Rice left-hander Blake Fox tossed his first career shutout in a 3-0 win over FIU at the FIU ballpark Saturday night. It was the second consecutive night that No. 14 Rice blanked FIU after the Owls' series-opening 2-0 win Friday.

With the victory, the Owls (30-14, 17-6 Conference USA) remained tied atop the Conference USA standings with Southern Miss. The Panthers (22-26, 9-14 C-USA) continued their tussle with WKU and UAB for the final spot in the conference tournament. The Hilltoppers and Blazers, who are each 10-13 in the conference, are tied for seventh, one game ahead of FIU for the final seed in the C-USA tournament. Charlotte (8-15 C-USA) is one game back of FIU. There are seven regular season conference games left before the C-USA tournament, May 25 in Hattiesburg, Miss.

FIU couldn't muster much offense against Fox (4-6), who scattered six hits, had no walks and struck out 10 batters. The senior left-hander needed just 101 pitches and two hours and six minutes to dispose of the Panthers.

The Owls, who average one run of support in each of Fox's six losses this season, got one run in the first inning off FIU starter Chris Mourelle (5-5). Ford Proctor doubled and Tristan Gray singled in the first. Proctor scored on a wild pitch.

Rice added two more runs in the top of the fourth inning on a two-run single by Charlie Warren after Connor Teykl and Dominic DiCaprio singled with one out and moved up 90 feet on a ground out by Grayson Lewis.

Mourelle went seven innings, allowed eight hits, three runs, walked two and struck out one.

Austin Rodriguez had the only extra base hit for FIU – a two-out double in the seventh.

The series finale is on Mother's Day, Sunday at 12 p.m. The game can be heard on the FIU Sports Radio Network.