April 7, 2007
Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score
Game One (Box Score)
AMHERST, Mass. - Seniors Ryan Cunningham (Centreville, Va.) and Scott Brown (Portland, Maine) each recorded two hits while classmate Eric Larson (Bradenton, Fla.) chipped in three RBI as the Rhode Island baseball team was defeated by Massachusetts, 5-4, on Saturday afternoon, April 7, at Earl Lorden Field in Amherst, Mass. Redshirt senior Adam Perkins (Hudson, N.H.) was charged with the loss after giving up four runs on nine hits with four strikeouts in seven-and-a-third innings on the mound.
Rhody took a 3-0 lead in the first inning on a two-out rally that saw seniors Gregg Allen (Dighton, Mass.) and Cunningham post back-to-back singles before Brown drew a walk and loaded the bases for Larson, who collected three RBI on a triple down the right field lines.
The Rhody bats were silenced over the next five innings as the Rams failed to reach base in their next 15 at-bats while UMass chipped away at the Rhode Island lead with a run in the third and another in the fifth. The Minutemen tied things up in the bottom of the seventh with lead-off homerun by Bill Rankin and went on to take a 5-3 lead the following inning.
URI battled back in the ninth as Cunningham scored after recording his 12th double of the season. That was as close as the Rhody would get though as Massachusetts closer Aaron Smith picked up the save by striking out Larson to end the game. UMass starter Chris Lloyd earned the win, giving up seven hits and four runs in eight-and-two-thirds innings.
Game Two (Box Score)
AMHERST, Mass. - Senior Eric Larson (Bradenton, Fla.) crushed his team-leading fifth homerun of the season in the top of the 11th as the Rhode Island baseball team posted a 5-4 extra-innings win over Massachusetts on Saturday afternoon, April 7, at Earl Lorden Field in Amherst, Mass. Larson finished the game with a 3-for-5 performance from the plate while junior Zach Zaneski (Waterford, Conn.) went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Redshirt freshman closer Tim Boyce (Swansea, Mass.) picked up the win for Rhody in 2.1 innings of work.
Massachusetts jumped out to an early 1-0 lead and limited the Rams to just one hit over the first three innings of play. The Rhody bats came alive in the fourth inning when Brown, Larson, Zaneski, Rhault and Palmer strung together five consecutive outfield singles to give URI a 3-1 advantage.
The Minutemen went ahead, 4-3, with a three-run sixth inning and silenced the Rams in the seventh and eight with back-to-back 1-2-3 innings.
Rhody evened the score in the top of the ninth as redshirt sophomore Chris Parkinson (Utica, N.Y.), who was pinch running for Zaneski after a lead-off single to right center, advanced to second on Rhault's sacrifice bunt and then scored when UMass first baseman Bryan Adamski committed an error on Palmer's ground-out to third.
Massachusetts came close to putting the game away in the bottom of the inning as two Rhode Island errors, two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases with two outs. However, the Rams managed to keep the Minutemen off the board and headed into their third extra-innings game of the season.
After a quick tenth inning, Rhody scored what proved to be the winning run on Larson's solo shot in the top of the 11th. From there, it was three up, three down for UMass as URI picked up its fifth win in the last six games.
The final game of the Rhode Island (7-17, 4-4 Atlantic 10) vs. Massachusetts (6-12, 3-5 Atlantic 10) series will be played tomorrow afternoon, April 8, at 1:00 p.m.
