HOUSTON—After a 20-day layoff, key hits against the No. 2 team in the nation become that much scarcer. But with a chance to crawl back from a 6-0 deficit against Rice yesterday, Harvard threw away the one legitimate opportunity it had.

Senior second baseman Faiz Shakir was thrown out at home plate yesterday while attempting to score from second on a two-out single in the eighth inning. The play, which came at a rare point when the Crimson hit Rice’s Steven Herce hard, effectively ended any hope of a history-making upset as Harvard fell to Rice 8-3 in the opening game of the double-elimination NCAA Regionals.

With one out in the eighth inning and Harvard down 6-1, pinch-hitter Andrew Brunswick worked a four-pitch walk off Herce, who had cruised through the game’s first six innings. Sophomore Bryan Hale’s groundout moved Brunswick to second, and freshman Ian Wallace’s double brought him home to cut the deficit to 6-2. Shakir, the next batter, reached first on a catcher’s interference call, and senior Mark Mager singled in another run to make the score 6-3.

Hence, who had seemed unhittable in retiring the Crimson’s first 14 batters, was suddenly mortal. Harvard—seemingly out of the game just moments before—had the tying run at the plate in sophomore Trey Hendricks.

And Hendricks delivered a shallow drive to left. Harvard could have had the bases loaded with two outs for fellow sophomore Mickey Kropf had Shakir been held.

But Harvard Coach Joe Walsh gambled as he has several times this season and waved Shakir around from third. Rice’s Chris Kolkhorst gloved the two-hopper and threw to third baseman Hunter Brown. Brown bobbled the ball, but his throw still beat Shakir to the catcher, ending the inning and the threat.

“The kid made a good play,” Walsh said.

In the next inning, senior reliever Mike Dryden gave up a two-run shot to the Owls’ Eric Arnold to put the game out of reach.

The Crimson had fallen behind early as sophomore Marc Hordon made his first appearance on the mound in over a month. Surprising many who expected to see senior ace Ben Crockett pitch against the team he lost to by a slim margin of 2-1 earlier this year, Walsh went with Hordon, who had been sidelined with a shoulder injury since April 29.

Hordon struggled in the first inning, allowing two singles and two walks, balking on a full count and throwing a wild pitch with the bases loaded as the Owls jumped to a quick 2-0 lead.

Hordon threw in the bullpen with assistant coach Gary Donovan during the top of the second, and whatever they worked on seemed to settle Hordon down. The righty retired eight of the next eleven batters to keep the Crimson in the game until the fifth.

The Harvard hitting, however, was unable to close the gap. Harvard didn’t hit a ball out of the infield off Herce until freshman Ian Wallace’s fly to center in the fourth.

“I knew that the three-week layoff would be a problem,” Walsh said. “We just couldn’t lay off [Herce’s] breaking ball.”

Herce struck out eight before he began to unravel in the seventh.

By that point, Rice had pushed six runs across the plate. Hordon gave up consecutive singles to start the fifth, setting the stage for an RBI groundout by WAC Player of the Year Vincent Sinisi that gave Rice a three-run lead. But Hordon could not get another out. Two batters later pinch hitter Mike Lorsbach drove a curveball to deep right that gave Rice a 4-0 lead, and a sacrifice fly made the score 5-0 moments later.