Baseball Raises Over $54,000 Through Red Sox Season Ticket Raffle

March 10, 2009

KINGSTON, R.I. - As the Boston Red Sox baseball season quickly approaches one thing is certain; seats 17 and 18 in section 24, row three will always be filled this year by Rhode Island Athletics supporter Ken Wilmot.

Wilmot was one of 542 individuals, who entered his/her name in a drawing to win season tickets for the Boston Red Sox. This past Saturday during the Rhode Island-Massachusetts men's basketball game, Wilmot had his name called in front of a sellout crowd at the Ryan Center that he had won the coveted prize.

"My jaw kind of dropped and I was totally in shock," Wilmot said. "It was extremely happy about winning the tickets."

Mr. Jeffrey Cammans donated his 2009 Red Sox tickets for the URI Baseball team to raffle off to the general public.

"I was just happy to help out the program by donating the tickets," Cammans said. "It seems like everything has been very successful and I'm sure the baseball program can use the funds and put them to good use."

The Red Sox season ticket raffle raised over $54,000 dollars and the money will go directly toward the URI's new batting cages, new field and equipment.

"This has been an unbelievable fundraiser for our team," said URI baseball head coach Jim Foster. "Jeff (Cammans) has been so kind to donate his tickets and it just helps our operating budget so much. I am happy a Red Sox fan won the prize and he is really going to have a great summer."

Rhode Island currently sits at 7-2 this season with wins over nationally-ranked squads Miami (Fla.) and Ohio State.

"This is an exciting time to be a part of the program," Foster said. "We received votes in the top 25, which has never happened before and our team just pulled off the biggest win in the history of the program and then we backed it up with wins against Fairfield and Ohio State. The guys are working very hard and they are starting to see the rewards of their hard work."

"I would like to thank Jeff (Cammans) for his tremendous support of URI baseball," said URI Athletics Director Thorr Bjorn. "Like Coach Foster said, without his support there would be a lot of things that he would not be able to do. It just shows how many people out there believe in what Coach Foster is trying to do. The most important thing in all of this is that every dollar will be going back to the baseball program."

The Rams are back in action March 13 at 4:00 p.m. (ET) when they take on No. 7 Cal State Fullerton (Baseball America/Rivals.com) in the Oklahoma State Tournament in Stillwater, Okla.