Rice Sweeps Super-Regional

Record crowds watch the Owls flatten LSU en route to College World Series.

The Rice Owls cruised through the 2002 NCAA playoffs to earn their third trip to the College World Series. Dominant pitching and timely hitting paved the way, but in some ways the most valuable player may have been third baseman Tommy Reckling, who last played for Rice in 1954.

Reckling was the primary donor for Rice’s baseball stadium. Reckling Park opened in 2000 on the site of the former Cameron Field. Head coach Wayne Graham is the first to admit that bricks and mortar do not win ball games. But rightly or wrongly, the NCAA’s playoff format makes the right kind of stadium a major factor in a team’s chances of advancing to college baseball’s ultimate stage, the College World Series in Omaha.

To get to Omaha, a team must win a four-team regional playoff and then a two-team, best-of-three super-regional. Being able to play both series at home is a tremendous edge. In the NCAA’s calculus, earning that home field advantage requires both an outstanding regular-season record and a first-class stadium.

The 2002 Owls delivered on both counts, racing to a 47–11 regular-season record and Rice’s sixth consecutive Western Athletic Conference championship. By April, the Owls were ranked #2 in the nation in all three national polls. The additional reward was to be named one of the top eight national seeds for the NCAA playoffs, meaning the Owls would host both the regional and super-regional—in Reckling Park.

In the regional, Rice dispatched Harvard and Texas Tech with little trouble and cruised to the very brink of the tournament title. But with the Owls leading 6–4 and the Washington Huskies down to their final out, Washington’s center fielder laced a three-run homer to force one more game in the double-elimination series. After a short but encouraging talk from Graham, the Owls regrouped and blasted the Huskies 14–2 in the decisive final game.

The regional victory set up a super-regional showdown with national powerhouse LSU, winner of five College World Series championships. The Tigers posed a challenge not just for the Rice players, but also for the Rice ticket office.

The root of the word “fan” is “fanatic,” and there is no better example than LSU’s baseball faithful, who travel in great numbers for away games and often arrive days ahead of time in a fleet of RVs. Against that kind of loyalty, there was a risk that Rice fans would be outnumbered in their own park for the crucial series.

Fortunately, Rice ticket manager David Welsh had planned for exactly this situation. As soon as the NCAA playoff brackets were announced in May, Welsh and his staff began encouraging all Rice fans to buy refundable super-regional tickets in advance. Then, with the regional final still in progress, Welsh opened up the Reckling box office for super-regional sales, while KTRU radio announcer Mike Pede urged Owl listeners to hurry to the stadium to buy tickets. Rice won the regional title on Sunday evening, June 2; by noon Monday, the super-regional was sold out, with Rice fans holding most of the seats. One desperate LSU fan was reported to have offered $1,000 on eBay for tickets.

Another, unexpected challenge arose the night of June 6, two days before the super-regional, when thieves broke into Reckling Park and stole audio equipment, videotapes, and players’ gloves and cleats. A similar break-in occurred the same night at the University of Houston as the Cougars were preparing to leave for their super-regional at the University of Texas. At press time, no suspects have been identified.

The Owls were unfazed. Indeed, junior pitcher Steven Herce and senior pitcher Justin Crowder combined for a triumph almost unheard-of in college baseball: back-to-back shutouts of a nationally ranked team. Herce stifled the powerful Tigers 6–0 in the series opener, and Crowder matched that feat the next day, throwing 141 pitches in a gutsy 3–0 victory. LSU managed just eight hits in the two games. The official attendance at each game was 4,615, breaking the Reckling Park record that had been set a month earlier in the game against Texas. The Owls credited the home-field advantage as a key asset in overcoming the LSU mystique. Thank you, Tommy Reckling.

In Omaha, the Owls’ first opponent was Texas, also a national seed and arguably the only team in the nation with as good a pitching staff as Rice’s. Their two regular-season matchups had both been pitching duels, with Texas winning 3–2 in Austin in April and 4–2 at Reckling in May.

The rematch in Omaha was a pitching masterpiece. Herce, Crowder, and sophomore David Aardsma combined to allow just two Longhorn runs. But the Owls scored only one of their own, a solo homer by senior second baseman Eric Arnold. Freshman first baseman Vincent Sinisi was cut down at home trying to score the tying run.

The nail-biting 2–1 loss forced the Owls into an elimination game against Notre Dame. With the score tied 2–2 in the seventh inning, senior outfielder and Omaha native Mike Lorsbach drilled a home run over the left-field wall to put Rice ahead. But in the bottom of the ninth, Crowder, who had not allowed a run in 25 innings, gave up a two-run homer. It was the second time Rice had lost a playoff game in the ninth inning, and this one knocked Rice out of the College World Series.

Rice finished the season with an impressive 54–12 record, including a remarkable 28–2 in WAC play. The ultimate ending was disappointing to Coach Graham and his players, but only because they had set the bar so high. Graham, who won six junior college national championships at San Jacinto College and seven conference titles at Rice, insists that this year’s squad was the finest team he has ever coached. Major league baseball apparently agrees, as eight Owls were selected in the 2002 draft, including Herce, Crowder, Arnold, and Lorsbach.

Moreover, the future certainly looks bright. Sinisi and pitcher Philip Humber were named two of the top three freshman players in the nation by Collegiate Baseball magazine, while freshman shortstop Paul Janish joined them in earning All-America honors. Sinisi, whose .432 batting average led the Owls in 2002, was named WAC Player of the Year. Humber, the WAC Freshman of the Year, was selected for the U.S. national team, which competed at this summer’s world championships.

—George W. Webb III