Box Score

HOUSTON - The University of Hawai`i Rainbow baseball team (17-16, 1-10 WAC) fell to the No. 1 Rice University Owls (31-1, 11-0 WAC) 2-0 in front of a crowd of 2,835 at Reckling Park Saturday. Ricky Bauer (2-2) pitched well but suffered the loss for the `Bows while Jeff Niemann (8-0) got the win for the Owls. Rice's Wade Townsend also came up big in relief, picking up his third save of the year.

Bauer pitched a good game against the top-ranked Owls, going 6.2 innings, giving up just two runs, striking out four while walking just one. Andrew Sansaver led the way for the `Bows, going 2-for-4 while Tyler Wightman and Arthur Guillen were the only other UH players to get hits. Freshman Guy McDowell also pitched well in relief, going 1.1 innings, giving up no hits, striking out two without a walk.

The Owls got on the board in the first inning, hitting three straight two-out singles to go up 1-0. They didn't get another run off of Bauer until they sacrificed flied in one in the fifth, putting the Rice lead up to 2-0.

Hawai`i would threaten in the top of the eighth inning as Wightman and Guillen had back-to-back singles, advancing to second and third on a wild pitch. But that was as far as they would get, as Townsend would strike out the side, putting the Rainbows away without a run in the inning. The `Bows would again get two base runners on in the ninth inning, but Townsend would repeat his effort in the eighth inning, striking out three more batters to complete Rice's 2-0 victory.

The two teams will close out their series tomorrow at 2 p.m. CDT. Christopher George (4-4) will pitch for Hawai`i against Rice's Josh Baker (6-0) at Reckling Park.

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