Rice University Baseball

David Pierce was named the new Bixby Family Head Baseball Coach at Rice on March 17, 2025, returning to South Main where he served as an assistant under Wayn...

Clay Van Hook was named the Owls’ Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator on July 15, 2025, returning to South Main where he coached under Hall of Fame head coach Wayne Graham from 2012-17. Van Hook will work with the Owls’ hitters and outfielders in addition to heading up recruiting efforts. In his first stint at Rice, Van Hook served as Rice’s volunteer assistant coach during his first year with the program before being promoted to a full-time position prior to the start of the 2013. Rice advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of his six years and advanced to the Super Regional in 2013. Rice's offense was nationally recognized in 2014 and 2015, finishing in the top 40 in the NCAA both seasons. During the 2014 campaign, Rice led Conference USA and had the 13th-most hits in the nation, averaging 10.2 per game. During his tenure with Rice, the Owls claimed 11 All-Americans, 31 all-conference selections and had 28 players selected in the MLB Draft. Prior to spending last season as an assistant coach at Houston, Van Hook spent two seasons as the head coach at Texas-Arlington. In two seasons in Arlington, Van Hook guided the Mavericks through one of the hardest non-conference schedules in the nation, facing off against nine 2023 regional qualifiers and mentored an offensive resurgence in 2022 where they smashed 56 home runs, the 3rd most in program history. Van Hook helped guide his UTA squad to the semifinals of the 2023 WAC Championship, just one game away from the cha

Conrad Ramquist is in his first year as the Owls' Coordinator of Pitching Development. Ramquist brings eight years of experience working with both high school and collegiate pitchers, including the past four seasons as the pitching coach at Klein Collins High School and coaching pitchers in collegiate summer leagues. Under his tutelage, Collins improved its ERA from 4.80 in 2020 to 1.57 last season, leading the district in each of the last three years while capturing bi-district titles. Prior to joining the Owls for the fall semester, Ramquist served as bullpen coach for the Hyannis Hawks of the Cape Cod League and saw the Hawks staff lead the league with 381 strikeouts. In the summer of 2024, he was the pitching coach of the Willmar Stingers of the Northwoods League and was named to the league's all-star game staff as the Stingers set a club record with 628 strikeouts, and Will Whelan of the Stingers set the individual record with 62. He coached the pitchers at Mary Hardin-Baylor in 2019 and the Crusaders led the American Southwest Conference in ERA (3.58) after ranking last (10.01) the previous year. Ramquist was an all-district outfielder/pitcher at McKinney North High School and pitched for San Jac North's conference champion baseball squad in 2013. He competed in the javelin at Texas and finished seventh in the 2016 Big XII Outdoor Championship. He graduated with honors from San Jacinto College North and received his undergraduate (Kinesiology: Physical Culture and Sport

J.J. Altobelli joined the Owls as an assistant coach on July 15, 2025, after working as an area scout for the Boston Red Sox for the previous eight seasons. A former standout infielder at Oregon, Altobelli will work with the Owls’ infielders in addition to assisting with their recruiting efforts. During his scouting career with the Red Sox, he covered the Southern California area from 2017 to 2023 before coming to Texas to evaluate talent in the central and northern parts of the state. He played a key role in scouting Red Sox top round draft picks Marcelo Mayer (#4 overall selection in the first round in 2021); Chris Murphy (sixth round in 2021), Mikey Romero (24th selection in the first round in 2022) and Chase Meidroth (fourth round in 2022). Altobelli earned All-Pac 12 honors at Oregon and was a four-year starter, the first two at third base and the final two at shortstop. As a freshman in 2010, he helped spark the Ducks' return to the NCAA championship in only the school’s second season since the program was reinstated. He went on to play in three NCAA tournaments, ending his career when Rice defeated Oregon in the Eugene Regional in 2013. He began his collegiate coaching career at Cal-State Fullerton for two seasons, highlighted by an appearance in the 2017 College World Series, before joining the Red Sox as a scout.

