URI Baseball saw some early-season struggles as they headed to Virginia to take on William and Mary in a three-game series. PHOTO CREDIT: gorhody.com
It was not a weekend to remember for the University of Rhode Island Baseball team.
In their season-opening series against William and Mary, the team was swept and outscored by the Tribe 35-16 over the course of the weekend.
“Disappointing,” was the one word Head Coach Raphael Cerrato could muster up to describe his team’s opening performance. “My expectations going in [was] I thought we were ready to play really well and we didn’t,” he added.
The first game was a swing and a miss for the Rams, as they lost to the Tribe 10-3.
The beginning of the game looked promising for URI with catcher Rob Butler securing a 1-0 lead for Rhode Island in the opening inning with a solo home run to right field. However, URI hit three William and Mary batters in the bottom half of the inning, which allowed two runs to score. URI’s only lead of the game vanished after only half an inning.
After that, strikeouts plagued Rhode Island with two batters striking out per inning for four innings straight.
“We had too many strikeouts,” Cerrato put bluntly.
The game was still relatively in reach for the Rams after six innings with William and Mary holding onto a 4-1 lead, but the onslaught began in the bottom of the seventh inning. Walks, wild pitches and hit batters scored a run as well as loaded the bases. This opened the door for William and Mary’s Jack Cone to launch a grand slam to increase their lead to 10-1.
Although URI was able to scrape up two late runs, the murderous seventh inning sealed the deal for the Tribe.
The first game of the double header the next day was a different showing from URI, but another loss nonetheless. The Tribe held Rhode Island scoreless for the first three innings, gathering a 4-0 lead.
However, URI responded in the top of the fourth, compiling a six-run effort led by a 2-RBI double from catcher and designated hitter Eric Genther, which was a small part of a 4-for-5 effort from him.
“He looked awesome,” Cerrato said. “We knew he was one of our better hitters going into the weekend and he certainly showed it the first weekend,” he added.
URI then held onto their two-run lead all the way until the bottom of the sixth when a grand slam from William and Mary’s Nate Goranson sparked a seven-run inning that put the Tribe up 11-7.
URI was able to grab one more run back from a solo home run from Genther, his first collegiate home run.
“It’s a really good feeling because that first one you’ve got a lot of nerves going in and then you just try to remember that it is the same game you’ve always playedl,” Genther said.
However the effort was not enough as William and Mary finished the game with a 15-8 win
The third game and final game was another disappointing outing for Rhode Island, losing to William and Mary, 10-5.
William and Mary jumped out to a fast start in this one, scoring six runs in the first inning, and they didn’t look back. Three errors contributed to that first inning and Coach Cerrato recognized that defense was an issue this weekend.
“We gave them 45 bases with all the walks, hit-by-pitches, errors,” he said. “We have to limit the free runs, it is as simple as that.”
Their defensive struggles went away for a few innings after the first. The Rams trimmed their deficit to 6-5 heading into the bottom of the eighth, however, the defensive issues reemerged. A hit batter and an error gave William and Mary more free runs. which produced the final score, 10-5.
The Rams travel down south once again to take on the University of South Alabama Jaguars for a three-game set this weekend. Coach Cerrato only has one main objective for his team against another tough opponent.
“Get ahead of hitters, it’s as simple as that,” he said.
First pitch for Game 1 of the series is set for Friday at 7:30 p.m.