Reckling Park is the

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

stadium at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, US. It serves as the home field of the Rice Owls baseball team. The stadium was built on the site of Cameron Field, Rice's home from 1978 to 1999, in time for the 2000 season. The Owls have hosted 10

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

regional and five super regional tournaments at Reckling Park, including one of each in their national championship season of 2003 and in the years of other College World Series appearances, 2002, 2006, 2007, and 2008. The stadium was named for its principal donor, former Rice player Tommy Reckling. The nearby Texas Medical Center can be seen from the outfield.

Program history

In the first game, the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

beat Rice 6–2 on February 8, 2000. Since then, Rice has been very successful at Reckling Park. Under head coach Wayne Graham, the Owls are 219–46 at Reckling Park, an .826 winning percentage. Rice won three consecutive NCAA regionals at Reckling Park from 2001 to 2003 and advanced to the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is a baseball tournament held each June in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the culmination of the NCAA Division I baseball tournament—featuring 64 teams in the ...

by winning back-to-back NCAA super regionals at home in 2002 and 2003. The Owls have made late-inning rallies traditional at Reckling Park, starting with the 2001 season. On February 10, 2001, Rice beat top-ranked Georgia Tech 5-4 after trailing 4–3 with two outs and no runners on base in the ninth inning. The Owls used similar drama to win the 2001 NCAA regional in its decisive seventh game. Rice trailed 4-2 entering the ninth inning against Baylor but rallied to win 5–4. Rice won several games in its last at-bat in 2002, and the home season culminated with 6–0 and 3–0 shutouts of

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

at Reckling Park in the NCAA super regionals, the only time in the seven-year history of the super regionals a team has been shut out in both games. The 2003 season was the culmination of an 11-year building process for head coach Wayne Graham, and Rice won a school-record 30 consecutive games in February, March, and April, including 22 wins at Reckling Park, en route to a 58–12 record. The streak was highlighted by a 2–1, 10-inning win against defending national champion

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

March 11. In the postseason, Rice rallied from a first-game defeat against crosstown rival Houston to again win the super regional at Reckling Park. In the 2003 College World Series, Rice beat Southwest Missouri State, rival Texas twice, and Stanford two-games-to-one to capture its first national championship in any team sport. The stadium was also the site of the biggest upset in NCAA baseball postseason history, when Texas Southern upset Rice 4–3 in the opening game of the 2004 NCAA tournament. The Tigers entered the tournament with an 18–33 record. Rice avenged the loss the following night but was eliminated by

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

in the final game of the regional. Rice joined Conference USA in 2005–06, and the next C-USA baseball tournament was held at Reckling Park in May 2006. With eight teams on hand, Rice (the regular-season champion) won its 11th consecutive conference title with an 11–5 championship game win over crosstown rival Houston. Continuing the postseason at home, the Owls beat Baylor for the regional title and

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

in the super regional to advance to the 2006 College World Series. In 2007, Rice went 33–3 at Reckling Park and extended its streak of consecutive home series wins (at least 2-games-to-1) to 39 series, dating back to 2001. In June, Rice hosted its sixth regional in its seven years at Reckling Park, beating TCU twice to advance to the super regional. Rice improved to 4–0 in super regionals held at Reckling Park by sweeping

in two hard-fought games, advancing to the 2007 College World Series. In 2008, Rice's streak of consecutive home series wins ended after 40 series and almost seven years when Rice lost two of three against Southern Miss in March. The Owls hosted their seventh regional in eight years and beat Sam Houston State, St. John's, and rival Texas to advance to the super regional, where Rice swept Texas A&M for the second straight year. Rice finished the year with a 28–5 home record.

Attendance

As the Rice baseball program and its following grew, so did the stadium. The seating area was expanded during the 2004 season, making the grandstand symmetrical and enlarging capacity in time for the 2004 postseason. The stadium record for single-game attendance rose from 4,117 for the stadium's first game (2000) to 4,615 for the NCAA super regional against

(2002) to 5,227, set against

in 2005, to 5,368, set against

on back-to-back days during the 2008 super regional. In the 2014 NCAA regional, two games between Texas A&M and the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

drew standing-room crowds of more than 6,600 to set new records. Rice drew a season total of more than 100,000 fans for the first time in 2003, with a school-record total of 119,479. After winning the 2003 national championship, average attendance rose to 3,230 per game in 2004. It was the second consecutive year Rice ranked in the nation's top 10 in average attendance. Rice hosted its first conference tournament in 2006 and drew 18,137 fans to the tournament's seven sessions, averaging 2,591 fans per session. The championship game, featuring intracity rivals Rice and Houston, drew 3,732 fans. The Owls also hosted NCAA regional and super regional tournaments, pushing total attendance to a school-record total of 131,467 and a school-record average of 3,287 fans per game, narrowly outdrawing the 2004 season. In 2013, the Owls ranked 15th among Division I baseball programs in attendance, averaging 3,252 per home game.

Tournaments Hosted

Regular season

* Cameron Invitational: 1983, 1984 * Rice Classic: 1995-2002 * Rice Invitational: 1995-2007

Postseason

* Conference USA Tournament (1): 2006, ''2023'' * NCAA Regional (11): 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014 * NCAA Super Regional (5): 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008

References

External links

Reckling Park
{{coord, 29, 42, 48, N, 95, 24, 15, W, type:landmark, display=title College baseball venues in Texas Rice Owls baseball Baseball venues in Houston Rice Owls sports venues 2000 establishments in Texas Sports venues completed in 2000