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MARSHALL SPORTS
Mercy! Rice hammers Herd, 13-0
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Rice defeated Marshall, 13-0, in a first-round game Wednesday at the Conference USA baseball tournament.
Marshall (22-31) had only three hits in the seven-inning, mercy-rule defeat.
The seventh-seeded Thundering Herd continues in the double-elimination tournament at Pete Taylor Park with a 10 a.m. game today against third-seeded Houston (25-30).
Second-seeded Rice, ranked No. 9 in two national polls, takes a 36-15 record into the second round against UAB.
Rice used seven hits to score seven runs in the first two innings.
"If you get down in the game 7-0, you lose that momentum," Marshall head coach Jeff Waggoner said.
Rick Hague got Rice started in the first inning with a double. Hague scored on Diego Seastrunk's single. Anthony Rendon also singled and two runs scored on Michael Fuda's double.
The Owls made it 7-0 in the second inning when Jimmy Comerota singled and scored on Hague's single and Rendon's three-run home run.
Rendon, the conference player of the year, was 2-for-3 with three RBIs and scored three runs.
Marshall starting pitcher Dan Straily lasted only 1.2 innings. The all-conference selection gave up seven runs on seven hits.
"From the get go they came out swinging," Waggoner said. "(Dan Straily) wasn't on, he usually does a pretty good job. But it's a credit to (Rice). They came out ready to play, and really put it on us."
Jess Buenger of the Owls singled in the fifth inning to drive in two runs before Hague delivered an RBI single.
Rice also scored three times in the sixth inning.
Rice starter Taylor Wall pitched a three-hit shutout, allowing only singles by Thundering Herd players Victor Gomez, Thor Meeks and Kevin Shackelford.
UAB played Houston in the first game of the day and through four innings the Blazers couldn't touch Cougars' right-hander Jared Ray.
Then came the fifth inning. Jamal Austin's two-run single keyed a four-run inning, as the sixth-seeded Blazers ran away to an 8-3 victory over the third-seeded Cougars.
"We can't expect to win playing the way we are right now," said Houston head coach Rayner Noble.
Top-seeded East Carolina, the regular season champion, beat UCF, 6-3.
Tulane played host Southern Miss in the late game.
