TORONTO - A scorching Sunday afternoon at Stan Wadlow park brought a lot of highs, and a lot of lows for a struggling Ryerson Rams baseball team. Entering Sunday having lost five consecutive games, it was imperative for the Rams to win at least one of their two games against the Queen's Gaels. They wasted no time doing so.

Game 1: Ryerson 3, Queen's 1
Pitching and the long ball propelled the Rams to a win in game one of the twin bill.

On the hill, Justin Stonkus got the start for Ryerson. He silenced the Gaels bats, going four strong innings, allowing just one run on three hits. His effort allowed the Rams to get out to an early lead. An Andrew Ciuffreda RBI-single gave Ryerson a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, and then an Anthony Fera solo shot extended the lead to 2-0 in the third.

However, the Rams ran into some trouble in the top of the fifth. With Stonkus out of the game and the lead having been cut down to one, reliever Francesco Giordano hit back-to-back batters with two out in the inning. But, Max Dieks came on and got a monumental strikeout to preserve the lead.

"I really needed to get us that out," Dieks said about the punchout. "Keeping the lead to put us in a good position to get that first win was huge."

Dieks would go on to get five more outs, before Logan Kerry would get the final out in the top of the seventh to clinch the win for the Rams.

"That's what we've come to expect from him," pitching coach Jon Rubin said about Dieks's effort. "He's been a really good high leverage, situational pitcher for us. It was good to see him do what he does best."

The win was an extremely memorable one for outfielder Mitch Fiacco, who slugged his first career OUA home run to pad the Rams lead in the bottom of the sixth.

"It felt awesome," Fiacco said about the blast. "I didn't go up there trying to do too much, just doing everything I work on in practice."

It is also worth noting that the defence, which has struggled at times this season, did not commit an error during the game. All around, it was a flawless effort from the Rams. 

Game 2: Queen's 10, Ryerson 2
This one was ugly.

From the get-go, it was obvious that this was not Ryerson's game to win. Starting pitcher Matt Tohana was the victim of bad luck, with multiple ground balls finding holes. The Gaels consistently put the ball in play against him, as it was obvious he did not have his best stuff. He would go four innings, allowing four runs (three earned).

The fifth inning was an entirely different monster. Heading into the inning trailing 4-1, the game was still within reach. However, Jack Little and Mark Rizzotto both struggled out of the bullpen. The two would combine to give up four runs in what was an extremely long inning.

Offensively, the Rams could not solve Queen's starter Gavin Ronan. Ronan went six innings, allowing two runs on just two hits.

Ryerson's defence, which had not committed an error in the first game, committed four in the second game, including an ugly sequence in the fifth where Tohana, playing shortstop, and left fielder Spencer Snow committed errors on the same play.

"You've got to have a short memory in this league," said Rubin, acknowledging his teams' struggles in the second game. "We just have to look forward to next weekend."

Now sitting at 6-7, the Rams will face off next weekend against the Laurentian Voyageurs on Saturday, and the Waterloo Warriors on Sunday.