Baseball | 2/23/2016 1:40:00 PM

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State follows up the team's grueling four-game series to open the season by traveling to Houston to face national power Rice. Since Rice plays Tuesday night, the game will be the fifth in six days for both teams, but Rice will have played all five at home while the Bobcats travel to Rice Wednesday night.
 
Game Info: Texas State (3-1) at Rice (1-2)
Site: Reckling Park – Houston, Texas
Date: Wednesday, February 24
Time: 6 p.m.
 
Probable Pitching Matchups
TBA
(Both teams having played four games previous to Wednesday night's match up will announce pitchers the day of)
 
The Series                                                                                                  
Rice has a 48-13 advantage in the all-time series against the Bobcats, having won the most recent six meetings. Texas State last beat Rice in 2012 and took the Owls to the edge in a 4-3 Bobcat loss on the road in 2014.
 
In the last meeting, Rice beat Texas State, 14-5, but the Bobcats put up five runs in the sixth inning alone after facing the early 14-0 deficit in the third inning. Dylan Paul knocked in two RBIs while Cory Geisler, Granger Studdard and Derek Scheible each added one apiece with Scheible leading the way in hits with two.
 
On the Owls
Rice is receiving votes in national polls after going 1-2 against another strong team in the Arizona Wildcats. Last year, Rice went 37-22 overall with an impressive 22-8 record in conference.
 
This year, the team's top hitter so far is Grayson Lewis with four hits in 11 at-bats, knocking in two RBIs and scoring once. One of his four hits is a home run, and he's batting .364. The leader in RBIs for Rice is Ford Proctor with three on two hits. Dane Myers is batting .375 in eight at-bats while Dominic DiCaprio has two hits in five at-bats.
 
Despite the work of those batters at the top for Rice, the Owls only hit .193 over opening weekend with just seven runs in three games, striking out 19 times to Arizona. The Rice pitching staff held a 2.67 ERA while only giving up eight earned runs but walking 17 batters. The staff tallied 23 strikeouts and held Arizona to a .226 batting average.
 
On the Bobcats
Texas State started the season with an impressive 3-1 weekend, scoring 31 runs on 41 hits to start the year. The Bobcats are hitting .301 with five batters hitting .333 or better and one more at .294. Texas State knocked in 28 RBIs with 16 extra-base hits while slugging .463 and stealing four bases.
 
While the offense is clicking, the top two starters for the Bobcats combined for 14 innings pitched and just two earned runs with eight strikeouts for a solid start to the season. Texas State's team ERA is currently 4.14 in 37 innings of work, striking out 26 batters and walking just 12. Texas State allowed a .235 batting average to the Washington State Cougars this weekend.
 
A number of young players have stepped up for the Bobcats early, and Texas State is looking for more from the young cats as the season progresses.
 
A Look Ahead
After Rice, Texas State will travel to Corpus Christi, Texas, for a weekend tournament, facing Michigan State, UCF and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before returning home to face national powerhouse Texas at 6 p.m. on Super Tuesday, March 1 and host Incarnate Word in the weekend series to follow.