But Joe Savery chopped weakly to first and Jordan Dodson struck out looking on a nice pitch on the outside corner, and the Cougars' Aaron Brown escaped with no further damage. He had to have taken some confidence from the way he pitched his way out of that inning, and he carried that momentum into the second, when he was the victim of a suspect call on a full count that gave Danny Lehmann a walk. No matter, though, as Brown got Brian Friday to strike out--his third in two innings.

Ryan Berry looked good for Rice in the bottom of the first with the exception of one pitch, which Felix Fanaselle drilled over the wall in right-center for a no-doubt home run.

Oh, and Tyler Henley's first-inning double was what I like to call a "Cousins double," after the former Rice Sports Information Director, who was notoriously reticent to hand out errors. Jimmy Cesario in left really should have made that play.