URI baseball scores double wins on George Washington, loses one at weekend games

03/24/09 -The University of Rhode Island baseball team earned a pair of late-inning victories last weekend, defeating George Washington University by scores of 11-7 and 4-3. Rhody also suffered a loss to GW on the trip, falling 4-3.The Rams' record now stands at 12-6 overall and 2-1 in Atlantic 10 conference play.

"We felt good about our performance," head coach Jim Foster said. "The guys did an outstanding job and played three really competitive games."

In Friday's contest, Rhody scored six runs in the top of the ninth to post an 11-7 comeback victory. The game was the A-10 opener for both URI and George Washington.

Rhode Island was lead by junior Rob DeVeney who narrowly missed hitting for the cycle. DeVeney banged out three hits including a double, triple and homerun, as well as a walk.

Both teams scored early in the contest with URI striking first to lead off the game.

Sophomore Pete Mastors led off with a double in the top of the first and went on to score on a sac-fly by senior Dan Rhault.

The Colonials answered back in their half of the first scoring one run on two hits, a walk and a wild pitch.

Rhody tacked on two more in the second and another in the third to put itself ahead 4-1.

The Rams would relinquish that lead in bottom of the sixth as GW would plate three runs thanks to a homerun by the Colonials' Gavin Swanson.

DeVeney would add a homerun of his own in the top of the eighth, a solo shot, to give URI the 5-4 lead.

URI relief pitcher, sophomore Chris Pickering would quickly surrender three more runs in the bottom of the eighth on three hits, including a homerun by George Washington's Sean Rockey.

Staring at a 7-5 deficit in the ninth, the Rams would explode for six runs on a single by Junior Oliver Palmer that scored freshman Milan Adams and sophomore Kenny Burns, another single by sophomore Tom Coulombe that plated Palmer and junior Zoey Angulo and a triple by DeVeney that scored sophomore Jeff Cammans. Cammans would also score on a base hit by freshman Mike LeBel to cap off the Rhody scoring.

Senior closer Luke Demko came on for the Rams in the ninth inning and shut the door to earn his fifth save of the season.

In the second game of the weekend, LeBel stood out for Rhode Island with two doubles, one of them coming late in the game to spark another ninth inning rally.

Behind 3-1 heading into the final inning, LeBel sent a one-out pitch to the right field gap and came around to score on a base hit by sophomore Pete Mastors. Mastors then advanced to second on a ground-out and tied things up at 3-3 on an RBI-single by Palmer.

An intentional walk to senior Dan Rhault and an error by George Washington second baseman Bryan Hwang loaded the bases for Rhode Island.

GW relief pitcher Ryan Lapointe was faced with the challenge of battling the hot bat of DeVeney with the bases loaded, but was able to get out of the jam unscathed. DeVeney sent one deep to right field but the Colonials right fielder Swanson made the catch to end the inning.

Sophomore Gardner Leaver surrendered the winning run in the bottom of the ninth as the Colonials Ryan Thomas wristed an infield single to score pinch runner Ollie Mittag, earning the walk-off 4-3 victory.

"Every game's a dog fight in conference play," Foster said. "We aren't going to sneak up on anyone anymore with the wins that we've had."

With the series tied at one game apiece, URI rode the bat of Rhault to another hard fought 4-3 victory on Sunday. Rhault ended the day with his team leading fourth and fifth homeruns of the season.

Junior Eric Smith led Rhode Island on the mound, going seven strong innings while striking out a season-high seven batters. The win was Smith's second of the season, the first being in URI's marquee win against powerhouse Miami University. That win put him in the national spotlight as he was named to the College Baseball Foundation's National All-Star Lineup as well as recruitingcloser.com's National Pitchers of the Week list.

"We had some great starts this weekend," Foster said. "I have nothing but good things to say about our pitchers."

With the score tied at 3 in the eighth, URI decided to do their damage earlier than the previous two games.

DeVeney struck again for Rhody, putting a ball in play that would be ruled a fielder's choice. With Palmer on third and Rhault on first, DeVeney grounded to GW shortstop Tom Zebroski, who threw to second to get Rhault on the force. With DeVeney safe at first, Palmer would cross the plate to score the eventual game winning run.

Demko came on to pitch again in the ninth, retiring three Colonials in order on three straight strikeouts to earn his sixth save. The 6'6 Demko leads the A-10 in saves.

Rhault is also among the league leaders in homeruns, however, his exact placing on the leader board was not available on the A-10 website as of March 23.

Rhody will now play closer to home after being on the road for its first 25 games. The Rams travel to Boston to take on Northeastern University today at 3 p.m. before being scheduled to host Bryant University at home on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.

Both games are weather permitting and according to Foster, Rhody's Bill Beck Field will not be ready for Wednesday's game.

Foster said he envisions the first home game being against Central Connecticut State University on March 31 or against Dayton University on April 3.

"The guys have been doing a heck of a job," Foster said. "They can't wait to play in front of the people at URI. We just hope the weather cooperates.