Rhody goes from 1-9 in league play to winning 16 of final 18 games
Southern Rhode Island Newspapers
KINGSTON – Most years, finishing above .500 and winning your last 16 of 18 games would be more than enough to qualify for the Atlantic 10 tournament.
Not this year. URI’s disastrous 1-9 start to the conference schedule and some poor luck on the final weekend offset their strong finish, putting a premature end to their season.
“Tough to end on that,” URI head coach Raphael Cerrato said after his team lost their regular season finale to St. Bonaventure, 4-3, on Saturday. “After we won 12 out of 13. We were 1-9 at one point and our season was over. Most teams are going to fold. That’s a credit to the kids in our program who just kept grinding it out.”
The Rams entered the weekend with a host of paths to the postseason. They further improved their position by winning the first two games of the series. On Thursday afternoon, they eked out an 8-7 win and in the first game of a doubleheader on Friday, they overcame blowing a four-run lead to win 14-7.
Friday morning’s triumph brought the Rams to 13 league wins, and another victory in the second-half of the doubleheader would have nearly guaranteed entry into the conference tournament.
Senior Taso Stathopoulos - making what would ultimately be his final collegiate start - did his best to help his team, pitching into the eighth inning and striking out seven.
“He’s just a competitor,” Cerrato said. “He’s been really good all season. He’s gotten stronger as the games have gone on. He’s got good stuff and gave us a really chance to win the game. Unfortunately we didn’t put up any runs for him, or play great defense.”
Xavier Vargas drove in two of the URI runs on the day, on a sacrifice fly and a groundball to second. Despite only having five hits in total, the Rams entered the top half of the ninth sporting a 3-2 lead.
Nick Johnson - another senior - came on in relief of Stathopoulos in the eighth, looking to pick up a two-inning save. Johnson had not allowed a single earned run since early March, but that streak would come to an end in an unfortunate spot.
The Bonnies roped two leadoff singles to start the ninth, and took the lead on a fielder’s choice and groundout to the right side. The Rams went down in order in their half of the ninth.
“They didn’t really hit the ball particularly hard, it wasn’t our inning,” Cerrato said of the ninth. “That’s baseball.”
Even with that loss, a road to the postseason was still open for Rhody. Due to a rainout on Friday, George Washington had two games left to play against A-10 leading St. Louis. If the Billikens beat the Colonials in both of those games, the Rams would claim the seventh and final spot in the tournament.
Alas, it was not meant to be. GW outlasted St. Louis 5-4 in the first-half of the doubleheader, ending URI’s up-and-down campaign on a decidedly down note.
“All of a sudden, we turned it around,” Cerrato said, after the team got swept each of the first two conference weekends. “Most years 13-11 - almost all years - gets you into the tournament. That was our goal when we were 1-9. Get to .500 we have a shot, 13 wins we should get in. Different season.”
URI held a brief senior day ceremony in between games on Friday. They didn’t fully realize it at the time, but they were saying goodbye to the last remaining vestiges of a group that got the Rams into the NCAA tournament and won a regional game for the first time ever.
“We’re going to be very young,” next year, Cerrato said. “I really like the talent we have. We would only have a couple guys left from that [NCAA] team. We have a very good recruiting class coming in. We also some really good freshman that redshirted this year. I wish we had them on the roster, they could’ve helped.
“We’re going to be really young, but it will be one of the more talented groups we’ve had.”
Departing seniors Stathopoulos, Johnson, Jordan Powell, Mike Foley, Matt Murphy and Tyler Barss all played a part in the program’s resurgence. Stathopoulos and Murphy made up two-thirds of the team’s weekend rotation this year, Powell finishes his career with a .318 batting average and 257 hits, Foley posted a career-best .264 mark at the plate this season, while Barss and Johnson held down the later stages of the game out of the bullpen.
“These six guys were phenomenal,” Cerrato said. “Jordan had a great career, Mike Foley had a good career and was great the past two weeks. The four pitchers were phenomenal. Good kids, good leaders, really good players.”