>> matt: lovely night for baseball here until houston, texas. packed with everything you need for college baseball season. from post game wrapups and interviews to schedules and scores. to rankings and all that kind of good enough stuff. you can see it all at csssports.com. rice owls in command as we reach the half way point of this ball game. series opener. three game series pushed up a day because of the easter holiday. so they won't play on sunday. as they would do in a weekend series. four runs and seven hits. rathjen at the plate. 2-2 with a single in the second. scored and an rbi single in the third. >> steve: hammack came in and

did a nice job the last inning. only giving up the one sacrifice fly. throwing strikes this inning. a breath of fresh air. >> matt: ball poke into right field for a single hit. eight hits for the rice owls. >> steve: fast ball on the inside corner. shot it to right field. the secret of hitting. keeping that barrel behind your hands. staying inside of it. and inside pi

throws him

>> matt: top of the sixth inning. it's lou our night. the students participating in a dance contest. what is the native dance in hawaii? is that the hula dance? >> steve: i think so. >> matt: here's kelso. 0-2 in this ball game. struck out looking in the first. and flew out to third. >> matt: the -- they put the apple in the pigs mouth. and roast it over the open fire. the pit. >> steve: interesting national anthem the heinz team as well today. >> matt: absolutely. played the national anthem is

played on the uric laically. i can say that's probably the first and hopefully the last time i experience that. no, he did a fine job. here is the -- >> steve: blake kelso did a good job of getting on base. throwing 26 pitches in the last three innings. >> matt: that's the first base runner since the second. grace city takes the strike. out of south texas. out of cisco junior college. beat out the enbent at third base this season. played primarily at third. jake runty. gracey a little bit better offensive threat. hit that one to right field. run down by mozingo for the first out. >> steve: well struck right

there. he is having a hard time hitting to that guy. >> matt: bring up joel ansley that has the only hit for the houston cougars tonight. a two out single back in the first inning. >> steve: wall has it going on right now. it's going to take what is going to open up the flood gates and cruise through these last few innings. it looks like a little bit of active in the bull pen. doesn't look like anything series. >> matt: wall has not reported a victory. he has had fine outings. perhaps the best was in a 2-1 lost to houston. he admitted the longhorns. season high eight. three walks. pitched into the eighth inning but was the tough luck loser in

that one. >> steve: it's out of the pitchers score. doesn't know how many runs the team is going to score. or how good of a defense. you look at the numbers .213 batting average. that's a good recipe. >> matt: wayne graham said they got robbed by great fielding from the texas longhorns. center fielder that made a running grab. if you're familiar with minute maid park. they were able to run a couple down there. >> steve: never broke stride. that guy is not in the lineup anymore. they took him in a heartbeat. wall is looking imprezzive today. he has thrown three pitches for strikes. >> matt: kelso 7-9 on bases. leads the team to seven stolen

bases. leads the conference usa. houston has a team with 31 stolen bases. >> steve: noble can't send these guys right now. the runners are at a premium. >> matt: thrown down. ricochets into shallow right field. will take advantage of that and reach first base. strikes out of ansley or makes it two outs in an inning. able to advance on a stolen base. there is an error. the error on the catcher. >> steve: hit kelso in the leg. flicked out into right center field. >> matt: the eighth stolen base for kelso and the third owl on the rice owls tonight. rice a pretty good fielding team. behind number one houston and

.976. >> steve: cokinos is one of the guys that has a lot of raw power. is expecting a lot of home run production from him this year. hasn't been this year. they expect a lot of big things from him comes from a great baseball family. >> matt: five runs in the cougars 15-8 win against texas tech a few weeks ago. now wayne graham out of the dugout. >> steve: not in too big of a hurry right there. >> matt: they're thinking that cokinos has the ability to be a rendon type threat. we're not going to say he's going to be rendon. that's what the houston cougars has lagged with cokinos and wallace not hitting home runs like they had anticipated. they do not have that guy in the order that can change the dynamic of the dame with one

swing of the bat. >> steve: if there is one guy to do it it is this guy right here. that's what graham is telling taylor wall right now. so let's not give in to this guy. this guy is dangerous as it comes. make a quality pitch. if you miss right here we'll go with the next one. >> matt: cokinos 6'2" future catcher on this ball club. 2-1 to cokinos. flown out twice to center. 4-0 in the top of the sixth. pitch outside. and now it's 3-1. >> steve: they have had a good tradition of catchers. i know the arizona diamond backs have a good defensive catcher in chris snyder.

>> matt: that ball is hit down the right field line. mozingo on the line makes the play. the inning comes to a close. the cougars get a base runner to third. can't bring him home. rice leading the series opener 4-1. - al pop goin rian and y miite. henks! alriop-p i'g no rian and y miite. thanpop- lovtastof yer tch? you. ab ae howed mille... fo gresner. grea okaypop... - quit while yahea. hing

♪(whi tun n't be h♪ >> matt: bottom sixth inning. rice with a 4-0 lead on the

cougars. not happy with this play right here. letting the middle infielders hear about it. after the throw got away. went into right field. you can see coach rayner getting a what for. >> steve: number one comerota did not come up. too close to the bag. so he wanted to make sure they kept their heads in the ball game. sometimes one run can make a big difference. >> matt: one run leads to another. abe gonzales. >> steve: very clever. right on top of your '80s hit. >> matt: but you can apply it to baseball. baseball is life. they have a tee shirt that says that. 3-0 to abe gonzales.

