FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 12, 2008

Red Hawks rally past Anchormen, 9-7

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. –The Rhode Island College baseball team could not hold off Rensselaer this afternoon as the Red Hawks scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning for a 9-7 victory at Eckerd College. The Anchormen blasted a season-high four home runs, and out hit their opposition 15-9.

            The first three Rensselaer (5-0) student-athletes reached base to lead off the ninth inning. Senior shortstop Matt Muscatiello (Kinderhook, N.Y.) started the surge with a line-drive back up the box, while freshman centerfielder Josh Brooks (Lake Katrine, N.Y.) tied the game at seven-all with a double off the right-centerfield fence. The Red Hawks were able to capitalize on two Rhode Island College defensive miscues to tack on a pair of insurance runs to enter the bottom of the ninth with a 9-7 advantage.

            Freshman pitcher Tyler Agneta (Niskayuna, N.Y.) retired the Anchormen in order in the ninth frame, raising Rensselaer’s winning streak to five games. Agneta picked up his first victory of the season, allowing two runs on six hits in fourth innings of relief.

            Rhode Island College (5-2) used the long ball to erase a one-run deficit in the bottom of the fifth inning. Junior shortstop Josh Cardoso (Dartmouth, Mass.) gave the Anchormen their biggest advantage of the game with a two-run homer over the centerfield fence for his first dinger of the campaign. Senior first baseman Jim Connell (Smithfield, R.I.) extended the lead to three, 5-2, with a two-run homer to right-centerfield. It was also Connell’s first home run of the season.

               The Red Hawks responded with a pair of runs of their own in the top of the sixth, but freshman catcher Franklin Salcedo (Providence, R.I.) launched his first home run of the season to right-centerfield to increase the Anchormen’s advantage to 6-4.

 Franklin Salcedo

            Rensselaer continued to claw back into the game, scoring a single run in the seventh and eighth inning, but Rhode Island College once again used the long ball to put distance between themselves and the Red Hawks. Senior left fielder Robert Reyes (Providence, R.I.) belted his second home run of the campaign in the bottom of the seventh for the Anchormen’s final run.

            Cardoso led the offensive charge for Rhode Island College with three extra base hits and two RBI, while Salcedo went 2-for-3 with two runs batted in. Junior right fielder Chris O’Connors (North Kingstown, R.I.), Connell and Reyes each logged a pair of hits.

            Freshman Gary Levesque (East Providence, R.I.) earned a no decision in his first collegiate start for the Anchormen, allowing four runs on four hits, while striking out three in five and a third innings. Levesque retired 13 Red Hawks in a row between the first and fifth innings. Sophomore relief pitcher Bobby Venditto (Cranston, R.I.) gave up two runs, only one of which was earned, in one and two thirds of a frame, while classmate closer Eric Fama (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) was saddled with the loss. Fama surrendered three runs, two of which were earned, on three hits in two innings.  

            Rhode Island College returns to action at 7 p.m. tonight, when the Anchormen square off against Division II Eckerd College (8-15).