Rhode Island Lineup
White (RF), Powell (CF), Coutts (DH), Ulliana (C), Cavaliere (LF), Heiss (SS), Vargas (1B), Hill (3B), Brodeur (2B), Murphy (P)
VCU Lineup
Lamb (CF), Berezo (2B), Witt (3B), Lacey (DH), Willett (RF), Ching (SS), Carpenter (1B), Simon (C), Brown (LF), Gillispie (P)
How it Happened
Rhode Island (5-15, 0-1 A-10) scored its only runs of the game in the top of the ninth, falling to VCU, 5-2, in the Atlantic 10 opener for both teams Friday night.
The Rams struggled to get the offense going, never sending more than four hitters to the plate until the ninth inning. There, Josh Brodeur led things off with a single to left. He later crossed the plate after three consecutive walks to Austin White, Jordan Powell and Jackson Coutts. After a VCU pitching change and back-to-back strikeouts, Kevin Heiss was issued a free pass to score White and make it a 5-2 game. That was as close as URI would get however, as Xavier Vargas grounded out to third to end the late rally.
VCU (14-8, 1-0 A-10) had taken a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth, and capitalized on three Rhode Island errors between the sixth and seventh innings to push the lead to 5-0 before Rhody eventually got on the board in the ninth.
Inside the Box Score
- Rhody finished with just five hits on the night – one each by senior Jordan Powell, redshirt junior Laurence Hill, sophomore Greg Cavaliere, redshirt freshman Josh Brodeur and freshman Austin White.
- Brodeur and White scored both crossed the plate in the ninth inning, on RBI-walks by freshman Jackson Coutts and junior Kevin Heiss.
- Redshirt senior Matt Murphy took the loss, allowing five runs (two earned) on nine hits over 6.2 innings. He struck out three and walked none.
- Junior Mark Silvestri (1.0 IP) and sophomore Nick Robinson (0.1 IP) combined for an inning and a third of scoreless relief.
Up Next
Rhode Island and VCU return to The Diamond for Game 2 of the series, Saturday at 2 p.m.