May 16, 2005

KINGSTON, R.I. - University of Rhode Island junior left-handed pitcher Zack Zuercher (Warwick, R.I./Pilgrim HS) was named the Atlantic 10 Baseball Co-Pitcher of the Week after pitching six scoreless innings, allowing just one hit in the Rams' Atlantic 10 Regular Season Championship clinching 8-0 victory Saturday against UMass.

This is the fourth time this season that Zuercher has been named Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Week and the seventh time in the last two years he has earned the honor. Zuercher, the 2004 Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Year, went six innings Saturday before being taken out with an eight run lead.

He was perfect through three innings, but allowed a softly hit double to slice just inside the foul line in shallow right field to lead off the fourth inning. Zuercher retired the next nine batters he faced to get through six innings, allowing just the one base runner to reach on the game. He did not walk a batter and struck out five to improve to 5-1 in Atlantic 10 play this season.

Zuercher has only allowed three runs in his last 32 innings of work, all coming in one inning of his start against Fordham on May 8. He has retired the side in order in 11 of his last 13 innings.

In Atlantic 10 play this year, Zuercher allowed only 29 hits in 55 innings and just 16 runs, 15 of them earned for a 2.45 ERA. He struck out 75 in the 55 innings and walked just 14. Zuercher has an 11-2 conference record over the last two seasons.

The Rams clinched at least of share of the 2005 Atlantic 10 Regular Season Championship - URI's second-straight - with the 8-0 win over Massachusetts, but dropped two of three to the Minutemen to halt Rhody's Atlantic 10 series victory streak at 14. The Rams lost the rubber game 6-5 in 14 innings, making it the first time in 25 games that Rhody allowed an opponent to score over five runs in a game.

Rhode Island finished the regular season at 30-18 and 18-6 in the Atlantic 10, giving the Rams a three-year conference regular season record of 54-18. Rhody will be the top seed in the 2005 Atlantic 10 Tournament, receiving a bye in the first round and beginning play on Thursday, May 26 at 12:00 p.m.