March 16, 2005

BRADENTON, Fla. - The University of Rhode Island baseball team will return to action against Fairleigh Dickinson on Thursday after a two-day break.

The Rams, who are picked to win the Atlantic 10 Championship this season by several national publications, are off to a 1-7 start. Rhody's one victory came against SEC power Kentucky on Sunday and the Rams have dropped three games by two runs or less, including two one-run setbacks.

Two of the Rams losses came to then No. 12 ranked Florida, including a 5-4 loss in the season opener, and six of the Rams' seven losses have come to teams with winnng records.

Rhode Island did start 0-6 in each of the past two seasons and the Rams turned things around soon after, leading to back-to-back Atlantic 10 East Division titles, including a conference regular-season crown and school-record 35 wins in 2004.

The Rams will face Fairleigh Dickinson on Thursday at 10:00 a.m. and in-game updates will be available here at GoRhody.com. Rhody will face Miami (Ohio) in a doubleheader on Friday beginning at 5:15 p.m. and then wrap-up the Florida trip with a game against Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.