April 25, 2008

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - The Rhode Island baseball team saw its 11-game unbeaten streak come to an end with a 7-4 loss to La Salle, Friday afternoon at Hank DeVincent Field. Senior Zach Zaneski (Waterford, Conn.) and junior Dan Rhault (Lincoln, R.I.) recorded three hits each while senior starter Brett Palanski (Nashua, N.H.) struck out five batters in 6.1 innings of work.

La Salle (10-30, 5-11 Atlantic 10) opened the scoring in the second inning when TJ Chism was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a passed ball. An error by URI senior third baseman Shaun Hagey (Ephrata, Pa.) then allowed Mike Dertouzos to reach safely on a sacrifice bunt while Chism advanced to third before Kevin Jones put the Explorers 1-0 with an RBI single through the left side.

La Salle tacked on four more runs in the bottom of the fourth as Chism led off with a shot over the right field fence and John Malloy followed with a three-run double to left.

Rhode Island (21-20-1, 8-7-1 Atlantic 10) got one back in the top of the sixth when senior Mike O'Malley (Nashua, N.H.) reached on a throwing error by La Salle shortstop Brian Meagher before stealing second to set up freshman Tom Coulombe's (Lincoln, R.I.) two-out RBI single up the middle.

Runs by sophomore Zoey Angulo (Miami, Fla.), Zaneski and O'Malley got the Rams to within one (5-4) the following inning but La Salle came back with a two-run bottom of the seventh to lock up the 7-4 victory.

Palanski was charged with the loss while Sean Kennedy earned the win and Kevin Fuqua took the save.

The two teams return to Hank DeVincent Field for a 1 p.m. game tomorrow afternoon.