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The Rice Thresher
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by Jose Luis Cubria thresher editorial staff
In the year in question, the Rice baseball team played in a prestigious six-team tournament to open the season. With a pitching staff stacked with solid returnees and a lineup full of new faces, the Owls headed to a ballpark more used to hosting major leaguers. Once there, Rice faced three quality opponents - all from the same conference. Two of the games were nail-biters, and one got ugly down the stretch. The Owls came up with the same result in all three games. Give up? It's a trick question. So let's end the suspense. The correct answer is 2000. And 2001. That's right, the Owls have started the last two seasons in exactly the same way, except for one major difference: Last year's season-opening tourney was an 0-3 disaster. This year's was a rousing 3-0 success. "We're playing with a whole lot of confidence right now," junior shortstop Eric Arnold said. "It's a completely different atmosphere in the locker room right now compared to last year at this point. We expect to win every game. We're not just there to play against people, and we're not just there to show people we can play. We expect to win every game we play." After going winless in last year's ACC/Disney Baseball Blast and dropping their home opener to fall to 0-4, the Owls were well aware of just how wrong things could have gone during the first four games of the 2001 season. But after an impressive sweep of last weekend's Astros College Classic and an 8-3 win over Sam Houston State University in Tuesday's home opener, Rice is glad to be on the other side. "We were a little bit uneasy coming in because of what happened last year," head coach Wayne Graham said. "We came ready and we knew we'd face quality teams. It's a good feeling." Much like in last year's season-opening tournament, Rice got stellar starting pitching and inconsistent hitting at Enron. The biggest difference - besides the three wins - was the bullpen. Last year, Rice's bullpen combined to pitch 3.2 innings and gave up 10 hits and six runs. The relief corps amassed a 4.91 earned run average and picked up a loss. Last weekend, the bullpen threw 10.2 innings and gave up just nine hits and one run. Rice relievers posted a sterling 0.84 ERA and were credited with three wins and a save. The bullpen's impact was not lost on the Owls. "What's nice about this is that last year, early in the year we had no relief pitching," Graham said. "Now, [four] relievers have wins. That's big. We've got a chance to have a really good bullpen." In fact, the Rice bullpen played a critical role in each of the three wins at Enron. In the 1-0 extra-inning win over Baylor University Feb. 1, junior Phillip Tribe and senior Philip Barzilla held the 16th-ranked Bears scoreless in the ninth and 10th, setting the stage for junior first baseman Jesse Roman's dramatic game-winning homer. On Friday, the Owls edged 20th-ranked University of Texas thanks in large part to 3.0 innings of one-run relief from sophomore Jonathan Gonzalez. The stint included a ninth inning in which Gonzalez pitched out of a bases loaded, no-out jam. The most encouraging performance, however, came in Saturday's game. Tribe, Barzilla and Gonzalez are all proven pitchers beyond the high school level, but sophomore Steven Herce, who saw limited action last year, made a pitch to join that group in Saturday's 13-6 win over Texas Tech University. With the Owls clinging to an 8-6 lead in the sixth, Herce entered the game with no outs and two runners on. A lineout and two strikeouts later, Rice was out of the jam. Herce, who battled through arm problems during the fall and went nearly five months without facing a live batter, went on to pitch 4.0 innings. He gave up just one hit and one walk while striking out seven to pick up his first career save. "It felt good," Herce said. "That was the vote of confidence I needed. I can't tell you how good it feels not to be hurt anymore."
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