AP Sports Preview

HOUSTON (Interstat) — Rice visits Houston on Tuesday night at M.O. Campbell Center, with the Owls looking to build momentum and the Cougars seeking to snap a recent slide.

First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. CDT under cloudy skies with a temperature of 79 degrees.

Rice (31-21) enters the matchup after dropping the finale of a weekend series at East Carolina, losing 3-0 on Sunday. The Owls, however, won the first two games of that series, taking a 5-3 victory on Saturday and a 10-5 decision on Friday. Rice had swept UAB in a three-game home set the previous weekend.

Houston (22-29) returns home after losing two of three at Arizona. The Cougars dropped Sunday’s series finale 6-5, though they won 7-5 in 13 innings Saturday and 7-4 on Friday. Houston had split its midweek games, beating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 10-1 on Tuesday but falling at Stephen F. Austin 5-2 on April 28.

The two teams have split two meetings this season. Houston won the most recent matchup, 4-3, on April 21 at Rice. The Cougars also won the first meeting, 13-1, on March 10 in Houston.

Rice pitcher Ryland Urbanczyk is a player to watch. In his most recent outing Sunday at East Carolina, he allowed one earned run, no hits and struck out three over 5.1 innings in a hard-luck loss. Over his last three starts, Urbanczyk has a 2.02 ERA with 14 strikeouts in 13.1 innings.

For Houston, Harrison Boushele is a key arm. He threw 3.2 innings Sunday at Arizona, allowing two earned runs with four strikeouts. Boushele’s best outing this season came April 29 against McNeese State, when he tossed four scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out seven.

The Interstat game simulator projects a 7-4 Rice victory.

Rice’s next series is at home against Tulane beginning Thursday. Houston hosts Arizona State starting the same day.