Last Friday, Marshall baseball welcomed in the Rice Owls for a three-game series. The Owls took the first two games from Marshall, winning the overall series 2-1.   

Before the weekend series, Marshall head coach Jeff Waggoner talked about the power of the Owls lineup. “I think the top three in the lineup are dangerous. Their pitching is good. Their weekend starters are good.”  

On Friday, the Owls, showing superior plate discipline, won game one of the series. Rice was able to strike early with home runs by Pierce Gallo in the second and Austin Bulman in the third inning. Marshall got its two runs of the ballgame from home run balls in the third inning by Christian Lucio and Luke Edwards. However, after the third inning, the Owls were able to pull away and cruise to a 7-2 victory in game one of the series.   

In game two, the Marshall bats were on full display as the Herd scored five runs within the first two innings. However, the five runs early in the ballgame ended up being the only offense that Marshall was able to generate. After the single run Rice scored in the first inning, Rice scored three more runs in the fourth to make the score 5-4 Marshall. In the eighth and ninth inning, the Owls scored a run in both innings for the final score of 6-5, extending the series lead to 2-1.   

On a cold Sunday in Huntington, the Thundering Herd stopped the Owls from sweeping the series. The Marshall offense was hot early, scoring three runs in the first three innings. However, Rice clawed back from the early deficit in the middle innings, eventually taking the lead on an Aaron Smigelski single. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Marshall would score two runs to win the ballgame by a final score of 5-4.   

The Marshall Thundering Herd’s next conference opponent will be UAB.  The Herd will travel to Birmingham, Alabama to take on the Blazers this weekend.