NCAA Super Regional
ESPN will broadcast weekend’s games

Once again, the Owls have become super men, and they intend to prove that at 6 tonight when they face the No. 1-ranked LSU Tigers in the first game of a best-of-three super regional series. Rice, currently ranked No. 6, is one of 16 teams vying in the NCAA Super Regionals for eight slots in the College World Series, which begins June 13 in Omaha, Neb.

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ESPN will nationally broadcast tonight’s game and Saturday’s 4 p.m. game. A third game, if necessary, will be at 6 p.m. Sunday and broadcast on ESPN2.

“I’m ready to play in front of a ton of LSU fans,” said Anthony Rendon, Rice third baseman and Wiess College freshman. “I know a lot of people say that they don’t like the big crowd, because they rag on you, but that’s what gets me going.”

His Hanszen College freshman teammate Matthew Reckling said he too is looking forward to the LSU environment.

“I’m looking forward to the crowd,” Reckling said. “The hostile environment — I don’t think it will intimidate us at all. It will challenge us to play better.”

As a member of last year’s team, Rick Hague said that he too is looking forward to the challenge of winning on the road.

	PHOTOS BY TOMMY LAVERGNE
	Tommy Reckling ’54 (above) watches his grandson, pitcher Matthew Reckling, as he faces the Kansas State Wildcats during the deciding game of the NCAA Houston Baseball Regional June 1. Tommy Reckling was a major contributor to the construction of Rice’s baseball stadium, which bears the family’s name; Matthew Reckling picked up his second win of the season in Rice’s 13-4 victory.

“Last year we were lucky enough to play the super regionals at Reckling Park,” said Hague, a Lovett College sophomore. “But no matter where you play, the last 16 teams are going to be the top teams, so you know you have to bring your best game. I’ve heard a lot of things about LSU — that there will be loud and rambunctious fans. But that’s what we like. We like to go into a place where we’re maybe the underdog — and we’re definitely the underdog this time — and silence that crowd.”

The Owls earned their place among the nation’s best after defeating Kansas State 13-4 earlier this week. Doing it the hard way, the Owls came back from the losers’ bracket to earn the NCAA Houston Regional title.

“It’s always great to win. It’s even better when you come out of the losers’ bracket,” said coach Wayne Graham. “It speaks to the character of the team.”

Junior Jimmy Comerota and sophomore Michael Fuda each had four hits and three other Owls had three each in the 20-hit attack to beat Kansas State, which had knocked Rice into the losers’ bracket of the double-elimination tournament Saturday. The Owls lost that game 7-6, then fought their way back with a 12-5 win over Xavier Sunday and an 8-0 blanking of Kansas State later the same day to force the Monday finale.

“I think this team likes each other so well that they just didn’t want to quit playing,” Graham said. “Honestly. This team seems to have a great attitude toward each other. They like playing together.”

The blue-and-gray started Monday’s hit parade early and jumped on the scoreboard for a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning. Brock Holt led off with a double to left-center and scored on an RBI single by Hague. Walks to Diego Seastrunk and Steven Sultzbaugh loaded the bases, and Hague scored on a sacrifice fly by Fuda.

Kansas State third baseman Jason King’s home run cut the lead in half in the second, and the Wildcats tied it in the third on Justin Bloxom’s bases-loaded fielder’s choice.

Then the Owls took charge, exploding for six runs in the fourth on six hits, a walk and a KSU fielding error. Fuda opportunistically hustled for a run from second base after the Wildcats lost the handle on the ball after Comerota got to first on a bunt base hit. “We didn’t make the play there, and that led to the three-run home run. That was pretty much the ballgame, quite honestly,” said Kansas State coach Brad Hill.

After RBI singles by Holt and Hague, Seastrunk blasted a three-run homer, his seventh of the season. “I ended up getting a fastball in, and I was able to get the barrel to it pretty good,” said the junior, whose hit made it 8-2.

That would be all reliever Reckling needed on the way to his second win of the season. The freshman from Houston came out of the bullpen in the third for starter Mark Haynes and pitched four solid innings, giving up three hits and a walk while striking out three. “I feel like I’ve pitched better in the big games this year. I love throwing in front of big crowds,” Reckling said.

“He came in when the issue was still somewhat in doubt; he stopped the other team completely,” Graham said.

Rice still had some hitting to do. Fuda singled to start the fifth inning and hits by Comerota, Jess Buenger and Holt pushed it to 10-2.

Kansas State fought back for a pair of runs in the top of the seventh, and Rice got one back on a Hague double in the bottom half. The Owls capped their victory with two runs on four hits in the eighth.

Owl hurlers Jordan Rogers and Ryan Berry worked the final two and one-third innings to keep Kansas State in check. “We knew if we had a lead in the last two innings, we wanted to bring (Berry) in,” said Graham of his ace, who suffered his first loss of the season to the Wildcats Saturday. “I think there was a comfort zone for the whole team to know that he was out there.”

Seastrunk, Holt, Rendon and Sultzbaugh all joined Owl pitcher Taylor Wall on the All-Regional Team. Wall was named the Houston Regional’s Most Outstanding Player for his complete game shutout against Kansas State Sunday night.

Rice, 43-16 overall, has now advanced to the super regionals nine times in 11 years, missing in 2000 and 2004. Only the University of Miami and Florida State have done as well since the current format was adopted in 1999. Rice is a combined 13-7 in 20 super regional games.