By BRIAN TYNES

News Editor

A tough week in Texas saw Tech's baseball team (15-27, 7-11 WAC) drop all five games of its road trip, including a Western Athletic Conference series against Rice University (29-14, 11-7 WAC).

The Bulldogs fell to last place in the conference with the losses.

"The first five innings of every game we played well, we just couldn't finish," Tech head coach Wade Simoneaux said. "We had three good starts out of [Ryan] Rupert, [Matt] Lacy and [Clayton] Meyer, but it got away from us each game."

Tech took a 6-4 lead into the bottom of the seventh Friday night, but three hits and four walks allowed Rice to take its first lead since the first inning 8-6.

Lance Pendleton homered in the eighth for the Owls to put them up 9-6, and Rice added three more runs on two hits to take a 12-6 lead. The inning ended on a ground out to senior second baseman Brandon Haygood with the bases loaded.

"Rupert came out Friday night, and we had a 6-4 lead going into the seventh inning with a chance for a double play," Simoneaux said. "We miscommunicated and only got one out, and they scored a run. Then they stuck a ball in the gap, took the lead and it went downhill from there. That was the turning point in the game."

Saturday, Tech took a lead in the first inning when Haygood scored on a single by senior Ben Tabor.

The 'Dogs kept that lead until the bottom of the fourth when Josh Rodriguez hit a three-run home run.

Clay Reichenbach homered to help Rice to a seven run eighth inning, and the Owls won 17-1.

"Lacy gave us a quality start," Simoneaux said. "We were up 1-0 for four innings, and they forced him to throw a lot of pitches. After I yanked him it got ugly."

Eddie Degerman demonstrated control over Tech's hitters, recording 10 strike outs in addition to the 16 he had against Tech in Ruston.

The Owls took flight early Sunday, when Tyler Henley led off the bottom of the first with a home run.

Rice added one more in the third, three in the fourth and one more in the sixth to take a 6-0 lead.

Tech scored one run in the seventh and ninth innings but was unable to top Rice's Joe Savery, who had eight strike outs and allowed only five hits.

"Their top four pitchers are strike out guys, and they only threw five guys on the weekend," Simoneaux said. "[Rice head coach Wayne] Graham will let them go 130 pitches because he doesn't trust his bullpen, but his starters are good enough to go the distance. Even with a big lead he leaves them in. He's not grooming anybody for the future; he's going for the present."

Junior Ryan Hamilton's school record 22-game hitting streak was snapped Friday when he flied out twice, grounded out and struck out.

"It's tough to keep a streak going when you're facing the quality guys we were playing against, especially in the four-hole because you're not getting a lot of good pitches to hit," Simoneaux said.

"Everybody knows he's our hottest hitter, and when the game is on the line, you're not going to let the leading hitter beat you."

Hamilton's only hit of the series came in the seventh inning on Saturday with a single through the left side but still had the highest batting average on the team with a .313.