Union's Rice Looking for Baseball Title After Winning Two in Football

Originally Published: May 14, 2010 3:2 PM CDT

Kyle Dierking
Oklahoma Sports Mobile Journalist

TULSA, Oklahoma -- Jacob Rice’s lateral to Thomas Roberson in the opening kick-off of the state championship game was one of the biggest plays of the high school football season.

"We had that planned all playoffs,” Rice said. “We were going to run it against Broken Arrow and I kind of muffled it, which turned out good. So we used it in state."

The weeks and months leading up to that lateral, Jacob Rice had baseball on his mind. In fact, he quit the Union football team before his senior season to focus on getting a baseball scholarship.

"Going to the games, I really missed it a lot. Just sitting in the stands, I couldn't really bare it," Rice said.

"We knew it was coming. We tried to talk to him before football even started,” said Union baseball coach Shawn Newkirk. “We figured he'd miss it and want to get right back out there."

After lots of running, Rice was back on the Redskins football team four games into the 2009 season and won another state championship. This week Rice is looking to make that lateral move toward getting one in baseball.

"It'd be awesome. We're all a good group of seniors. We like each other. There's no hard blood or anything,” Rice said. “It'd be real good. We've worked too hard for this."

Rice got that baseball scholarship too. He'll be playing for Arkansas next year. He's also had the hot bat lately and has a few winning memories to build off

"I think if I took it back, I would play, not quit and miss the first four games,” Rice said. “I'm glad I went back like I did."