The top of the first inning felt like, "Here we go again," as Rice righthander Matt Langwell walked Prairie View leadoff hitter Michael Richard (pronounced like Rocket Richard, not Little Richard) and allowed a single to Robert Tolan. Rice paid close attention to both baserunners before Langwell induced a crucial 5-4-3 double play started by freshman Diego Seastrunk and saved by a short-hop pick at first base from all-American Joe Savery. Langwell then got cleanup hitter Arthur Christal to strike out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the first inning, leadoff hitter Brian Friday went down looking on a very borderline 3-2 pitch, but rightfielder Jared Gayhart singled up the middle off the glove of PV senior righthander Matthew Chase. Shortstop Richard flagged the ball down behind second base but sailed his off-balance throw into the dugout. Tyler Henley then came to the plate. Henley has leadoff-hitter-type speed, but he showed why he is in the No. 3 spot with a towering home run to right field to put Rice ahead 2-0.

Chase, all of 6-5 and 200 pounds, seemed a bit rattled in the first inning. He balked once, rarely pitched ahead in the count, and had to throw 28 pitches. He did flash a pretty nice breaking ball, however, to strike out Jess Buenger.

Also, the second-worst news of the day for me. I turned to the second page in my NCAA tournament scorebook (yes, I make my own) only to discover the diamond in each square did not copy through to the remaining games. So I'll be drawing lines to show where the ball traveled with no frame of reference and filling in a square I draw from scratch. Terrific stuff.