University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Fordham
Rams Spoil Spiders Bid For Eighth-Straight A-10 Win
04/27/2007 | Baseball
April 27, 2007
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UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - Four runs by the Fordham in the top of the eighth broke the game open as the visitors went on to beat Richmond, 16-10, at Pitt Field Friday afternoon. Joe Mahoney went three-for-five with two RBI and a home run, but the Spiders saw their seven-game A-10 winning streak come to an end.
Richmond (25-18, 13-3) rallied with five runs across in the bottom of the ninth inning, but could not overcome the 10 runs scored by the Rams over the final two innings. The Rams (22-17, 10-6) hammered back-to-back homers in the ninth, the first being a grand slam by Chris Kaible, which proved to be the difference.
The Spiders' five-run ninth included a two-RBI ground-rule double by Matt McKenna and RBIs from Mahoney, Hank Coogan and Joe White. The Spiders' bottom of the order did a bulk of the damage as the five, six, seven and eight hitters collected six hits and eight RBIs. Coogan was three-for-five with an RBI, McKenna drove in three with a pair of hits, White drove in two with a hit and Cameron Brown had two RBIs.
The 26-run, 31-hit game overshadowed a solid outing by Fordham starter Cory Riordan (5-3), who fanned nine against one walk. He allowed four earned runs off nine hits to earn his third conference win of the season. Richmond freshman Matt Zielinski fell to 4-3, but struck out five against a walk. The lefty yielded five earned runs and 10 hits.
Kaible finished the game with seven RBIs to lead the Fordham attack. The inning before his grand slam, the DH smacked a three-run homer. All but one Ram in the starting line up posted a multi-hit game.
The Rams drew first blood, getting a solo home run over the left centerfield fence from Eric Reese in the third. But the Spiders dodged a bigger bullet in the inning, and kept the damage to just a run. With runners and first and second and one out, a slick fielding play by SS Victor Crogilo nailed the lead runner at third on a Bobby DiNardo ground ball deep in the hole. Zielinski worked Kaible to pop out to centerfield, and he escaped by just allowing a single run in the inning.
Reese extended the Rams' lead to 2-0 with a sac fly in the fourth that scored Keeny.
The equalizer for the Spiders came in the bottom of fifth with a pair of runs. After McKenna led off the inning by reaching on an error, White ripped an RBI triple to the wall in right center and then scored on a RBI ground out Brown.
The visitors tacked on four more in the top of the sixth, thanks in part to a Rich Goulian RBI double and a sac fly by DiNardo. A walk and hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded plated the other two Ram runs.
Richmond would chip away at the lead, getting two back in the bottom of the sixth and another in the seventh on a towering solo homer from Mahoney. The shot to right center was the team-leading 11th of the season for the Spiders' junior first baseman and pulled Richmond with one at 6-5.
Game two of the series is set for Pitt Field Saturday at 1 p.m.
