Rams rebound from 4-0 deficit; defeat Sacred Heart at Beck
KINGSTON – The Rhode Island baseball team made a winning start to the home portion of their schedule, as the Rams downed Sacred Heart, 6-4, in a non-conference contest Tuesday at Bill Beck Field.
“It’s nice to be home,” URI coach Raphael Cerrato said. “That was a rough stretch last week. We couldn’t get a flight back on Monday, so we bussed from Arkansas to Williamsburg, Virginia. It was 21 hours. We had a couple of days off, though, 20-something games in a row; it’s nice to be back here.”
Left-handed freshman hurler Jake Walker earned the start and struggled with his command in the second inning, allowing four runs on three walks and was hurt by a two-run error. Rhody’s bullpen came in and stayed true to Cerrato’s plan.
“We had it mapped out that eight guys were going to pitch this game. Other than Jake struggling, the guys out of the bullpen were awesome. We have good pitchers; we just have to pound the strike zone; their stuff is good. They showed it when they were throwing strikes.”
Freshman righty Nick Robinson pitched two scoreless innings and then six other Rams each threw a scoreless inning. Dom Grillo, Mark Silvestri, Blaise Whitman, Cam LaFleur, Vitaly Janglos and Tyler Barrs allowed one hit and two baserunners.
“We got down 4-0, and I thought that it was good that we didn’t press,” Cerrato said. “Just play; it’s the second inning, and you’ve got a lot of games left. Have confidence in yourselves offensively.”
URI grabbed two runs back in the second when Mike Corin led off with a stinging double. Brett McManus made it 4-1 with a sacrifice fly, and shortstop Kevin Heiss knocked another run in with an RBI single.
In the third, URI made it a one-run game after starting the inning off with a couple of booming hits. After singling, centerfielder Jordan Powell got a good jump and scored on Matt O’Neil’s double.
“We had a lot of good at-bats,” Cerrato said. “Coach [Jim] Martin gave them 22 quality atbats. If you’re over 17, usually it’s a good ball game. We had a couple of opportunities to really break it open, and we didn’t. We could have scored eight or nine runs, and we’re going to need to do that. We haven’t really hit much this year, and we’ve got to start getting the offense going coming into conference play.”
Sacred Heart’s starting pitcher Franklin Miller went five innings, and while momentum was on Rhody’s side after the second, Miller seemed to settle in during the middle innings.
After good at-bats, URI tied the game in the seventh. On a hit-and-run, Powell knocked home catcher Martin Figueroa. URI scored the winning runs in the eighth off of Austin Markmann, who began the game as the designated hitter. McManus started the inning with a triple to center, and outfielder Mike Foley brought him around with a double down the left-field line.
“We’ve had a lot of tight games,” Cerrato said of the season so far and with a look ahead to A-10 Conference play. “A lot of injury issues. If we can just play good baseball, we’re going to be in the mix. Hopefully, Tyler [Wilson] will be back in two or three weeks and gets back to the way he is capable of throwing because he hasn’t thrown well all year. He has some shoulder tightness getting checked out this week – we don’t think it’s anything. We have enough depth; there’s still enough pitching for us to have success. Davidson’s a good club; we beat them in the championship last year.”
URI heads back on the road with three games in North Carolina against Davidson, which is 2-1 in the A-10 with a series win over St. Bonaventure. The weekend series (Friday at 6:00 p.m., Saturday at 2:00 p.m., and Sunday at 1:00 p.m.) will begin the conference schedule for URI.