Final in Hattiesburg

By Mark Etheridge - March 25, 2007

Rice's spot as Conference USA bully is secure for a few more weeks -- at least until their April 6-8 trip to East Carolina. The Owls came out strong in Sunday's rubber game at Pete Taylor Park beating Southern Miss 18-5. Joe Savery started on the hill and but made a bigger contribution at the plate with four RBI to pace the resurgent Rice offense.

"You want to get off on the right foot in conference play," Savery said. "I am a junior and for all the juniors we got swept at San Jose our freshman year. It was big."

"They have a good ball club," said Rice coach Wayne Graham. "To win two-out-of-three on the road against a quality team is all you can expect. You'd like to have more but it's tough to do better than that."