Batboy fist bumps and helmet taps provide luck throughout the season

Very superstitious
Batboy fist bumps and helmet taps provide luck throughout the season

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS 

Like most baseball players, the Rice Owls are a bit superstitious, from chewing lucky bubble gum to giving special handshakes. One of those handshakes is a fist bump with the batboy, Tate Gillespie. But it doesn’t end there. The players also tap Gillespie’s helmet for good luck.

	TOMMY LAVERGNE

The good luck may not have prevailed during this year’s College World Series, but it certainly did throughout the season. With the program’s seventh trip to the CWS since 1997 and third consecutive trip, the Owls registered another sensational season. Rice won at least 42 games for the 14th-straight year on the way to another Conference USA regular-season championship.

The team members won a number of individual awards for their performance on the field and in the classroom. Rice had a sky-high “rating power index” from the NCAA, which allowed the team to showcase the renovated Reckling Park to record crowds for the Regional and Super Regional rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

Head coach Wayne Graham and his staff return a host of talented young players and are bringing in one of the top recruiting classes in the nation for the 2009 season.

For complete coverage of the 2008 College World Series, including a photo gallery, visit http://media.rice.edu/media/College_World_Series_2008.asp.

For more Rice Owls news, visit the Athletics Web site. 

TOMMY LAVERGNE