HOUSTON – Extra base hits in timely situations, three triples and four doubles, gave No. 14 Rice the advantage and then added insurance Wednesday night when the Owls downed the Lamar University baseball team 7-2 at Reckling Park in a crucial RPI game in non-conference action.
 
Down 1-0 after Lamar's (31-12) Robin Adames launched a home run to left field in the second inning, Rice (28-14) put up two triples in the third inning and tied it at one. Ford Proctor blooped a ball to centerfield, but it was able to get past a diving Brendan Satran for a triple to the wall.
 
"He charged a ball he thought he had a chance on, but didn't do the greatest job to keep it in front of him," said head coach Jim Gilligan. "That was a big play in the game."
 
Just when starter Jayson McKinley looked like he could be out of the jam with two outs, Ryan Chandler launched a towering pop-up that carried all the way to the right centerfield wall for the other triple.  McKinley (2-2) wore the loss on 4 2/3 innings and five runs allowed on seven hits and no walks.
 
"The thing tonight was to evaluate Mac," said Gilligan. "I thought he looked good in the first couple of innings."
 
Rice added another in the fourth before a triple and three doubles in the fifth inning pushed the advantage to 5-1. Dominic DiCaprio led off the inning with a double that one-hopped the left field wall, and scored two batters later when Charlie Warren tripled to right center.
 
Chandler scored Warren on a sacrifice fly to central. With the bases empty and two outs, Dane Myers ripped one to center and the ball landed in Satran's, who was charging towards the wall, glove and fell out for a double. He scored on Proctor's double that hit the right field wall.
 
Another extra base netted a run in the bottom of the eighth inning when Tristan Gray doubled home Proctor, who reached on a leadoff single, from first base. Gray later scored from third base when Grayson Lewis single through the left side of a drawn-in infield.
 
Owl starter Zach Esquivel (1-0) kept Lamar batters off-balance for several innings, and sat down 12-straight at one point in the contest. LU had a chance in the sixth inning after a single from Stijn van der Meer was followed by a double from Jake Nash. With two men in scoring position and one out, Myers made a beautiful diving play to take a hit away from Cutter McDowell, and reliever Glenn Otto struck out Reid Russell to escape the danger.
 
"That was a good move to bring out Otto," said Gilligan. "I wasn't happy to see him come out, so it was what (Rice head coach Wayne Grahman) needed to do. He got that big strikeout and shut the game down right there."
 
After Adames' homer in the second inning, which was on a 0-2 count, LU had a chance to strike for more, but a couple of groundouts killed the rally. Bryndan Arredondo hit a bouncer that barely crossed the over the third base bag as it was going in foul territory for a double, but both Jacoby Middelton and Trey Silvers grounded out to third base.
 
Lamar did add another run in the eighth inning on a RBI single from Reid Russell through the left side that scored van der Meer from second. Van der Meer reached on a single to left, and took second on McDowell's single to right. Chaneng Varela stepped to the plate with McDowell and Russell on and two outs and ripped one to left field, but it was caught just shy of the warning track.
 
"We swung the bats really good in the eighth inning. That was our chance to come back, but they played great defense," said Gilligan. "Really the only problem I have with tonight is that we didn't adjust early  to (the Owls') really good pitching. We have to do a better job of that when we play Southeastern (Louisiana)."
 
Otto finished the night with 1 1/3 perfect innings of work with a strikeout that got them out of the jam in the sixth. Dane Myers finished the game for Rice on two innings, allowed one run on three hits and punched out one.
 
After McKinley, LU ran through three pitchers. Travis Moore gave up a hit in 1 1/3 innings. Both Enrique Oquendo and Fernando Martinez worked one inning apiece. Oquendo gave up two runs on three hits and Martinez allowed only one hit.
 
Lamar accounted for seven hits in the game, led by a 2-for-4 day from van der Meer.
 
The Cardinals will try to put the loss behind them and get ready for a big series against Southland Conference front-runner Southeastern Louisiana. Lamar sits two games back of the Lions in the Southland Conference race.  The first contest for that series is slated for 6 p.m. Friday night.
 
"This game was an excellent practice run for Southeastern this weekend," said Gilligan. "They'll come in with some good arms and we'll have to adjust. We learned some things about ourselves tonight."