Dan Rhault was surprised to win the Atlantic 10 player of the year award and is excited about the possibility of being drafted next month, but for the next three days the University of Rhode Island shortstop is focusing only on winning the A-10 baseball championship.

“I’m happy where we are and that we got a first-round bye, but I’m personally disappointed we didn’t win the season,” Rhault said Tuesday from Dayton, Ohio, where the Rams won the championship in 2005.

URI (35-18-1, 19-6 A-10) finished second behind the tournament host, Dayton (37-17, 21-6), but swept the Flyers in a three-game series in Kingston at the beginning of April. The Rams have tied the school record for victories in a season.

“I think hands-down we’re the best team. We have the best pitching staff since I’ve been here,” Rhault said.

Second-seeded URI will play either third-seeded Xavier or sixth-seeded Charlotte Thursday afternoon at Fifth Third Field. Charlotte is the two-time defending champion. This is URI’s seventh consecutive appearance in the A-10 tournament, the best in the league.

Rhault, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound senior from Lincoln, is one of seven Rams recognized by the conference on Monday. He is hitting .393 with 11 home runs, 15 doubles, 57 RBI, 3 grand slams, 23 multiple-hit games, 14 multiple RBI games and a .667 slugging percentage. He ranks in the top six in the conference in nine categories.

“There were a lot of good kids on teams this year. I was surprised and happy. All those years of hard work paid off,” he said.

Coach Jim Foster said Rhault was always a confident fielder and his career took off midway through the 2008 season when he started swinging the bat with confidence “and he hasn’t stopped hitting.”

“I was always confident in high school, but when I got to college, I worried about mechanics. I was thinking too much,” Rhault said. “As a hitter, you can’t think too much at the plate. You have to trust your hands. So I threw it all out the window and trusted my ability. I stopped worrying.”

Foster is proud of Rhault and said “to be player of the year is very special.”

Rhault is the second Ram to be so honored. Dan Batz was the first in 2004.

Two other Rams from Rhode Island earned A-10 honors. Second baseman Oliver Palmer (North Kingstown) was named to the all-conference second team and catcher Milan Adams (Exeter/Bishop Hendricken) to the all-rookie team. Palmer is hitting .341 and leads the Rams with 49 runs, 33 extra-base hits, 20 doubles and 128 total bases. He is tied for the lead with 72 hits and 3 triples. A co-captain as a junior, he has a 3.69 GPA in communications and is the eighth player in URI baseball history to earn academic all-conference recognition.

“He’s the rock of our team,” Foster said. “He plays outstanding defense and hits with power. He’s an outstanding leader and kid. He’s a coach’s dream . . . the same kid every day, not up and down. He’s what a coach wants in a player.”

Adams stepped in when the returning catcher Rob Noe suffered a season-ending knee injury during fall ball. He is hitting .303 with 2 homers, 14 doubles and 21 RBI, and Foster said his performance is one of the keys to URI’s success.

“He has probably the toughest job on the team handling this pitching staff. I’m on top of him a lot because there’s nothing more important to me than the pitcher-catcher relationship. He has done a great job,” Foster, a catcher when he played, said.

The other Rams honored include pitcher Eric Smith (5-2, 3.38 ERA) on the first team, closer Luke Demko (1-5, 2.90, 11 saves) on the second team, pitcher Nick Greenwood (6-3, 3.74) honorable mention and third baseman Mike LeBel (.333, 7 homers, 39 RBI) on the all-rookie team.

Foster expects Smith, a junior who shut out No. 8 Miami on March 3, to be drafted in the first five rounds. “He is a very talented kid. He has a pro body and a pro arm . . . The scouts have been all over him this year,” the coach said.

Demko is a bulldog on the mound, Greenwood the best athlete on the team and LeBel a clutch hitter who has a good chance to be named Freshman All-America, he added.

Foster said his team is eager to begin the post-season after finishing the regular season on “cruise control” and losing three of its last five games, among them two at UMass.

“It’s going to be tough. Dayton is very good. Xavier is very good. There’s Charlotte. UMass swings the bat. Fordham gave us a tough series,” he said. “We need to do what we do well: pitch; be very aggressive; run the bases; get some two-out hits. And hopefully we’ll play at noon every day. That’s when the winners play.”

The double-elimination tournament will conclude Saturday at noon with a deciding game at 3:30, if necessary.