i don't know why more coaches don't stack lefties. more left handers have trouble. >> matt: they cannot hit them. i would like to see the collective bat handers of left- handed pitcher. >> steve: i was referring to

touched on it earlier steve. good night did not make it out of the fourth. now you have hammack in the ball game. sixth inning of game one of the series. does have the trickle effect eventually. >> steve: your probably going to burn hammack for tomorrow's game. see who else comes into the ball game. if they do lose this game they are going to have to only cover eight innings. >> matt: taken back abe

gonzales. if you don't play well and pitch one in game one. may lead to not pitching well in game two and three because you used arms. 2-1. >> steve: that's a big advantage of the guys that can pitch deep in the games. throw a lot of strikes. get guys out early. he goes deep in the games. he keeps everybody else fresh. >> matt: two balls and a strike to chad mozingo. 4-0 lead for the rice owls. >> steve: mozingo look into the dugout. coach graham gives all the singles. runner on first base looking in as well. typically you see the third base coach giving those. >> matt: patrick is the first base head coach for rice. mike taylor in his tenth is >> steve: he calls him the

best defensive shortstop he ever coached. >> matt: got under it a little bit. morehouse camped for the first out. >> steve: like you said right there. one of the lefty lefty situations. ball comes from behind him. the front shoulder flies over. consequently he's out on the end of the bat. weak fly ball to right field. >> matt: it's interesting give us old pitchers perspective what you see. >> steve: that's coming from behind him. you think of a right hander. throwing that pitch to a lefty. that hitter can see the ball a lot longer. it's coming from behind you. it's natural instinct to flinch a little bit. as soon as that front shoulder leads that is when power source leads a little pit. >> matt: 2-00 fuda.

0-3 in this ball game and struck out twice. but the lefty, lefty matchup is a little bit more difficult than the right hander verses the ride hander. you see it so much more that you get used to it. so you start learning to keep that front shoulder in. >> matt: three balls and no strikes to michael fuda. >> steve: tom serioused to talk about if he didn't know -- if he was a right-handed pitcher. his

here this week. >> steve: rayner is in good shape. he may take the ball right here. >> matt: he is great. he graduated in '83. he is taking care of himself. >> steve: speak for yourself. >> matt: i know how old you. are you are about how old i am. just a few years younger. >> steve: he does look great. i'm sure he can go out there and get a few guys out. >> matt: reigner is 45 or 46. does he look it? >> steve: not at all. a smaller percentage of body fat than half the guys on the

team. >> matt: very intense coach for 16 seasons. cougars head coach. has done a great job with this program. one of the best seasons ever with him at the helm a couple of times. won 48 games. hosted a season regional for first time ever. houston got world series back in 1967. lead by tom pachorick. right field. for a base hit. coming around to store is oregon seoulless. heading to third base is pugh dammit an rbi single for ratterree. it's not how hard you hit it most often where you hit it. and in this case off the end of the bat. it was almost like a queue ball. >> steve: it's where you place that 18 hopper. >> matt: killed a lot of worms

with that one. it's 5-0. >> steve: tough break for hammack there. made a great pitch. >> matt: that's about -- >> steve: creel did all he could do. >> matt: hammack wanted to throw his glove at it. stop it. that was the -- here's rendon. 1-2 in this ball game. brought in a home. >> steve: he could be 8-0. >> matt: basically in this game. nine hits right now for the rice owls. rice has despite the fact a .295 batting average. they have been a good running score team. they scored 171 runs.

fourth best in the conference. they were third in home runs. they have been able to come up with timely hits. but at 14-12 and 1-2 in the conference usa not in the play where rice owl fans have grown accustomed to watching their team. ball took a funny hop. flown to first. got the double play. that was a nice play by kelso. took a low hop. he was able to flip it on to second. then on to first for the 6-4 double play. but the owls add one more run on the single and 5-0 as we

>> matt: talking football is back on may 5th with a special spring edition. join the css experts. brady and hosts bob neil as they give their analysis on spring football across the south. and who to watch this fall as talking football comes up on may nine o'clock here on css. saw rice stadium. right here by reckling park. spring football under way for coach bayless. looking for a disappointing season. morehouse is retired easily for the first time in the seventh. >> steve: taylor wall. 77 pitches coming in.

looks poised to go deep. >> matt: he's thrown 77 pitches. and good night to 86 in four innings. >> steve: it's going after the hitters and trusting yourself. goodnight over throwing a little bit tonight. not to say anything about his stuff. >> matt: swing and a miss. zach presley. people all over the country have heard of that because of their football. 0-2 pitch top presley. change up to outside line. if it's there it's trouble. ran down in the corner. nice play biffy dammit that had double written all over it. we told you fo football star himself throwing his great athletic ability.

>> steve: lead him on a touchdown pass in the corner. he got a lot on that ball. we talked about the balls not carrying to left field. he showed a lot. >> matt: whatever wind we had here is dead. wallace steps to the plate. wallace is 0-1. washington to second. flew out to rice. wallace swings and misses. 1-1. >> steve: wallace is wearing that protective gear. he must have been hit sometime. >> matt: i think it would be difficult to hit with that. with baseball it's such a prequel already game. anything that throws you out of your rhythm does so. >> steve: he has gotten comfortable with it or he wouldn't wear it. that change up is