Baseball
Homers Lead Brown Past Rhody, 8-3
April 6, 2005
KINGSTON, R.I. - Rhode Island sophomore Ryan Cunningham (Centreville, Va.) went 2-for-3 with a two-run homer to extend his hitting streak to 12 games, but Brown University hit three homers in an 8-3 win in the first game of Wednesday's doubleheader at Bill Beck Field.
Cunningham singled in the first inning and hit a two-run home run in the third inning as he raised his average to .329. Cunningham's home run was his fifth of the season, which leads the team. Sophomore Scott Brown (Portland, Maine) went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles, a run batted in and runs scored.
Brown's Eric Larson went 2-for-3 with two home runs and five RBIs and Matt Kutler was a perfect 3-for-3 with a homer and two RBIs. Brown's three home runs accounted for seven of its eight runs in the game.
Brown took a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Kutler singled with two outs an Larson blasted a two-run homer to center field.
The Rams got a run back in the bottom of the first, when senior Matt Sullivan (Nashua, N.H.) hit a one-out double to left and sophomore Brown followed with a RBI-double to right. Cunningham added a single to right to extend his hitting streak to 12 games and move Brown to third, but the Bears got out of the inning with a 2-1 lead.
The Bears added two more runs in the third inning when Conor Reardon reached on an infield single and Kutler lined a home run over the right field fence for a 4-1 advantage.
Rhody pulled within one run in the bottom of the third inning, when Brown hit his second double of the game with one out and Cunningham followed with his team-leading fifth home run of the season to right field, closing the gap to 4-3.
Brown pushed across four runs in the top of the fifth to open up an 8-3 lead. Jeff Nichols led off with a double, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a sacrifice fly by Bobby Wiginton. With two runners on and two outs, Larson hit his second home run of the game, this time a three-run blast, giving him five RBIs on the day.
