April 17, 2005

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - After scoring 68 runs in five games entering this weekend's Atlantic 10 series with Temple, the University of Rhode Island baseball team came back down to earth a bit. Then the Rams' offense launched again in an 11-5 come-from-behind victory Sunday over the Owls.

Rhode Island trailed 4-1 after four innings and 5-2 after five, but scored nine unanswered runs over the final four innings to take two of three games from the Owls for the Rams' 11th-straight Atlantic 10 series win. Rhode Island improved to 15-15 overall and 9-3 in the Atlantic 10, which keeps the Rams in first place in the East Division.

"We did a great job battling today, showing the experience of being a veteran team and just not quitting," Rhode Island head coach Frank Leoni said. "We overcame a tough situation with Temple playing as well as anybody has played against us this year. Temple played very well, they rose to the occasion this weekend."

The Rams scored a total of seven runs in Saturday's doubleheader split and had one through four innings Sunday, but the Temple pitching staff could only keep Rhody down for so long. Rhode Island trailed 4-1 Sunday, but scored at least one run in the last five innings to pull off their fourth come-from-behind victory of the season, including the third in conference play.

Rhode Island scored one run in the fifth to pull within 4-2, but the Owls made it 5-2 in the bottom of the inning. The Rams then scored two runs in the sixth, four in the seventh, two in the eighth and one in the ninth in winning for the seventh time in eight games.

Senior Matt Sullivan (Nashua, N.H.) went 4-for-5 with his team-leading sixth home run of the season and four runs scored. Sophomore Ryan Cunningham (Centreville, Va.) had two hits and drove in two runs, while junior Wayne Russo (Warwick, R.I.) went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and senior Mike Rainville (Pawtucket, R.I.) had two hits, a RBI and two runs scored.

Daryl Holcomb came through with a clutch two-out RBI-single to tie the game in the seventh inning.

Junior Josh Nestor (Nashua, N.H.) and sophomore Scott Brown (Portland, Maine) each had a hit and RBI for the Rams. Junior Daryl Holcomb (Wilmington, Del.) went 1-for-2 with a RBI and run scored and senior Chris Stelma (Glenwood, N.J.) was 1-for-1 with a RBI-single.

Sophomore Steve Holmes (Lincoln, R.I.) earned the win, going six innings, allowing five runs on nine hits without walking a batter. Junior Tom Venedam (Suffern, N.Y.) pitched two scoreless innings of relief, allowing only one hit while striking out two. Venedam pitched four scoreless innings in the series, allowing one hit and striking out four. Senior closer Mick Lefort (Lincoln, R.I.) came on to pitch a scoreless ninth in a non-save situation.

As in the first two games of the series, the Rams scored in the first inning Sunday when Sullivan hit an infield single, stole second and scored on Nestor's RBI-single.

Temple answered with three runs in the bottom of the first inning on a two-run double by Pete Colon and a RBI-double by Dan Brady. Brady, who finished the day 3-for-4 with two RBIs, added a solo home run in the fourth to give the Owls a 4-1 lead.

Rhode Island started its five-inning scoring streak with Sullivan's solo home run in the top of the fifth inning. Temple got that run back in the bottom of the inning, when Harry Ley hit a lead-off triple and scored on a groundout by Jason Connor.

The Rhody pitching staff would hold the Owls scoreless the rest of the way, while the offense opened the floodgates.

Dave Savard started a string of two-out hits with a double in the sixth inning.

The comeback started with the Rams trailing 5-2 with two outs in the sixth inning on a double to left by sophomore Dave Savard (Nashua, N.H.). Sullivan drew a walk and after a double steal, Cunningham singled up the middle to drive both runners in and pull the Rams within one run.

Rhody erupted for four more runs, all coming with two outs in the seventh inning to take the lead for good. Russo and Rainville hit back-to-back singles and Holcomb came through with a clutch two-out pinch-hit single to right field that scored Russo to tie the game at 5-5.

"Daryl Holcomb got a huge two-out single for us," Leoni said. "He kept himself focused, was ready to go and really answered call there."

A balk allowed Rainville to score from third for what proved to be the game-winning run. The Rams added two more runs thanks on a pair of errors by Temple to take an 8-4 lead.

Rhode Island again used clutch two-out hits to score two more runs in the eighth inning. After the first two batters were retired, Russo doubled to right center and Rainville doubled to center to plate Russo. Stelma followed with a RBI-single to right to score Rainville for a 10-5 lead.

The Rams scored one more in the ninth, when Sullivan singled for his fourth hit of the day, Cunningham doubled and Brown hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Sullivan.

The Rams return to action on Thursday with a doubleheader at Central Connecticut State beginning at 1:00 p.m.