Baseball
Championship Bound: Rams Down No. 1 Dayton 9-2
May 22, 2009
DAYTON, Ohio - The second-seeded Rhode Island baseball team will advance to the Championship game of the 2009 Atlantic 10 Tournament after downing top-seeded Dayton, 9-2, Friday afternoon at Fifth Third Field. URI will now No. 3 Xavier tomorrow at Noon. With the Championship being played in double-elimination format, Rhode Island would have to lose twice to be knocked out of contention while just one win would secure the Rams' second-ever A-10 title.
"I thought our approach at the plate was great today," said head coach Jim Foster, who has led the team to a program-best 37 wins this season. "We got on top of a lot of balls and I think we had four or five two-strike hits. It was a little bit of everything today. They did a real nice job."
Senior Dan Rhault (Lincoln, R.I.) went 3-for-5 with three runs while also recording his 59th and 60th RBI of the year - to set a new URI single-season record.
In addition to Rhault, junior Zoey Angulo (Miami, Fla.), sophomore Tom Coulombe (Lincoln, R.I.) and sophomore Kenny Burns (Shelton, Conn.) finished with three hits apiece, pacing an explosive Rhode Island offense that combined for 18 hits on the afternoon. Six different Rams recorded multiple-hit performances.
Junior starter Nick Greenwood (Southington, Conn.) picked up his team-leading seventh win, giving up just two runs over eight innings of work. Greenwood was backed by a solid Rhode Island defense which turned four double plays on the day.
"Coach says all the time that a pitcher's best friend is the double play and I was able to get a lot of ground balls today. When I needed it, I got it," said Greenwood, who did not walk a batter on the afternoon and has issued just 16 free passes in 92.1 innings pitched this season. "They are a real good fastball hitting team so I just tried to get ahead and use my changeup and curveball, which were good today."
Rhode Island (37-18-1) wasted little time getting on the board, plating three runs in the top of the first. Angulo ripped a lead-off double to left center and came around to score on a single to right by Rhault. A base hit by Coulombe then put runners on first and second, setting up an RBI-single by sophomore Jeff Cammans (Jamestown, R.I.). Freshman Mike LeBel's (Quincy, Mass.) sacrifice fly to right field then plated Coulombe to give URI the early 3-0 advantage.
Dayton (38-18) threatened in the bottom of the inning, but Greenwood sat Cole Tyrell down looking to end things with runners on second and third.
Burns put Rhody in front 4-0 the following inning as he singled to right and stole second before heading home on a run-scoring single by Palmer.
A base hit by Cammans plated Rhault an inning later to give URI five runs before Dayton got their first of the game in the bottom of the fifth.
In their next at-bat, the Rams got back-to-back-to-back RBI-singles by Palmer, Rhault and Coulombe. Rhault then crossed the plate on a fielder's choice ball by Cammans, putting Rhode Island on top 9-1.
Dayton was able to get on the board once more as Jacob Spaeth scored on a a two-out Aaron Dunsmore single to right in the bottom of the eighth. That was as close as UD would get though as senior Luke Demko (Gilford, N.H.) came on in the ninth and held the Flyers scoreless to lock up the win.
