The weather looks like it is going to cooperate this morning. We’re looking to resume Rice’s first game of the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional on the LSU campus at 11. We’ll “start” the game in the top of the seventh inning. Rice is the home team against Southeastern Louisiana and has a 4-1 lead. Dane Myers will take the hill.

Our fearless head sports information director, Chuck Pool, dug up some Rice regional history this morning:

If you like a little trivia, this will now be the latest “start” to a regional in Rice’s NCAA history.  Twice we opened play (defined as actually having a result) on June 4 (2004 and 2010). Results of both of those openers were not so good, so let’s just move past that.

What’s worth noting is that when the Owls first reached the College World Series in 1997, those games were played on May 30 and June 1.

Regarding June 5 in Rice NCAA history:
1999: Rice beat Louisiana-Lafayette 10-1 in the second game of the Super Regional at the Astrodome:
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RICE OWLS ……….. 202 100 302  – 10 14  0      (57-13)
Southwestern La. …. 000 001 000  –  1  4  0      (42-23)
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WP-Baugh (11-2)  LP-Dohmann (8-5)  T-2:43  A-7413

2006: Beat Baylor 7-4 at Reckling to win the regional and advance to host Oklahoma in a Super Regional. http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/060506aaa.html
2009: Lost to LSU 12-9 in the first game of the Super Regional at The Box. http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/060509aaa.html
2010: Beat Rider 19-1 in the elimination game of the Austin Regional as Anthony Rendon had himself quite a day. http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/060510aaa.html
2011: Lost to Cal 6-3 in the elimination game of the Rice Regional. http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/060511aaa.html

Watch this morning’s game on ESPN3.com or the WatchESPN app. Listen to the radio call here.

UPDATE, 6:40 PM: THE FOLLOWING WAS POSTED AND TWEETED TWO MINUTES BEFORE THE LATEST RAIN DELAY. The tarp is back on the field and it is raining. The only good news is there is no lightning in the area.

And once we are back in action, follow along:

Live stats:  http://www.ncaa.com/game/baseball/d1/2016/06/04/southeastern-la-rice
Live Audio:  http://portal.stretchinternet.com/rice/full.htm?eventId=291818&streamType=audio
ESPN3: http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/id/2829117/

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The Owls’ first game of the Baton Rouge Regional started at 9:04 a.m. but after six complete innings and a 4-1 Rice lead over Southeastern Louisiana, Mother Nature took over once again at 11:17 a.m. and put us in a delay of more than seven hours. After going back to their respective hotels at around 12:15 p.m., the Owls are now tentatively set to resume at 6:45 p.m.

NCAA officials hope (fingers crossed) that they can get this one in the books and the next game — an elimination game between Utah Valley and the loser of this one. The winners’ bracket was supposed to be played this evening at 7 but has been rescheduled with a TBD tomorrow.

We’ll have game photos, post-game audio and a FINAL SCORE shortly after the game concludes (knock on wood).

Blake Fox pitched all six innings, giving up one run on three hits, four walks and four Ks on 97 pitches. He brought the heat! Nice job by Tommy LaVergne on this shot.

Who doesn’t enjoy some baseball with their eggs?

A quick update from the press box. The Owls were up early and arrived to Alex Box Stadium at 6:40 this morning.

So far so good for the weather, but that could change later today. Fingers crossed we get all three tournament games in today.

The tarp just came off the field and the grounds crew is primping the field.

Rice radio’s J.P. Heath shared this nugget. The Rice-Southeastern Louisiana game will pit the oldest head coach in the tournament against the youngest. There is a 49-year difference between Rice’s Wayne Graham, 80, and SELA’s Matt Riser, 31.

Who is Southeastern Louisiana?

Located in Hammond, La.
Founded in 1925
Enrollment about 15,000 students
Colors are green and gold
Southland athletic conference
First year in baseball (in modern era) 1947
2015 record of 42-17 overall and won their conference with a 25-5 record
In his third year, Riser is 80-42.

First pitch coming up at 9 a.m. Watch on ESPN3 or the WatchESPN app. You can find JP’s radio broadcast here.

Rice’s opening game of the Baton Rouge Regional versus Southeastern Louisiana at 7 tonight at Alan Box Stadium has been postponed due to rain and the fact that the first game of the regional, LSU-Utah Valley, has not yet started.

The LSU-UVU (Game 1) has not been postponed at this time (6:30 p.m. CT Friday). Rice will play Southeastern (Game 2) tomorrow with a start time yet to be announced.

The Owls are leaving the hotel now for indoor batting practice. We have some BP footage for you! 

And hats off to our Chuck Pool. He’s laid out some possible scenarios for the regional moving forward:

1.       If Games 1 (LSU-UVU) and 2 (Rice-Southeastern) on Friday are both cancelled … play Games 1 and 2 on Saturday, play Games 3, 4 and 5 on Sunday and Games 6 and 7 (if necessary) on Monday.

2.       If Game 1 is started and suspended before being completed on Friday, resume Game 1 and play Game 2 on Saturday, Games 3, 4 and 5 on Sunday and Games 6 and 7 (if necessary) on Monday.

3.       If Game 2 on Friday is cancelled, play Games 2, 3 and 4 on Saturday, Games 5 and 6 on Sunday, and Game 7 on Monday (if necessary).

4.       If Game 1 is completed on Friday and Game 2 is started but suspended before being completed on Friday, resume Game 2 and play Games 3 and 4 on Saturday, Games 5 and 6 on Sunday and Game 7 (if necessary) on Monday.

Got it? Good, because there will be a quiz on this later.

The NCAA regional in Baton Rouge is in a rain delay. LSU and Utah Valley were supposed to get things started at 2 p.m., but storms have been rolling through the area since before game time, so a pitch hasn’t been thrown yet. The soonest game one will start is 5 p.m. CST.

Rice and Southeastern Louisiana were slated to start at 7 p.m. CST. We’ll keep you updated. For now the tarp is the only thing seeing action on the field today.

6/1-2/16

After a final practice at Reckling Park, the Owls found the start of their 2016 NCAA Regional road trip to Baton Rouge delayed for 30 minutes by a brief drenching.

That delay put us into the heat of rush hour traffic at 5 p.m., traffic which was heightened by an accident and more rain. Heavy rain persisted even as the traffic lightened and we again came to a dead stop because of an accident involving a head-on collision with the center median.

As luck would have it, we arrived just after the tow trucks, who were blocking all lanes of traffic.  But just as luckily, we were near an exit and after some deft driving, we were able to pull off the highway and ride the feeder past the wreck and get back up to cruising speed.

We crossed the Sabine River and entered Louisiana in good shape; it was then time to make a stop for dinner in Sulphur.

After filling up on food, we were back on the road with our travel companion (rain) continuing to tag along.

We finally made the climb over the huge bridge over the Mississippi River and into Baton Rouge and got to the hotel at 11:30 p.m.

A long day, for sure, but after a good rest, the Owls will be ready to roll for our practice session later today at The Box.

More to come……