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Recently, though, Rice has looked rather ordinary. While the pitching staff, the most prominent area of concern in those glory days, has developed into a quality unit, the Owl offense now stands as a flaccid echo of the fully operational Death Star that terrorized college baseball in February.

As a consequence, Rice has lost 10 of their last 22 games. Perhaps none have been more devastating than their last three: 2-1, 6-3 and 2-1 defeats last weekend at Fresno State University.

The Owls pitched well enough to win all three games. Stephen Bess, who regained his form after an early-season injury, Jeff Nichols and Mario Ramos could have left with victories if they had been backed by an effective offense.

The offense, however, came up short: Rice managed just four hits with runners on base, scored all five of its runs by hitting home runs with bases empty and allowed all three Fresno State pitchers to throw complete games.

For the Owls, the sweep accelerated what had been a gradual descent in the national rankings. Rice (26-12 overall, 11-7 in the Western Athletic Conference) dropped from 13th to 22nd in Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America and from 11th to 14th in USA Today/Baseball Weekly . It still leads the WAC South Division, but several teams have better conference records.

The season is not a lost cause; Rice has roughly the same record that it had at this point in the past two years. But the Owls will have to regain their focus if they want to earn a high seed in the WAC tournament and another NCAA regional bid.

"We need to win all we can from here on out to have a chance at a regional, so maybe [the losses to Fresno State] will serve as a wake-up call," Rice first baseman Lance Berkman said. "That's about the only positive thing that came out of this last weekend."

"It's one of those learning things that a team has to go through," relief pitcher Matt Anderson said. "I think it's going to teach us a lot coming down the road. We know we can't just go out and get a win in the conference; we have to work hard. I think that, in the long run, it will be for the best."

Their chances will improve if they can recapture their earlier offensive prowess. Rice scored 10 or more runs 14 times in its first 21 games but has reached double figures in only two of the past 17 games and in none of the past ten.

While the offense used to benefit from steady contributions from just about every member of the batting order, it now provides a few manageable spots for opposing pitchers: Will Ford and Charles Williams have struggled, Jacob Baker has cooled off from an early hot streak, and even Berkman has slumped recently.

Owl Head Coach Wayne Graham thinks that those fantastic early displays may be working against them, since they had the effect of distracting the team from the more fundamental areas of the offensive game, such as bunting and advancing the runners.

"I think we've been enchanted too much with the home run, and we haven't worked on other things," Graham said.

Perhaps Bess was the weekend's only bright spot. After injuring his wrist flexor in the first weekend of the season, he missed six weeks and lasted only three innings in each of his first two starts following his return.

But Bess turned in a strong six-inning performance against Fresno State ace Jeff Weaver, who pitched for the U.S. Olympic team last summer.

Although Rice trailed 2-0 when Bess left the game, he struck out six and allowed just three hits.

The Owls travel to Fort Worth this weekend to play Texas Christian University (17-19, 9-9). Rice swept a three-game series from the Horned Frogs in March.

A successful weekend would go far toward ensuring a South Division title for the Owls. Whether they can do that, however, is a different question.

Just as they have done in other conference cities, Rice has struggled in Fort Worth. They lost all three games there last year in a weekend marking one of the lower points of a dismal 5-15 record in road SWC and WAC games over the past two seasons.

"It's always tough to win out in Fort Worth, as we found out last year," Anderson said. "I think we'll be ready, and everyone will have their heads on straight."

"We've got to compete better under hostile conditions," Graham said. "The key for us is slumping bats on the road. We've got to get the bats back on the road. I do think there's a good chance that will happen. These are smart guys and they know what they need to do."

This item appeared in the Sports section of the April 11, 1997 issue.