Rhode Island dropped its Atlantic 10 tournament opener Wednesday against St. Joseph's, but staved off elimination with a 6-5 win against Massachusetts later in the day.

The Rams, who finished third in the regular-season standings, need to run through the loser's bracket to win the A-10 tournament in order to advance to regionals, but their spring has already been a special one. The Rams have dedicated their season to Joe Ciancola, a URI righthander who died after a preseason conditioning workout in October.

To honor Ciancola's memory, the Rhode Island players decided to abstain from cutting their hair until the end of the season, in a nod to Ciancola's distinctive head of hair, which his teammates referred to as his "flow." We first wrote about the "Flow for Joe" initiative in December and promised to update their progress with photos in the spring.

URI sports information director Jodi Pontbriand took a final round of photos of the shaggy Rams this week and sent them along.

Joe would surely be proud—of his teammates' wild hair as well as the way they responded to tragedy and posted a spirited 33-24 season. And it's not over yet.