Rice got on the board in the second inning to cut the early Cougar to one. Houston shortstop Travis Cougot opened the door for the Owls with an error on a Joe Savery grounder to start the inning. After Aaron Luna flew out to right, Rice catch Adam Zornes doubled down the leftfield line to cut the Houston lead in half. After Jordan Dodson walked, Matt Farrington induced a double play grounder to get out of the inning.

Savery hasn't looked sharp, but has been far more effective after the first inning. The top of the third ended with carbon copy grounders back to the mound that Savery underhanded over to first to get out of the inning.

The Owls went down in order in the third, with each Cougar outfielder recording an out in the inning. While Joe Savery thrown 60 pitches in laboring through 3 innings, Matt Farrington has thrown just 32 for the Cougars.

The crowd looks to be in the 4,000 range, and there are still some stragglers arriving at the ballpark. The Cougar red is prominent and scattered throughout the stands -- I would estimate a little over 60% of the fans are here for the Owls with a strong minority for Houston.