Baseball wins two, ties one in Richmond

By: Kayla Panu

Posted: 4/23/08

04/23/08 - The University of Rhode Island baseball team won two games and tied one during the weekend against the University of Richmond.

"It was a great weekend," head coach Jim Foster said. "The guys did a really good job, especially offensively. They put some good numbers on the board. It was very encouraging."

Senior right-hander Brett Palanski won the game on Friday for the Rams. He pitched six innings with six hits, six strikeouts and gave up two runs. URI was victorious at Richmond on Friday, 8-3.

Senior first baseman Mike O'Malley started the scoring for the Rams in the top of the second. He started the inning with a base hit to center, stole second, then scored on a two-out triple by freshman designated hitter Evan Laude. Laude was then plated by freshman right fielder Tom Coulombe's bunt to take the 2-0 lead.

URI added four more runs in the top of the fourth to lead 6-0. O'Malley started the inning with a double and scored on sophomore centerfielder Rob Deveney's double. Three more runs crossed the plate to give the Rams a nice lead.

URI allowed two runs score in the bottom of the fifth (6-2), but took them back in the top of the seventh to keep the 8-2 lead. Junior shortstop Dan Rhault and Coulombe each scored.

The Richmond Spiders scored one more time in the eighth but the Rams shut them down in the ninth to win 8-3.

The Rams and Spiders played two games on Saturday because of inclimate weather predicted for Sunday.

URI defeated Richmond in game one, 16-12, in 12 innings. The second game was called after nine innings because of darkness with the score tied 8-8. Both of these games were comeback performances by the Rams.

"The first game on Saturday was a marathon game, and we came out a little flat in the third game [of the series]," Foster said.

The Rams took a four-run lead in the first inning but lost the lead in the bottom of the third when the Spiders scored eight runs to lead 8-5.

Sophomore right-hander Eric Smith started for the Rams still looking for his first win. He only went two and a third innings and gave up seven runs.

By the seventh inning, the score was 11-10 in Richmond's favor. O'Malley hit a two-run shot over the left field fence to take the 12-11 lead in the eighth, but the score was tied at 12 in the bottom of the inning.

"Mike's been doing really well, especially in the conference," Foster said about O'Malley. "He started slow but is coming around."

The ninth, 10th and 11th innings were scoreless and set the Rams up for some more heroics in the top of the 12th.

Senior catcher Zach Zaneski knocked in three runs with his double off of the wall in right center, and O'Malley had his fourth hit of the game to plate Zaneski and take the 16-12 lead and finally win.

"The mood was upbeat," Foster said about the 12th inning. "They were swinging the bats and it was a huge inning."

URI sophomore reliever Tim Boyce pitched four and a third innings and retired the Spiders in order in the bottom of the 12th to earn the win.

As Foster said, the Rams came out a little flat in the second game of the day, the finale in the series. "The best thing to do is to jump out right away," he said. "Nick [Greenwood] was uncharacteristically wild in the second and we had a costly two-run error."

Greenwood pitched seven innings and gave up five runs. Junior right-hander Luke Demko relieved Greenwood for the rest of the game.

After a 12-inning first game, the Spiders took a five-run lead through three innings. O'Malley hit a solo homerun in the top of the fourth and sophomore left fielder Zoey Angulo hit one in the sixth to lessen the deficit to 5-2.

The score was 8-4 Richmond after eight innings. The Rams had another four-run rally in the top of the inning to tie the score 8-8. Laude came in as a pinch hitter and drove in two runs on his double to right field. He moved to third after a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly from Coulombe. Freshman pinch-hitter Jeff Cammans hit a first pitch homerun over the right field fence to tie the game.

After the bottom of the ninth, the game was called because of darkness and was officially called a tie.

The Rams went to Sacred Heart University yesterday to play one game. Today they will host the University of Connecticut at 3:30 p.m.

"We just want to keep playing and keep getting better," Foster said.