University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
*at St. Bonaventure
Ninth Inning Comeback Win Caps 2006 Season For Spiders
05/20/2006 | Baseball
May 20, 2006
OLEAN, N.Y. - The Spiders capped off their 2006 season by scoring seven unanswered runs over the last three innings Saturday to top St. Bonaventure, 8-7, in Olean, N.Y. Richmond, which was eliminated from Atlantic 10 Tournament contention Friday, finishes its 2006 season with a mark 22-33 overall and 12-15 in the Atlantic 10.
Senior Ben Zeskind led-off the game with his team-leading 10th homerun of the season to give the Spiders a 1-0 lead. St. Bonaventure tied the contest in the bottom half thanks to two wild pitches from Spider starter freshman Ian Marshall. The Gaithersburg, Md., native finished his day of work by allowing seven runs on seven hits and three walks. The righthander also struckout two in his 4.2 innings on the mound.
SBU's Matt Agostinelli was phenomenal through the remainder of his 6.2 innings of work. After giving up the homer to Zeskind, the righthander sit down Richmond in order into the fourth. The Spiders did not notch their second hit of the game until the fifth when sophomore Hank Coogan singled to rightfield. Richmond threatened in the same inning, placing runners at first and third with two outs. Junior Benji Marshall tried stealing second, and drew a throw from the catcher, allowing Coogan to take off for home. The throw back home was in time as Coogan missed the plate and was tagged on his way back to touch the plate ending the inning.
Meanwhile, in the string of scoreless innings for Richmond, St. Bonaventure was wracking up runs thanks to a double and back-to-back homers in both the second and fifth innings, to take a 7-1 lead into the sixth.
Sophomore Brian Alas came on with two outs in the fifth and proceeded to allow just two hits and a walk over the next 2.1 innings. The Port Washington, N.Y., native also fanned one in his 27th appearance of the season.
Richmond started getting to Agostinelli in the seventh, recording two-straight two-out basehits, capped off by a two-run double from junior Benji Marshall and the next from sophomore Benji Marshall single through the leftside, before Metzroth drove Benji Marshall in with a double to left-center making it a two-run ballgame, 7-5.
The Spiders picked up where they left off in the top half of the eighth, capping their comeback with a two-run inning. Junior Alex Wotring led-off the inning with a single, then came around to score on freshman Cameron Brown's third homerun of the season. The Troy, N.Y., native hit a line drive screamer to the left-center gap which just cleared the fence. The round-tripper marked the first game-tying homerun of his career and his sixth game-tying RBI of the season.
Senior Jason Bolinski came on in the eighth in his final appearance in a Spider uniform. The Hockessin, Del., native allowed a one-out basehit, but got out of the inning stranding one Bonnie giving Richmond a chance in the ninth.
The Spiders continued to apply pressure in the ninth. McKenna reached a bunt single before Benji Marshall laid down an attempted sac-bunt, but reached after beating the throw to first. Junior Anthony Sandstrom got McKenna over to third with a slash groundball to the shortstop, and reached first on a slow relay to first for the double-play. St. Bonaventure then elected to intentionally walk Zeskind, who finished the series 5-for-12 (.417), and face Wotring with the bases loaded.
The junior designated hitter again made an opponent pay by hitting a groundball to the rightside, which allowed McKenna to score on the fielder's choice for the go-ahead run. The six-run rally tied Richmond's largest come-from-behind effort of the season and was the largest deficit overcome through nine innings this season.
Bolinski came back on in the ninth and struckout the first two he faced before inducing a flyout to left to end the game. Bolinski picked up his third win in 2006 and 18th in his career by working two innings of one-hit shutout relief.
Richmond ended it season with a win and rallied to beat the second-seeded team in the upcoming Atlantic 10 Tournament. The Spiders, who snapped a four-game losing skid with the win Saturday, finished 2006 with a mark of 22-33 and 12-15 in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Game Notes
-- Senior Jason Bolinski garnered his third win in 2006, and his 18th career win by working two innings of one-hit shutout relief.
-- Senior Ian Marshall. The duo allowed just three hits over the final 4.1 innings of play.
-- The six-run rally tied the biggest deficit overcome in a win for the Spiders this season, and marked the largest deficit erased through nine innings this season.
-- Freshman Cameron Brown's drove in his sixth game-tying RBI of the season and his first game-tying homer in the eighth.
-- Junior Alex Wotring made another team pay for walking Zeskind to face him in the ninth. The Bethesda, Md., native drove in the go-ahead run with a fielder's choice to the rightside with the bases loaded Saturday. Earlier this season Wotring hit a grand-slam at James Madison after the Dukes walked Zeskind intentionally to get to him.
-- Junior Matt McKenna finished the St. Bonaventure series with a .500 average (5-for-12).
