By RICHARD CROOME
Eagle Columnist

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HOUSTON -- Six free passes, five runs.

There were more storylines to Saturday's Game 1 of the Super Regional between Rice and Texas A&M at Reckling Park, but for A&M's head coach, who is also a former pitching coach, none were more prominent.

"It was our inability on the mound to make them earn everything," A&M coach Rob Childress said in his summary of the Aggies' 9-7 loss.

Even with designated hitter Jordan Dodson's surprising heroics and reliever Cole St. Clair's normal solid performance, the Aggies put themselves in a hole by digging one on the mound.

A&M put talk of Rice's "right-handed pitching demons" -- a big topic of discussion coming into the series -- to rest by scoring a run in each of the first two innings and making Owls starter Ryan Berry average 20 pitches a frame. For good measure, the Aggies also knocked out the second right-hander they faced in quick fashion. That was the good news for the Aggies.

It also was what made the bad news harder to swallow.

Of Rice's first four runs, only one of those baserunners reached via a hit and that was an infield single that could have been ruled an error because of an errant throw after a diving stop.

A&M starter Brooks Raley, who came into the game with a 3-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio, walked two and hit a batter in 3 1/3 innings. All three of those free baserunners scored, as did Diego Seastrunk, who had the infield single. The Owls erased everything good the Aggies had done in the first two innings.

And then, almost as if it was Groundhog Day, the Aggies showed their resiliency by squaring the game at 6 only to watch the Owls turn two more free passes into what became the game-winners. Jimmy Comerota and Chad Mozingo each walked in the bottom of the fifth and were driven home by Dodson.

The Aggies had given up more than six free passes in a game and survived before, but walks often magnify other mishaps. This time it was Luke Anders getting thrown out at third after trying to stretch a two-run double into a triple. Anders said he was waved on because the Aggies thought Rice was going to go home with the relay. First baseman J.P. Pardon took Chad Mozingo's throw from the right-field corner and relayed it to Diego Seastrunk, who was waiting for a sliding Anders

The Aggies had given up more than six free passes in a game and survived before, but walks often magnify other mishaps. This time it was Luke Anders getting thrown out at third after trying to stretch a two-run double into a triple. Anders said he was waved on because the Aggies thought Rice was going to go home with the relay. First baseman J.P. Pardon took Chad Mozingo's throw from the right-field corner and relayed it to Diego Seastrunk, who was waiting for a sliding Anders

The double cut Rice's lead to 6-5 and chased starter Ryan Berry, but the out proved costly when reliever Bryan Price walked Brian Ruggiano and gave up an RBI double to deep center field by Darby Brown.

The Aggies could have gone up by a run and had Brown on second with two outs. Instead, Stouffer's liner off of St. Claire, who replaced Berry, ended the threat. A&M also was unable to capitalize in the eighth, the only time St. Claire flinched in his 4 1/3 innings. St. Claire hit Ruggiano with a pitch and gave up a single to Brown with no outs. Stouffer, who had a hand in two of the Aggies first three runs, was unable to advance the runners, flying out to center, and Kevin Gonzalez followed by hitting into an inning-ending double play.

These sixth-seeded Owls have the pitching depth to throw one arm after another until a hot hand appears. St. Claire was the hot hand Saturday.

And these Owls, on nothing more than a hunch by veteran coach Wayne Graham, can insert a player into the starting lineup for the first time in more than a month and have him be the game's No. 1 star.

Dodson entered Game 1 with a .167 batting average and a mere 14 RBIs, but Graham felt he deserved a spot in the lineup. Graham pointed to the senior's work ethic and how he was swinging the bat in practice as his reason for starting the right-hander who hit .302 over more than twice as many plate appearances last year.

It would be difficult to doubt Graham's reasoning, but he probably also remembered Dodson singled and scored in the ninth, then drove in the winning run with a hit in the 10th inning to give Rice a 3-2 win in the first game of last year's Super Regional victory over A&M.

Dodson was again the media darling Saturday. This time the Aggies helped shine the line on him, setting the table for three of Dodson's four RBIs.

• Richard Croome's e-mail address is richard.croome@theeagle.com.

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