On a windy Wednesday afternoon in Kingston, Rhode Island, history struck the diamond at Bill Beck field in a mid-week contest between the University of Rhode Island and Stonehill College.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, second-year first baseman Michael Anderson shot a ball into left field and rounded first base. As the Skyhawk defense corralled the ball in the outfield, Anderson trotted to second base.
“What I was aware of is that he needed a single for the cycle, and he hit a double,” URI Head Coach Raphael Cerrato said. “So I told him after he should have just stopped at first base.”
Although Anderson missed out on the coveted cycle, the hit also cemented his name in the Rhode Island record books. While Anderson stood on second, first-year Reese Mornoney crossed home plate, giving Anderson his 12th run batted in of the game.
12 RBI’s, a new single-game record for Rhode Island Baseball, broke the short reign for Calvin McCall (‘23), who recorded nine RBIs back on April 4, 2022 against the College of Holy Cross.
“I actually had no idea that there was a record or anything,” Anderson said. “It wasn’t really going through my head during the game, I was just trying to get good at bats and then just kind of broke it from there.”
Anderson has excelled at the plate ever since he put on a Keaney Blue uniform. The first-year slugger hit .316 in his debut season and knocked out 10 home runs while recording a .555 slugging percentage.
All of those statistics led to Anderson engulfing a mass of awards and recognition. In his rookie campaign, the slugger won Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week three times and was named to the All A-10 Rookie Team, Second Team All A-10 and a Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American.
Even with all of the success Anderson has had so far in his career, coming out of high school he was mainly supposed to excel on the pitcher’s mound instead of the batters box, according to Cerrato.
“I thought his immediate impact might even be as a pitcher,” Cerrato said. “I thought he was going to hit and be a good hitter, but I [wasn’t sure] in terms of how ready a high school hitter is to come in [to college], because I had never personally [seen] him. My assistant coach saw him, he thought he was a good hitter. We also knew he was a very good pitcher.”
Anderson only ended up making eight appearances out of the bullpen in 2023, as his bat commanded the majority of the coaching staff’s attention. With all of the offensive production, Anderson has not pitched once this season. Although, nobody knew what Anderson was capable of doing coming into his first season due to a hand injury.
“It was a really big surprise, because he didn’t hit the whole fall because he broke his hamate bone,” Cerrato said. “So he basically didn’t hit the whole fall and started hitting in the winter and we were like ‘Oh my god, this guy is going to play everyday.’”
In between his two collegiate seasons, Anderson made an impact during the summer of 2023 when he suited up for the Newport Gulls of the New England Collegiate Baseball League. Anderson batted .244 during the season and finished in the top five in games played with 30.
Newport ended up winning the NECBL championship over the Bristol Blues. Following the championship, Anderson said his plan to bring back the winning ways to Rhode Island are focused solely on one side of the ball.
“Just playing good baseball, good defense,” Anderson said. “I thought in the summer we had really good defense… I feel like after [the win on April 6] we played really well… that’s all we have to do is just win, one step at a time.”
With Anderson, after all the stats, the accolades and the recognition, his priorities remain simple.
“Honestly I’m just here to have fun and play baseball,” Anderson said.
Anderson and the rest of the Rams are back in action this coming weekend when they return to A-10 play against Saint Joseph’s University. First pitch in game one from Bill Beck Field is set for 3 p.m. on Friday. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.