University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
VMI
VMI Shuts Down Richmond, 5-1, In Baseball
04/19/2007 | Baseball
April 18, 2007
LEXINGTON, Va. - A Joe Mahoney home run was all Richmond could muster in falling 5-1 at VMI Wednesday night at Gray-Minor Stadium in Lexington, Va. The Spiders are now 22-16 overall and return to action this weekend at Duquesne in a three-game A-10 series that begins Friday afternoon in Pittsburgh, Pa.
VMI opened an early 3-0 lead, getting a pair of runs in the bottom of the third on back-to-back RBI doubles from Thane Smith and Robert Crumpler. Richmond had threatened in the the top of the third as Cameron Brown and Victor Croglio lead off the inning with a pair of singles. But the Spiders left the bases loaded without plating a run.
Another double, this time by Michael Roberts in the bottom of the fifth scored another VMI run.
Mahoney's team-leading ninth home run of the season was the only answer Richmond had. The Spiders collected just five hits, while allowing the Keydets to pound out 12 hits and score five times in the victory.
VMI (28-10) tacked on two more in the bottom of the eighth to ice its 20th home victory of the season and take the season series from the Spiders.
Starting pitcher Chris Duty went six innings, scattered four hits and fanned eight against three walks to improve to 4-2. Richmond freshman Matt Trent came on in relief of starter Alex Hale and allowed two runs in two innings of work. He was tagged with the loss, dropping his record to 1-4. Corey Bachman struck out two in 2.1 innings of scoreless and hitless work to earn his fourth save.
Eddied Van Es led VMI by going four-for-five with a run scored. Benji Marshall extended his hitting streak to a team-leading eight games by going two-for-five in the leadoff spot for Richmond.
Friday's game at Duquesne begins at 4 p.m. ET. The game will mark Richmond's first outside the Commonwealth of Virginia since March 4th at Wichita State, snapping a stretch of 28 consecutive games within the Virginia borders.
