March 14, 2005

Box Score

BRADENTON, Fla. - The University of Rhode Island baseball team scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to pull within two, but Northern Iowa tacked on three runs in the ninth for a 9-4 victory on Monday afternoon at IMG Academy Park.

Sophomore Ryan Cunningham (Centreville, Va.) continued his hot hitting, going 2-for-4 with a RBI-triple. Cunningham has seven hits in his last 14 at-bats, including two homers, a double, triple and five RBIs in the last four games.

Sophomore Scott Brown (Portland, Maine) also had two hits and drove in a run, while junior Daryl Holcomb (Wilmington, Del.) had a pinch-hit RBI-single in his only at-bat of the day.

Northern Iowa (7-7) opened up a 5-0 lead with a four-run fourth inning, but the Rams had a chance to get right back in the game in the bottom of the inning with the bases loaded an no outs, however they only would get one run.

Junior Josh Nestor (Nashua, N.H.) led off the fourth with a walk and senior Mike Rainville (Pawtucket, R.I.) followed with a single. Freshman CJ Simons (Wyoming, R.I.) was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. After a fly to right field wasn't deep enough to score a run, Brown singled through the left side for his team-leading seventh RBI of the season. The Rams still had the bases loaded with one out, but Northern Iowa's Taylor Sinclair retired the next two batters to get out of the jam.

Rhody did get another run in the bottom of the fifth when senior Matt Sullivan (Nashua, N.H.) singled to start the inning and Cunningham followed with a RBI-triple to left center. That proved to be the end of the day for Sinclair, but Eric DeJong came on in relief and retired the next three Rams in order.

The Panthers scored a run in the top of the sixth to open up a 6-2 lead, but the Rams got to DeJong in the bottom of the eighth to slice the margin to 6-4.

Junior Wayne Russo (Warwick, R.I.) drew a lead-off walk, Brown reached on an infield single and Holcomb came through with a pinch-hit single to score Russo. The Rams were able to push across one more run in the inning on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Dave Savard (Nashua, R.I.).

Northern Iowa erased any hopes of a Rhode Island comeback with three runs in the top of the ninth for the final margin of victory.

Rhode Island (1-7), which has played six games in the last four days, has Tuesday and Wednesday off, before retuning to the diamond to play Fairleigh Dickinson on Thursday at 10:00 a.m.