Justin Aspegren is in his second season as an assistant coach with the Owls. He joined the program in the fall of 2023 as a Quality Control Assistant before moving into his current role in January of 2024. Aspegren will assist Parker Bangs with the Owls’ pitching staff in 2024 while also coaching first base and coordinating defensive positioning. In his first season on South Main, Aspegren worked with the Owls’ catchers who were second in the AAC with 25 runners thrown out, and coordinated all of Rice’s defense in a season where the Owls led the AAC and ranked second nationally at the end of the regular season with 61 double plays (the most for Rice since 2013). Aspegren is entering his 18th year of coaching at the collegiate level, including eight at Appalachian State where he served as an assistant coach and pitching coach from 2016-23. During his time with the Mountaineers, his hurlers posted five of the top 10 season strikeout totals in school history, including a school record 459 last year as App State topped 30 wins for the first time since 2013. After moving to the Sun Belt Conference in the year before his arrival, the Mountaineers reached the SBS Tournament for the first time in 2019 and picked up their first tournament win in 2021. Four App State players were drafted from 2017-2023: Matt Brill (12th, 2017), Colin Schmid (13th, 2018), Jack Hartman (4th, 2020), and Xander Hamilton (14th, 2023), as was catcher Chandler Seagle (30th, 2017) who made his MLB debut with S

Lance Berkman, Rice’s career leader in nearly every offensive category and the first Owl player to be inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, is in ...

Mikey Hoehner is in his second season with the Owls and his first as an assistant coach. He joined the Owls in the fall of 2024 as Director of Recruiting and Player Development after two seasons at McNeese State as a coach for the Cowboys. Hoehner originally joined the McNeese program as a volunteer assistant in 2023 and was promoted to assistant coach in 2024, working primarily with the Cowboys’ pitchers and catchers and calling pitches during games as McNeese advanced to the Southland Conference Tournament championship game. In 2023, he helped mentor Grant Rogers to a 12-1 record, 1.82 ERA, and 88 strikeouts in 2023 on his way to becoming the Cowboys’ first All-America honoree in 24 years. Rogers was taken in the 11th round of the MLB Draft by Toronto. McNeese ended 2023 ranked fifth nationally in shutouts (9) and 15th in ERA (4.28) and also threw the sixth no-hitter in school history. A former catcher, he began his coaching career at Navarro College in 2022, where he worked with the Bulldogs’ hitters, catchers, and outfielders and served as the first base coach. He also was at the forefront of the strength and conditioning program for the team and managed scouting reports. Hoehner helped 21 Navarro Bulldogs sign to the next level, including 10 to Division 1 schools. Hoehner made a total of 112 starts behind the plate at Texas A&M from 2018-21 and hit .269 (104-for-386) with 18 doubles, one triple, and six home runs while driving in 53 and scoring 69 runs. During his time a

Nikki Carvino joined the Rice University Sports Medicine Department in January of 2023 and is responsible for managing the healthcare of the Rice Baseball team. While at Rice, Carvino has worked with USA Baseball during the summers of 2024 and 2025 as the Athletic Trainer for the 12U Training Camp in Cary, NC. In 2025, she served as the Athletic Trainer for the 12U National Team, which repeated as the World Baseball Softball Confederation U-12 Baseball World Cup champions with a 7-1 win in Tainan, Taiwan. A 2019 graduate of Coastal Carolina University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Sport Science, Carvino joined the Owls from The Citadel, where she worked with the baseball team for two years. She received her Master's of Science in Athletic Training from High Point University in 2021. She worked as an Athletic Training Student at Duke University during the 2021 ACC Championship-winning season, Wake Forest University during the shortened 2020 season, and Coastal Carolina during the 2019 campaign.

Roman Gomez is in his first season with the Owls as their Strength & Conditioning coach, joining David Pierce’s staff in July of 2025 after three seasons at ...

Ryan Abel joined the Owls’ baseball staff in August of 2024 as the Director of Operations. Abel came to South Main after two seasons in a similar capacity at...