By Brian Allen

Sports Writer

The defending national champion Rice Owls defeated the Tech baseball team in the first two games of a three-game Western Athletic Conference series at J.C. Love Field this past weekend, and the final game will be made up at Rice at the end of the season due to rain.

Tech's (13-30, 4-13 WAC) strong play was not enough against the No. 3 nationally ranked Owls (33-7, 16-1) in a rain-shortened two-game series, with the Dogs losing 4-1 Friday and 7-0 Saturday.

"I appreciate the effort we gave this weekend against Rice, the number three ranked team in the nation," Bulldog head coach Wade Simoneaux said.

Tech's starting pitcher Matt Lacy (1-7) threw six and 2/3 innings, giving up three earned runs and recording five strikeouts.

However, Lacy was outdone by Rice's Phillip Humber (9-1), who pitched eight strong innings and gave up one earned run, while striking out eight Tech hitters.

Rice clung to a 1-0 lead until the third inning when Tech mounted a come back. Mims Boyce, who reached on a fielder's choice, stole home to tie the game and energize a fiery Bulldog crowd.

The Owls took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning off a mammoth solo home run to left field by Paul Janish, who is second in the WAC in hitting with a .370 average.

Matt Ueckert led off for Rice in seventh inning with a home run to right field. The Owls added another run late to make the game unreachable for the Bulldog team at the score of 4-1.

Some bright spots for the Bulldogs on Friday night were Brandon Haygood (.272), who had three hits in the game, and Kyle Spangler (.356), who had one hit to remain in the top 10 in batting average in the WAC. Also, pitcher Chris Herron threw two scoreless innings in relief while recording four strikeouts.

Friday night's attendance at J.C. Love Field was the largest of the year at 1,690.

Tech sent Clayton Meyer (4-5) to the mound on Saturday afternoon, where he threw seven innings and gave up five earned runs and struck out six.

"Meyer and Lacy pitched outstanding for us this weekend and kept our team in the two games," Simoneaux said.

Meyer's effort was overshadowed by the pitching performance of Rice's All- American Wade Townsend (9-0), who threw eight flawless innings by giving up two hits and recording 11 strikeouts.

The Bulldogs fell behind early in the game when Rice scored two runs off of three hits in the second inning.

Tech did not get its first hit until the third inning, when Gil Laird singled.

After retiring three Bulldogs in a row, following Laird's single, Townsend struck out the side in the fourth inning.

Rice scored five runs in the final four innings to seal the win and shut out the Bulldogs by a score of 7-0 in front of a home crowd of 853.

"We played Rice close for 18 innings, and that is the best that we could have asked for because they are the number three-ranked team in the country," Simoneaux said.

One player who stood out for Tech in the game was freshman Blake Burns, who played solid at third base without committing a single error.

"Burns is playing good defensively over at third right now for us, and his hitting will come around," Simoneaux said.