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MARSHALL SPORTS
Herd beats No. 1 Rice
HOUSTON, Texas -- Victor Gomez crushed two home runs and Marshall pitching limited No. 1 Rice to just five hits in an 11-7 win at Reckling Park on Sunday afternoon.
Gomez finished the game 4-for-5 with five RBI and Marshall pounded out 15 hits on the afternoon to get its third win over a ranked opponent on the season. The others came against No. 19 East Carolina and No. 18 Ohio State.
Marshall trailed 4-1 after five innings, but scored four runs with two outs in the sixth inning as Rice pitchers ran into control issues.
Owls' starter Mark Haynes allowed a single to Gomez and an RBI double to Rhett Stafford to pull the Herd within 4-2 before he exited the contest.
A four-pitch walk and catcher's interference call loaded the bases before consecutive four-pitch walks to Kevin Shackelford and Kenny Socorro brought in the tying runs. The Herd then took the lead on Adam Yeager's RBI single.
The Owls tied it up in the bottom of the sixth on a sacrifice fly, but the Herd went ahead to stay on a two-run blast by Gomez that gave the Herd a 7-5 lead.
After Josh Valle's RBI single plated Yeager, Gomez added his second home run in as many innings when his three-run shot sailed over the left-field wall to give the herd an 11-5 lead.
Rice scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth, but Austin Coan shut the door and earned the victory after pitching 3.2 innings of relief duty.
Mike Mason started for Marshall (16-22, 6-9 Conference USA) and allowed four runs on two hits and six walks in three innings of work. Tyler Gatrell went through a scoreless inning in relief of Mason and Ryan Kiel went 1 1/3 innings of one-run baseball before Coan came in during the sixth.
Sunday's contest was a complete contrast from Saturday's affair when Rice earned a 10-3 win. Marshall pitchers allowed Rice a season-high six home runs on Saturday night, but surrendered just five hits in Sunday's victory.
During Saturday's win, Rice (27-10, 11-4) scored nine of its 10 runs off of home runs.
Marshall returns to action at 3 p.m. on Tuesday against Ohio University at George T. Smailes Field at The Kennedy Center.
