Baseball
Rams Drop 11-1 Decision to Top-Seeded Charlotte; Will Face Fourth-Seeded Xavier, Tonight at 7:00 p.m.
May 24, 2007
DAYTON, Ohio - Senior James Norcott (Norton, Mass.) allowed just two hits through the first five innings and went on to record five strikeouts over 6.1 innings of work as the Rhode Island baseball team suffered a tough 11-1 loss to top-seeded Charlotte in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Championship at Fifth Third Field in Dayton, Ohio. All 11 of the 49ers runs were unearned.
Rhody took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth when senior Eric Larson (Bradenton, Fla.) led off with a walk and advanced to third on a double by classmate Ryan Cunningham (Centreville, Va.) before scoring on a ground-out by junior Zach Zaneski (Waterford, Conn.).
With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Norcott - who had held the Niners to just two hits over the first five innings of play - made a nice grab on Aaron Burt's ball back to the mound, but made a rushed throw to first which sailed past Cunningham and allowed Burt to take second on the play. Burt took third on Corey Lane's base hit and then scored on a Rhody throwing error. Kris Rochelle then reached base on an error by URI third baseman Shaun Hagey (Ephrata, Pa.) before Chris Taylor blasted a three-run shot to left center.
Charlotte went on to crack seven hits and score as many runs in the bottom of the seventh inning for the 11-1 win.
Hagey had two of Rhody's five hits on the day while senior Scott Brown (Portland, Maine) extended his hit-streak to eight games with a first-inning single to left field.
Rhode Island (23-29) will now face No. 4 Xavier (28-30) at 7:00 p.m. tonight in an elimination game for both teams.
Fans can watch all A-10 tournament games, live via the internet ($4.95 per game), by logging onto the 2007 Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship webpage. Live stats are also provided, free of charge, through Gametracker.
