Posted on: Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Owls have come down to Earth

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Don't ask for that perpetual trophy back just yet, but the Western Athletic Conference might finally be catching up to Rice in baseball.

As the Owls come to town for Friday's opening of a three-game series with Hawai'i, a glance at the standings suggests it is an issue worth pondering.

After too many years of watching the Owls win the conference in a stroll (average margin: five games) and a yawn, this year there is an honest-to-Alexander Cartwright pennant race shaping up. After eight consecutive WAC titles, guess who is going to have to come out of fourth place to win their ninth — and last —conference crown?

In the 43 seasons the WAC has had the sport, nobody, not even Arizona State in its Reggie Jackson, Rick Monday, Sal Bando, etc., heyday, has dominated baseball quite like Rice. What the Rainbow Wahine have been to WAC volleyball, the Owls have been close in baseball.

Entering the season, Rice had won 29 of its last 31 conference series and hadn't been swept in seven years. So, San Jose State's season-opening sweep last month and the Owls' 6-6 standing in conference so far this year (23-12 overall entering last night's game with Texas) has raised more than eyebrows. It also has hoisted hopes that Rice's last trip around the WAC before bolting to Conference USA on July 1 might not be a victory lap.

It isn't just the sweep by San Jose State that has given rise to these insurrectionist thoughts. It is also that everybody the Owls have played in conference so far has been able to take at least one game. Considering that half of Rice's titles have come with five or fewer losses, that is noteworthy.

Like Brigham Young's dominance of WAC football in the 1980s, the Owls have forced the rest of the conference to pick up its game. The premium Rice has put on pitching and defense has set the standard for all who would seek to unseat it.

And last year's major league draft, in which three Owl pitchers went in the top eight picks, has helped make them vulnerable. Of course, nobody reloads like Rice, which has a leading candidate for national freshman of the year in Joe Savery. The first baseman/pitcher is fourth in the conference in hitting (.405) and third in earned run average (1.86).

Early returns — and, remember, the 30-game WAC season doesn't hit its halfway point until after this weekend's games — suggest the conference champion could have an 18-12 or 19-11 record. So it is way too early to begin writing off the Owls, especially since Rice plays nine of its last 12 conference games at Reckling Park.

But if the Rainbows were able to reprise 2004 success, taking two of three from the Owls here and splitting the overall six-game series, they could end up doing both themselves and the conference a big favor.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.