Feb. 28, 2011

Box Score

MIAMI - The Rhode Island baseball team dropped a 13-5 decision to Florida International on Monday night in Miami. Senior Kyle Borden and redshirt junior Greg Annarummo finished with two hits apiece for the Rams.

Borden - who drove in three of Rhody's five runs - belted his third homer of the season while freshman Jeff Roy hit the first of his collegiate career.

Rhody took an early lead after Borden's two-out solo shot in the first, but the Panthers evened the score in the bottom of the frame. Roy then led off the third with a homer over the left field fence but FIU once again tied things up with a run in the bottom of the inning.

Florida International opened things up, plating five runs (three unearned) in the bottom of the fourth to take a 7-2 lead but Rhody rallied back in the fifth and cut it to 7-5.

Redshirt sophomore Pat Fortunato got things started with a lead-off single before advancing to third on back-to-back walks by junior Mike LeBel and redshirt junior Jeff Cammans. Borden then doubled down the left field line to bring in both Fortunato and LeBel and senior Tom Coulombe's fielder's choice ball scored Cammans to make it a 7-5 game.

FIU, however, plated one more in the sixth before a five-run eighth put the game out of reach for Rhode Island.

Redshirt senior Stephen Peterson (0-2) was charged with the loss, giving up six runs (four earned) on five hits in 3.2 innings on the hill. Florida International reliever Jose Velazquez (1-0) tossed three scoreless innings of relief with no hits and no runs to pick up the win.

Rhody is back in action on Wednesday night when it returns to Palm Beach to take on Western Michigan at 5 p.m.