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Updated 7:21 AM on Sunday, June 10, 2007

Rice sweep ends A&M's season

Owls are headed to College World Series

By RICHARD CROOME
Eagle Staff Writer

HOUSTON - Texas A&M's frustration over Rice's late-inning heroics Friday night spilled into the early innings of Saturday's Game 2 in their NCAA Super Regional series at Reckling Park.

The end result was an Owls' 5-2 victory for a two-game sweep of the Aggies and a second-straight berth into the College World Series.

Enlarge photo

AP Photo Texas A&M's Blake Stouffer slides toward Rice's Brian Friday as he tries to complete a double play during the first inning of an NCAA Super Regional baseball game, Saturday, June 9, 2007, in Houston. Stouffer was called for interference on the play and the inning-ending double play was awarded to Rice.

Trying to regain momentum after losing 3-2 in extra innings Friday, A&M appeared to score two runs but had them wiped off the board in the bottom of the first inning when baserunner Blake Stouffer was ruled out for interference at second base.

What seemed like a 2-1 lead went back to a 1-0 deficit, and the Aggies were never able to recover against starter Matt Langwell and the top-ranked Owls (54-12).

"[Rice] scores in the first, and we're on ours heels a little bit and here we go," A&M coach Rob Childress said. "We have an opportunity to get to Langwell with the bases loaded and no outs, and we strike out looking and hit a ground ball and score two runs."

But those runs never counted. Second base umpire Steve Mattingly called interference on Stouffer for sliding at the fielder, ending the inning and taking away would-be runs scored by Kyle Colligan and Brandon Hicks.

"The runner was told he didn't slide straight into second base," Childress said. "The rule has changed. I can't comment on the rule, but it's the first time in [67] games it's been called."

Stouffer, who had walked to load the bases, said he was surprised when the call was made.

"I was going in to make an aggressive slide," Stouffer said. "You don't think in that situation, just react, and the umpire saw me go wide of the bag and called interference. I'm taught to make an aggressive slide, not trying to hit him, just break it up."

Crew chief Paul Gullie, who was Game 2's first-base umpire, said the call fell under the force-base slide rule.

"If a runner sliding in the direction of a fielder alters the play in the umpire's opinion, that's what happens," Gullie said of Matting's interference ruling.

Two more calls early had Childress out of the dugout, but the second-year Aggie coach refused to deem the early calls as the reason A&M lost.

"We're not making excuses," Childress said. "We've not made excuses all year long. The game didn't come down to that. We make our own breaks, and we made them all year long."

Having runs taken off the board didn't help the Aggies considering the way the Rice pitching staff controlled the series.

HOUSTON SUPER REGIONAL SATURDAY'S GAME: Rice 5, Texas A&M 2; Rice wins series 2-0

Langwell (8-1) worked 6 1/3 innings for the win, and Cole St. Clair finished out the game for his eighth save. Langwell struck out seven, five looking. The two combined to give up six hits, the same amount the Owls surrendered in Game 1.

"You've got to give Matt Langwell a lot of credit ... and Cole St. Clair," Childress said. "Those two pitched outstanding. We had a chance for [Langwell] to break early in the game, and after that, he settled in.

"Every once in a while you've got to tip your cap to those guys, and this is one of those days."

The Aggies' best opportunity to score came in the seventh. Josh Stinson doubled to right. Langwell struck out Darby Brown and was pulled for St. Clair. Pinch-hitter Brian Ruggiano popped out to short, then Parker Dalton walked.

Colligan, one of the Aggies' hottest hitters, bunted and was thrown out by St. Clair to end the threat.

"That was ours," Childress said of Colligan's bunt with two runners on base and two outs. "That's been our offense all year long, and if he gets down the line, then we've got Brandon Hicks up there with the bases loaded and a chance to have a big inning. It was the right call. We just didn't bunt it where we wanted to bunt it."

Stouffer cut Rice's lead to 5-2 with a solo home run in the eighth. It was Stouffer's 12th of the year, tying him with Stinson for the team lead.

Rice picked away at the Aggies (48-19), scoring single runs in the first, third, fourth, seventh and eighth innings.

Joe Savery knocked in three of the runs with a single in the first, an opposite-field homer to left in the fourth and a sharply hit single past a drawn in infield in the seventh after Tyler Henley opened the inning with a triple down the right-field line.

Savery, a first round draft pick by the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday, would have been the starter in Game 3. He squeezed the final out and was thankful it wouldn't come to that.

"My freshman year, we win the first game [then] lose two times in a row," Savery said. "Then last year pushing it to three games with OU, who could really swing it, I really didn't want to go to three games with these guys because they're a great team."

The Owls run in the fourth scored on a double-play ball by Henley. Danny Lehmann, who scored the winning run in the first game, was hit by a pitch to start the inning and moved up after an infield single and bunt single.

In the eighth, the Owls made it 5-1 without a hit. A Hicks error and a Seastrunk sacrifice put Buenger on second. Buenger was pinch-run for by Derek Myers, who moved up on a Gary Campfield wild pitch.

Lehmann then bunted home Myers.

To shake things up against the Rice pitching staff, Childress went with a much different lineup than in the first game. Only one hitter, Parker Dalton, hit in the same spot in the batting order and only three players were at the same position.

The revamped lineup was responsible for the Aggies' first run. Catcher Josh Stinson doubled down the right-field line and first baseman Darby Brown, who had not started since April 25 because of a hand injury, doubled Stinson home.

Luke Anders just missed making it 3-2 in the sixth, clearing the left-field fence about 10 feet outside of the foul pole.

A&M won 48 games, the most since its trip to the College World in 1999. The last time the Aggies had reached a Super Regional was 2004, when they lost two straight at LSU.

"I'm proud of our team. This has been a fun bunch to coach," Childress said. "They show up every day and they compete every day."