University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Yale
Spiders Use School-Record 26 Hits To Pour It On Yale
03/10/2007 | Baseball
March 10, 2007
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - The Richmond baseball team set a school record with 26 hits in a 23-7 victory over Yale on a 70-degree Saturday afternoon at Pitt Field in the first game of a three-game set.
The Spiders belted out 26 hits, which edges the previous school record of 25 on May 18, 2000 against James Madison. Richmond had not broken the 20-hit plateau in a game since May 9, 2002 against Virginia Tech, when the Spiders had 21 hits.
Richmond (5-8) had not scored over 20 runs since plating 21 on Feb. 22, 2004 against West Virginia. The school record fro runs in a game is 28 against George Washington in 1996.
"We had one of those games," Richmond head coach Ron Atkins said. "We put the ball in play and made them have to make some tough plays, combined with the fact a lot of those balls could have been caught, but dropped in."
Richmond had 12 hits to push across 12 runs through just two innings and surpassed its previous season high for hits (17) in the fifth inning. The Spiders struck out just three times in the game.
Junior Joe White had a career five hits, including a school-record four doubles in six at-bats, driving in three runs and scoring four times to lead the attack. Junior Joe Mahoney went 4-for-6 with three doubles and five RBIs, tying his career high for both hits and RBIs. It was Mahoney's third four-hit game of the season.
"I'm pleased we swung the bats well," Atkins said. "The guys have just got to be hungry at the plate. White and Mahoney had great days. We had 12 hits out of the first four hitters. That's something we haven't been getting."
Lead-off hitter Benji Marshall and two-hole hitter Hank Coogan each had three hits, Mahoney had four hits in the three slot and clean-up hitter Cameron Brown had two hits and two RBIs. Alex Wotring had three hits and drove in two runs, while Vince Riggi, Matt McKenna and Victor Croglio each had two hits.
"We had one of those games against Liberty earlier this year, when everything was dropping in for them," Atkins said. "This all goes for naught if we don't come out and play well tomorrow."
Richmond freshman Matt Zielinski earned his first collegiate win, going six innings, allowing six hits and four earned runs, while striking out a career-high nine.
"Zielinski pitched pretty well, he had that one bad inning, when he left the ball up a little more than I would have liked, but he pitched out of it," Atkins said.
The Spiders and Bulldogs play the second game of the three-game series on Sunday at 1 p.m. The third game is Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
