By RICHARD CROOME

Eagle Staff Writer

The Texas A&M Aggies got a view from the other side Tuesday night.

The No. 7 Rice Owls came into Olsen Field and handed the No. 8 Aggies an 11-2 loss, ending A&M's 13-game winning streak.

The nine-run loss was the Aggies' worst of the season and was reminiscent of how the Aggies, who had scored double-digit runs in five of the last six games, have been putting away many of their opponents in the month of April.

"Give Rice credit, they came in here and took it to us, took advantage of every mistake that we made," A&M coach Rob Childress said. "We've played extremely well all year, and if we played another 37 or 38 games all year and only had one more of these I'd be pleased."

From the very beginning, the Rice hitters kept the pressure on A&M. Jared Gayhart led off the game with a home run over the right field fence, and two innings later Aaron Luna went the other way for a three-run homer.

But it was the fifth inning that really did in the Aggies. The Conference USA-leading Owls (28-10) sent 10 hitters to the plate, the first three of which got on without a hit.

Adam Zornes drove in all three with a double. Starter Scott Migl (2-2) put the first two runners on, and reliever Carson Middleton walked the third and gave up the double before giving way to Kirkland Rivers.

"Each one of those [pitchers] in the fifth inning walked the first hitter they faced and here comes trouble," Childress said. "We weren't able to get out of that inning and Zornes got the big hit."

The Aggies (30-7) walked four batters in the game, including three in the fifth inning when each scored.

Rivers walked Chad Mozingo, struck out J.P. Padron and pinch hitter Derek Myers singled up the middle to plate Zones and Mozingo. Gayhart doubled home Myers for the Owls' sixth and final run of the inning.

"On the road that [big inning] kind of takes the pressure off you," Rice coach Wayne Graham said. "We struck out a lot, but we got the hits with runners in scoring position."

A&M gave the Owls their final run in the sixth on a three-base error by Ben Feltner, who appeared to lose a line drive off the bat of Diego Seastrunk. Rick Hague's sacrifice fly to right field scored Seastrunk.

Blake Stouffer tied the game at 1-1 in the first with his fourth home run of the season. That was all Mike Ojala (3-0) would allow, as the sophomore right-hander lowered his ERA from 6.10 to 5.29.

"He had really good stuff, it was no joke [what he did tonight]," Graham said. "He's always had good stuff; he's had a lot of trouble previously with his location but his location was excellent tonight."

Ojala struck out six in six innings, giving up only four hits and one walk.

"He got ahead of me the three times I faced him and I was down 0-2 every time," Stouffer said. "He was spotting up his pitches, fastballs and change-ups and the little curve ball he had. Tonight just wasn't our night for whatever reason. I don't think it was lack of preparation or anything. We were ready to come in and get a little payback from last year but the cards just didn't fall our way."

Rice ended the Aggies' 2007 season with a sweep in the Super Regional in Houston last June.

The Owls may have taken a step toward hosting at least a regional and possibly a Super Regional with their victory Tuesday. Although those rewards never hinge on one game, Graham was happy to pick up a quality win.

"Any time you beat a ranked team on the road it really influences the RPI," Graham said. "We won three games over the weekend against a team with a low RPI and we went down, so we need some of these kind of wins if we want any chance to host, especially a Super Regional. There are a lot more games to play."

Kyle Colligan was responsible for the other Aggie run. He hit a long homer over the left-field fence off Bobby Bell in the eighth inning. It was his fourth of the season.

NOTES -- Tuesday's game marked the Aggies' first midweek loss in 24 games, dating back to the 2006 season. ... Stouffer extended his hitting streak to 13 games, a career high and Jose Duran singled in the sixth for his seventh straight game with a hit.

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