URI Rams to Play South Carolina Friday in NCAA Baseball Regionals

URI news release…

KINGSTON, R.I. – Rhode Island will travel to Columbia, S.C. to face South Carolina in its first game of the NCAA Regionals, announced Monday during the NCAA Baseball Championship Section Special Presented by Capital One.

The fourth seed in the regional, Rhode Island will face No. 1 South Carolina Friday, June 3 at 7 p.m. Also in the Columbia Regional are No. 2 UNC-Wilmington and No. 3 Duke, who will play Friday at 1 p.m. All games in the regional will be shown on ESPN3.com. The Rams – one of 31 automatic qualifiers in the field – have played South Carolina once before, a 17-8 win for the Gamecocks in 2011. Rhode Island has never faced Duke, but it is 2-1 all time against UNC-Wilmington, with all three meetings coming in 2010.

Each of the 16 regionals around the country will serve as a double-elimination tournament from June 3-6, with winners advancing to the eight NCAA Super Regionals. The winner of the Columbia Regional will face the Clemson Regional, which consists of Clemson, Oklahoma State, Nebraska and Western Carolina. Each of the Super Regionals is a best-of-three series, with the eight winners then advancing to the College World Series in Omaha.

This will be Rhode Island’s second appearance at the NCAA Tournament. The Rams also made the field in 2005, when they were eliminated in the regional round, falling to No. 12 Long Beach State and No. 18 Pepperdine.

The trip to the NCAA Championship was punctuated by Rhode Island’s dominant run through the Atlantic 10 season. Rhody won seven of its eight conference series – including three weekend sweeps – en route to an 18-6 mark in league play as well as the Atlantic 10 regular-season title. In finishing the regular season atop the league standings, Rhody earned its first outright A-10 regular-season title since 2006. This year’s senior class also helped the Rams claim a share of the 2013 crown, which was shared with both Saint Louis and Charlotte.

The Rams made it look easy at the conference tournament, becoming the first No. 1 seed since 2011 to sweep its way to the title. Rhody outscored the competition 38-7 over three games. Junior Martin Figueroa – who outscored the opposition 11-7 by himself – was the tournament MVP after batting .545 with two home runs, one double, four walks and four RBI in the three games. He tied the A-10 Championship single-game record by scoring five runs in the title game alone.

Joining Figueroa on the All-Championship Team were redshirt sophomore Chris Hess, senior Ryan Olmo and redshirt junior Ben Wessel. Hess hit .667 (8-12) with two doubles, seven runs scored and four walks. His on-base percentage was .750. Olmo drove in nine runs on six hits and scored three runs. He also made several outstanding defensive plays in right field. Wessel scattered just four hits – all singles – over seven shutout innings on Saturday, effectively shutting down the Davidson offense as the Rams piled on 15 runs of support.

Columbia Regional Schedule
* All Games Shown on ESPN3.com
Friday, June 3 
Game 1 – No. 2 UNC Wilmington vs. No. 3 vs. Duke – 1 p.m.
Game 2 – No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 4 Rhode Island – 7 p.m.

Saturday, June 4 
Game 3 – Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2 – 12 noon
Game 4 – Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2 – 6 p.m.

Sunday, June 5 
Game 5 – Winner of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4 – 12 noon
Game 6 – Winner of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 4 – 6 p.m.

Monday, June 6 
Game 7 – If Necessary – 6 p.m.