HOUSTON – No. 1 seed DBU knocked off No. 8 seed and host Rice 13-2 in seven innings in the third game of day one of the 2023 Conference USA Baseball Championship on Wednesday afternoon from Reckling Park in Houston.
 
DBU got on the board first, plating three in the first inning, courtesy of an RBI single by Nathan Humphreys, and a second run scored on a throwing error. Ethan Mann then drove in the third Patriot run with an RBI single of his own.
 
Rice responded with a run in the top half of the second, thanks to an RBI groundout by Drew Holderbach. The Owls then cut the lead to 3-2 in the top of the next frame on a solo shot by Connor Walsh to left field.
 
The Patriots tacked on three runs in the bottom of the third, capitalizing on a wild pitch that plated a run, scored another on a sacrifice fly by Tom Poole and then pushed the lead to 6-2 on an RBI triple to center by George Specht.
 
Humphreys doubled in another run in the bottom of the fourth inning, which was followed by a mammoth three-run shot by Mann to stretch the lead to 10-2.
 
Mann and Grant Jay then went back-to-back in the bottom of the fifth, which extended the Patriots’ lead to 13-2. Mann finished 4-for-4 with a pair of long balls and six RBI, while Jay went 3-for-4 with the home run, a double and a pair of runs scored. Mann’s six RBI are tied for the second-most in a C-USA tournament game and the most since Josh Anderson (FIU) also had six against Middle Tennessee in 2015.
 
DBU’s Ryan Anderson put in a quality start, scattering six hits and allowing a pair of runs (one earned) over five innings of work to pick up the win.
 
The Patriots now await the winner of Wednesday night’s finale between No. 4 WKU and No. 5 Florida Atlantic and will play Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. CT. Rice will face the losing team in that WKU/Florida Atlantic matchup at 4 p.m. CT on Thursday.