Wow. Two amazing baseball games took place in Houston tonight, and we were able to witness one of them firsthand. #1-ranked Rice University won its NCAA Regional with a 7-4 win over Baylor, and the Chicago Cubs pummeled the Houston Astros 8-0 on an amazing one-hitter by Carlos Zambrano. We were at Minute Maid Park tonight to witness the Cub win.
Since the Cubs were in town, we purchased tickets for a couple of the games. Today, I took Ashley, Brooke, and two of their friends, Alex and Jason to the game. In order to get Alex and Jason to wear Cub gear, I had to buy their dinner -- an easy trade. Here we are pregame:
The game itself was about as one-sided as they come, and since the Cubs have been doing so poorly lately, the success came as quite a surprise. The Cubs pounded out an 8 run, 13 hit attack that featured a glorious 3-run home run by pitcher Zambrano in the 2nd inning. Amazing. Equally amazing was the stunning mastery Carlos had over the Astros "hitters". Zambrano carried a NO-HITTER into the 8th inning, when with one out, Ausmus poked the Astros only hit through the right side. Will Ohman closed out the 9th inning for an impressive Cub win. All that matters is this scoreboard:
Just 3 miles away, on the campus of Rice University, the Owls baseball team were calmly winning their 35th game of the last 37, raising their season record to 53-10!
For those of you who don't know, Rice (my alma mater) does not normally win very often in the athletic realm. However, baseball is something else. Rice dominates. Right now the Owls are ranked #1 in all five NCAA Division 1 polls. Here is Baseball America's collegiate baseball ranking this week:
Rice is winning with awesome pitching, super defense, and solid hitting -- staples of Coach Wayne Graham's secret to success. With any luck, Rice will win its second national championship in four years up in Omaha at the College World Series in two weeks. The NCAA just announced that Rice will host a Super Regional this weekend. Jump in and cheer on the Owls. Come on, you know you want to.
Flashback to 2003:
SO, it was just a perfect night of baseball here in Houston, Texas. Rice won. The Cubs won. Tomorrow it starts again.
greg
--baseball fan--
3 comments:
Yippee. Greg! I had heard on the radio driving home late that Zambrano had thrown a one-hitter and it was against Houston. I thought to myself, Greg would have loved to have seen that, and YOU DID! Cool. Nice loking group there with you too.
Love, Mom
And that's the way you support being a proud Houstonian?
Anonymous,
I presume you are referring to my favoritism of the Cubs over the Astros. My loyalty to the Cubs is well documented throughout time (!) and throughout this blog.
I (tongue-in-cheek) refer you to these blog posts for more:
May 21, 2006
Nov 13, 2005
Nov 2, 2005
Oct 10, 2005 (check this one!!)
Oct 4, 2005
Aug 17, 2005
Aug 14, 2005
Aug 8, 2005
Aug 5, 2005
Jun 21, 2005
Jun 7, 2005 (both posts)
May 19, 2005
I don't think anyone would accuse me of being a proud Houstonian; my heart is Chicago-based...
Just having some fun...
greg
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