Baseball returns to diamond vs East Carolina

Photo from gorhody.com.

The University of Rhode Island Baseball team began its season this weekend with three losses to No. 13 East Carolina University.

         Out of the three days of games, Head Coach Raphael Cerrato said the Rams played their best on Friday, despite losing 3-2 in the bottom of the tenth inning. East Carolina took the remaining two games on Saturday and Sunday, winning 7-1 and 12-4 respectively.

         “We played an excellent game on Friday,” Coach Cerrato said. “It was a tough loss, but it was hard to be upset because we played well.”

         After ECU put up two runs in the bottom of the fifth on Friday night, junior Austin White answered for Rhode Island by hitting a double down the left field line and scoring freshman Tino Salgado, who reached on a one-out single. White soon scored on a single by redshirt senior Josh Brodeur, tying the game at two runs each.

         A walk-off single by ECU’s Christian Smallwood in the bottom of the tenth finalized the Rams’ first loss.

         Starting Friday’s game on the mound for Rhode Island, junior Ryan Twitchell went five innings and only allowed one earned run on four hits and two walks. Redshirt senior Nick Robinson took over for Twitchell and went four innings, striking out five batters and allowing one hit and one walk.

         In regards to the pair of weekend games, Coach Cerrato said the team’s performance was “sloppy.”

         “We just looked like a team that hadn’t played a lot,” he said. “Just little mistakes.”

         According to Coach Cerrato, it had been 347 days since the URI Baseball team had played in a game. He said the team has not been able to get outside on the field as frequently as it would like to because of the cold weather and snow, but the players have been able to practice hitting and pitching inside.

         “To make adjustments from practice to a game, it’s always difficult early in the season,” Coach Cerrato said. “It’s not really the physical stuff, it’s much more the mental side of it, getting into that game mode. That’s where we should improve a lot.”

         On Saturday, the Rhode Island lineup saw All-American Jake Kuchmaner on the mound for ECU. The Pirates ace pitched five shutout innings and allowed two hits and no walks in his season debut.

         The Rams scored their only run in the top of the sixth inning when White, who reached first base on a bunt single and took second on a throwing error, tagged up on a flyball and moved to third. He crossed home plate on another throwing error to put URI on the board.

         In Sunday’s series finale, Rhode Island allowed the Pirates to score seven unearned runs on 12 hits, five walks and eight errors. Coach Cerrato said he thought the team was “complicating things” in regard to its approach.

         “There’s some good things and some bad things,” he said. “We’ve got to continually improve.”

Rhody’s next slate of games is in Norfolk, Virginia, where they’ll play another three-game weekend series against Old Dominion starting on Feb. 26.