02-15-2013, 06:22 PM
Mark Appel never really got settled down--he was tagged for 7 hits and 2 earned runs (Rice did all their damage while Appel was on the mound). That 5th inning was particularly devastating as a sequence of missed throws and catches (only one was recorded) allowed two unearned runs to score, followed by a sac fly that scored a third. Marcus Brakeman (Fr) and Sam Lindquist (Jr) combined to hold Rice scoreless the rest of the game.
The real story here has to be the near goose egg laid by the Stanford offense. There were 7 Stanford hits and a lot of walks, but only one run was scored in the 8th inning after senior DH Justin Ringo singled to bring home Brian Ragira. The bats were not lively--freshman Jonny Locher went 0-3 at the top of the order. As a whole, Stanford was struck out 14 times out of 33 plate appearances compared with Rice's 3 strikeouts in 29 appearances. Those numbers don't tell the complete story, but they're still rather disturbing.
This is a young team to be sure, but there are also a fair number of juniors who should be hitting their groove now. Opening the season away from home against a very good opponent can be tough--here's to tomorrow's game.
The real story here has to be the near goose egg laid by the Stanford offense. There were 7 Stanford hits and a lot of walks, but only one run was scored in the 8th inning after senior DH Justin Ringo singled to bring home Brian Ragira. The bats were not lively--freshman Jonny Locher went 0-3 at the top of the order. As a whole, Stanford was struck out 14 times out of 33 plate appearances compared with Rice's 3 strikeouts in 29 appearances. Those numbers don't tell the complete story, but they're still rather disturbing.
This is a young team to be sure, but there are also a fair number of juniors who should be hitting their groove now. Opening the season away from home against a very good opponent can be tough--here's to tomorrow's game.