This was, to put it lightly, less than an ideal home opener.

Rhode Island (9 -15, 0-3 Atlantic 10) useda four-run fifth inning-keyed by first baseman Jason Chamsarian's tworun home run off freshman starter Justin Nyweide--to break open a 2-2 tie, then fought off a late Harvard rush to win 6-5 yesterday at O'Donnell Field.

Rams left fielder Ryan Cooney laced an RBI double to score Scullin with the go- ahead run, then Chamsarian followed by pasting Nyweide's offering into a gusty right-field wind and over the 370' sign for his fifth of the season .

Three batters later, designated hitter Steve Lemiux drove a two-out RBI single up the middle off reliever Mike Giampaolo for a 6-2 URI lead.

The loss marked the first for the Crimson (9-9, 3-1 Ivy) at home since the 1997 playoff, a streak of 16 consecutive wins. In a highly unusal fashion , the Crimson got 14 hits but squandered severl late-inning coring chances, stranding 12 runners and left the base loaded in the eigth.

"Five runs on 14 hits, that's not a Harvard line score," said senior centor fielder Andrew Huling, who finished 3-for-3 with a home run and two runs scored.

"We're used getting, say, eight runs on eight hit, but we've been having some trouble getting the big hit lately."

Harvard challenged in the sixth, seventh and eigth innings, but managed only three runs while leaving five men aboard in those frames.

:Situational hitting is something we work on at every practice," Walsh said. "But we're just not putting pressure on teams, we're not doing the things we talk about doing in certain situations."

Trailing 6-5 in the eighth, the Crimson had its best chance to move ahead when cosecutive singles by captain HalCarey and freshman third baseman Mark Mager, plus a four-pitch walk to Huling , left the bases loaded with two outs for senior catcher Jason Keck.

Keck was 2-for-4 with a run scored at that point in the game, but URI reliver Rudy Bulgar got him to ground out to third baseman Lee McCarthy, squashing the rally.

Buglar pitched a perfectninth for his first save of the season, finishing with four hits and one unearned run in 3.2 innings.

Harvard had scored a pair in the sixth close to 6-4, getting an RBI single from sophomore left fielder John Portman and a run-scoring fielder's choice from Mager.

But with men on first and third and two out for Huling in the cleanup slot, Bulgar picked Mager off first base on his second straight throw over. URI starter Lenny Whitten had also picked off Carey in the first.

Whitten(1-2) earned the win despite a gory line, giving up four earned runs and 10 hits in 5.1 innings.

Harvard managed just one unarned run from a bard-luck seventh inning, which started with back-to-back singles by Huling and Keck.