Nobody expected that much out of Rice this year. Baseball America had them ranked 18^th in their pre-season poll, but that might have more out of the name of the prestigious school than the actual projected results of the players on the team. There was absolutely no single everyday player on the roster that jumped out at you as a potential baseball star, so, as usual, any success this team was going to have was going to have to come via their pitching staff.

David Aardsma, Phillp Humber, Jeff Niemann, Andrew Benak, J.T. Chargois, Tony Cingrani, Mathew Reckling…  the names go on and on. Rice University may have the reputation of producing the best crop of pitchers of any major university regardless of their outcoming in the pros.

So, once again the Owls would have to turn to the pitchers to get them off to a good pre-conference schedule of tough teams like Stanford, Dallas Baptist, and Hawaii.

Well, guess what? The Owls are 5-2, 3-0 on the road, and the pitching I off the charts. Junior Austin Kubitza is 1-0, 0.00, and have 25-K in 13.0-IP. Fellow junior John Sims is 2-0, 0.00, while sophomore Jordan Stephens is ‘dragging down’ the rotation at 1-1, 1.65, 13-K, 16.1-IP.

Relief wise, sophomore Zech Lemond, sophomore Evan Rutter, senior Holt McNair,  and junior Chase McDonald have combined for one run in 23.2-IP (11-appearances).

Rice moves on Monday to the Houston College Classic where they will play North Carolina, TAMU, and Baylor. No rest for both the talented and weary.

On the other end of the spectrum, last year’s Cinderella team, Stoney Brook, has gotten off to a miserable start, going 0-6 after two three-game sets with Florida International and North Carolina.

The teams top two hitters are sophomore OF Steven Goldstein (.278) and sophomore IF Cole Peragine (last year’s Conference Rookie of the Year), while the team ERA is 6.52 vs. the opponents 2.17. You don’t win many college baseball games with stat lines like this.

P Tyler Johnson, who set the team’s win record, and Confernece Player of the Year OF Travis Jankowski are a distant memory.

Thing could get better beginning March 1^st when they travel to Wilmington, North Carolina to participate is a three-game tourney against the likes of UNC Wilmington, Gardner-Webb, and San Diego

Here’s how some of our top pitchers are stating so far this season:

          Indiana State Sean Manaea – 2-G, 0-1, 0.90, 16-K, 10-0-IP

          Stanford’s Mark Appel – 2-G, 1-1, 1.93, 14-K, 14.0-IP

          Florida’s Jonathan Crawford – 2-G, 0-1, 4.00, 8-K, 9-0-IP

          Old Miss’s Bobby Wahl – 2-G, 2-0, 0.79, 12-K, 11.1-IP

          UCLA’s Adam Plutko – 2-G, 1-0, 2.13, 8-K, 12.2-IP

          San Diego’s Dylan Covey – 2-G, 1-1, 5.62, 3-K, 8-IP, 5-BB

          Arkansas’ Ryne Stanek – 2-G, 1-0, 3.86, 8-K, 7-IP

          Arizona State’s Trevor Wiliams – 2-G, 1-0, 1.50, 12-K, 12-IP

          Rice’s Austin Kubitka – 2-G, 2-G, 1-0, 0.00, 25-K, 13.0-IP

          Pepperdine’s Scott Frazier – 2-G, 1-0, 1.98, 15-K, 13.2-IP

          LSU Ryan Eades – 2-G, 1-0, 0.73, 11-K, 12.1-IP

          Oklahoma Dillon Overton – 3-G, 3-0, 0.56, 16-K, 16.0-IP

          Gonzaga’s Marco Gonzalez – 2-G, 1-1, 4.15, 13-K, 13.0-IP

          Vanderbilt’s Kevin Ziomek – 2-G, 2-0, 1.38, 18-K, 13.0-IP

          Minnesota’s Tom Windle – 2-G, 1-0, 0.00, 7-K, 9.2-IP