May 15, 2009

Box Score

ST. LOUIS - The Rhode Island baseball team matched its program-best 35 victories with a 9-1 win over Saint Louis, Friday afternoon at the Billiken Sports Center. Sophomore Jeff Cammans (Jamestown, R.I.) went 3-for-5 with three RBI and two runs scored to pace the Rhody offense while junior starter Nick Greenwood (Southington, Conn.) gave up just three hits with eight strikeouts and one (unearned) run over eight innings of work to earn his sixth win of the season.

As a team, Rhody outslugged Saint Louis by a 14-3 margin. Junior Zoey Angulo (Miami, Fla.) also finished with three hits on the day while classmate Rob DeVeney (Marlton, N.J.) was 2-for-3. Both batted in a pair of runs for the Rams.

The win improves URI's record to 35-18-1 (19-6) while SLU drops to 30-25 (12-13).

The last (and only other) time a Rhode Island baseball squad recorded 35 wins in a single season was in 2004 when the Rams finished with an overall record of 35-20-1 and a league-best 20-4 mark in Atlantic 10 action.

Saint Louis scored its lone run of the game in the first inning when Ryan Bennett reached on an error and eventually came around to score on a single up the middle by Zach Miller.

Greenwood went on to retire 11 consecutive batters from the first through the fifth inning, allowing the Rams to build a 6-0 lead.

Rhode Island first got on the board in the fifth inning, using a two-out rally to plate five unearned runs. Freshman Mike LeBel (Quincy, Mass.) got things started when he reached on a fielding error by Miller. Sophomore Tom Coulombe (Lincoln, R.I.) was then walked and both runners advanced on a double-steal play which set up Cammans' two-run double to left center. DeVeney then doubled to send Cammans across the plate and freshman Milan Adams (Exeter, R.I.) followed with an RBI single through the right side. Adams would eventually come around to score Rhody's fifth run on a single to left by Angulo.

Cammans put URI ahead 6-1 the following inning when he singled up the middle to score LeBel, who had reached base on a lead-off single.

The Billikens were able to advance a base runner to third in the bottom of the fifth, but that was as close as they would get. Lucas Calderon was the only other batter to reach base the rest of the way, singling up the middle in the bottom of the eighth inning.

The Rams, meanwhile, tacked on two more in the seventh and another in the eighth before junior Dan Rossignol (Nashua, N.H.) came on and threw a perfect ninth inning to secure the 9-1 victory.

URI and SLU will wrap up the 2009 regular season on Saturday afternoon at GCS Ballpark, home of the Gateway Grizzlies. First pitch is slated for Noon (ET).