Southern Miss
Rice
Bowden Pitches Southern Miss Past No. 10 Rice, 1-0
3/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 28, 2008
HOUSTON - Golden Eagle starting pitcher Barry Bowden out dueled Rice's All-American Ryan Berry to lead Southern Miss over No. 10 Rice 1-0 at Reckling Park in Houston.
"Bowden pitched tremendous," head coach Corky Palmer said. "We got a big run early and made some nice plays on defense and we scored enough to win tonight."
With two of the top pitchers in the conference, if not the nation, facing off at on the campus of Rice University fans got exactly what they expected, a game dominated by the two starting pitchers.
Reigning Conference USA Pitcher of the Week Barry Bowden (5-1) picked up his fifth win of the season with probably one of his best career performances. He threw 8.2 innings scattering only four Rice hits and striking out ten.
Only one Rice (18-8, 3-1 C-USA) runner reached third base and that was Adam Zornes, who doubled to lead off the seventh inning and was sacrificed to third. With the tying run at third base and one out Bowden struck out the next two Rice batters to end the threat.
Bowden did not allow a Rice base runner until the third inning and did not surrender his first hit until the fourth. Rice did not have an inning in which they had more that one hit and only three runners were able to reach as far as second base.
Rice attempted to rally in the ninth as Diego Seastruck led off the inning with a single to right field and Bowden hit Zornes with a high fastball after recording the first two outs of the inning. With the tying run in scoring position Palmer turned the ball over to closer Tyler Conn.
Conn, who leads the nation with seven saves, did not travel with the team to Houston because of a stomach virus he was suffering from Thursday morning, instead caught a flight this afternoon from Mississippi and joined the team at Recking Park before the game. He picked up his seventh save striking out pinch hitter Derek Myers on five pitches to end the game.
Southern Miss (16-7, 3-1 C-USA) struck for the games only run in the top of the first inning as Trey Sutton drilled a Ryan Berry fastball over the scoreboard in right-center field for his third home run of the season and all the run support that Barry Bowden would need.
Rice's All-American Ryan Berry struck out a career high 13 batters and made only one mistake in the game and that was the pitch that Sutton drilled over the right-center field wall for a solo home run in the first inning. He threw eight innings allowing only four hits and three walks in addition to his 13 strikeouts.
Rice entered the series this weekend having won 26 consecutive conference series dating back to March of 2005 when the Owls were in the Western Athletic Conference, Rice has won every C-USA series since joining the league in 2006 and are now 47-5 in C-USA play. The owls also lost the Friday night game vs. Southern Miss last year at Pete Taylor Park. Tonight's win was the first time that Southern Miss has ever beaten Rice in Houston.
The game was Southern Miss' third consecutive win over a ranked team after defeating No. 15 Ole Miss Tuesday and No 16. UCF last Sunday. The Golden Eagles have won 10 of their last 11 games.
The two teams will face off again tomorrow with first pitch set for 2:00 p.m. David Clark (2-2, 4.85 ERA) will get the ball for Southern Miss and will face RHP Chris Kelly (2-1, 2.96 ERA).
-southernmiss.com-
