Junior Domenic Picone put together a dominant performance, striking out a career-high 11 batters in Saturday’s win against nationally-ranked UConn. PHOTO CREDIT: gorhody.com
The University of Rhode Island Baseball team turned a corner this week, sort of.
They shocked the collegiate baseball world Saturday when they took down No. 18 UConn in Kingston on Saturday, but that was the only victory that they would earn this week as they dropped 2-of-3 against the Huskies and fell to Northeastern Wednesday afternoon.
To start off the weekend, Rhody took on UConn in a home-away series. The Rams traveled to Storrs, Conn. to start things off.
UConn used excellent pitching from Austin Peterson, who struck out 11 over the course of the game, and great hitting to jump out to a 3-0 lead. Despite the first home run of the season from redshirt sophomore Joe Fortin cutting the lead to 3-1, the Huskies ran away with the game. A six-run seventh inning cemented a 19-2 victory for Connecticut.
The story couldn’t have been any different when the two sides came to Kingston for Saturday’s game. Junior pitcher Domenic Picone was lights out all afternoon, taking a no-hitter to the fifth inning and throwing a career-high 11 strikeouts.
Stellar pitching combined with a pair of home runs from freshman Anthony Depino allowed for the Rams to build a 6-2 lead heading into the final inning. Freshman closer Sean Sposato came in and finished off the Huskies, giving the Rams the massive 6-2 victory.
The final game of the series was back at UConn. The game opened up in the second inning when T.C. Simmons and Matt Donlan doubled and drove in a run for the Huskies.
Rhody responded quickly when junior infielder Alex Ramirez, who went 3-for-4 at the plate, scored on a ground out from catcher Eric Genther, who also doubled twice for the Rams.
The Huskies immediately answered, getting a home run from Eric Stock in the bottom half of the inning to make it 2-1. From there, UConn never looked back, using excellent pitching from Enzo Stefanoni and insurance runs in the fourth and seventh innings to win the game 4-1.
After a game cancellation against Quinnipiac due to extreme weather conditions, the Rams returned home to face Northeastern, a team that defeated nationally-ranked Clemson and swept eighth-ranked North Carolina State earlier in the season.
The game was tight to start, with both sides using different pitchers to keep the game knotted at 0 after four innings. The Rams nearly broke through in the fifth inning after loading the bases, but the Rams stranded all three runners.
The Huskies broke through in the sixth inning off of a Rhody error to make it 1-0. Justin Bosland then ripped a triple for the Huskies, and JP Olson drove him home to double the lead. Buddy Mrowka followed it up with a single of his own to help Northeastern take a 3-0 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth inning.
The Rams had another opportunity in the bottom half of the inning with runners on first and second, but once again fell short.
More Rhody fielding errors resulted in a 4-0 contest in the top of the seventh, but the Rams responded by loading the bases and scoring after two Rams, Jack Cucinotta and Genther, were hit by the pitcher consecutively. Addison Kopack then drove in two more runs with a single of his own and cut the deficit to 4-3 going into the final two innings.
The Rams were unable to capitalize off the momentum, however, and fell to the Huskies 4-3.
Despite their 3-20 record this season, the Rams showed with their win against UConn what they are capable of. Head Coach Raphael Cerrato said the team just needs to be more consistent in the coming contests.
“We just need to play a complete game,” Cerrato said. “The pitching has been better, but we just need to be more consistent.”
With A-10 play approaching, Kopack feels the team is in a good spot mentally.
“We are really starting to roll into something,” Kopack said. “We are feeling really confident. We will play some tough competition, but we have played some really good teams.”
The Rams will start that conference slate with a series against Dayton over the weekend. The first game on Friday will start at 3 p.m.