University settles lawsuit in baseball player's 2011 death

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) The family of a University of Rhode Island baseball player who died after a team workout has received $1.45 million in a settlement with the university and its insurance carrier.

An attorney for Joseph P. Ciancola III's mother said Thursday that the settlement in her wrongful-death lawsuit was reached Jan. 8, days before the case was set to go to trial.

The 20-year-old student from Orange, Connecticut, suffered an unspecified medical emergency and collapsed during an Oct. 24, 2011, team preseason workout. He died in a hospital three days later.

Her attorney, Patrick Barry, says the settlement ends a ''hard-fought'' legal dispute over a ''tragic death.''

The university's athletic director says Ciancola will continue to be a part of the university family through a scholarship being established in his memory.