University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Charleston Southern
Long Balls From Coogan And Barber Launch Spiders Past Bucs, 7-5
03/15/2008 | Baseball
March 15, 2008
CHARLESTON, S.C. - A pair of ninth-inning home runs from Hank Coogan and Billy Barber broke a 5-5 tie and launched Richmond past Charleston Southern, 7-5, Saturday afternoon in Charleston, S.C. The duo each collected two homers on the day, after each hitting long balls yesterday. Ian Marshall pitched a gem, while Alex Hale picked up the victory.
Coogan lifted his fourth homer of the season to center field off Payton Tweddale to lead off the ninth and Barber did the same one hitter later. Tweddale picked up the save in Friday's game, but the Spiders turned the tables on the CSU closer and dropped him to 0-2.
Hale set the Buccaneers down in order in the ninth, including a strike out of Kory Morian to end it. The senior is now 4-0 for the Spiders, who improved to 6-11-1 overall and snapped a two-game skid.
Coogan finished four-for-five with two RBIs and scored three runs, while Ryan Metzroth, Joe White and Barber, who drove in four runs, each had two of Richmond's 12 hits.
The win, though, wasn't without late-inning drama.
Thanks to Marshall, Richmond cruised into the bottom of the seventh with a 5-0 lead before CSU (6-10) mounted a rally over the next two innings to draw even. The junior scattered five hits over 6.2 innings with nine strikeouts, no walks and left with a 5-2 lead in the seventh.
The nine Ks for Marshall is the most since he fanned 10 against Delaware on Feb. 24, 2007.
The Spiders had tacked three runs on the board in the top of the seventh on Barber's three-run bomb, but the Buccaneers ruined Marshall's shutout bid when Tyler Thornburg and Taylor Black each laced RBI doubles to end his day. Hale fanned Mark Perry to end the inning and preserve the lead.
But the Bucs continued to carve into Richmond's lead with three more runs in the eighth thanks to four singles, an error and a passed ball. Derek Smith singled through the left side scoring Steve Antolik from third. Later in the inning, after a passed ball moved two into scoring position, Nick Chinners cleared the bases and tied the game with a chopper through the right side that snuck past a diving Mike Mergenthaler and Chris Cuppia.
For the second straight game, a Coogan solo homer represented Richmond's first run. Saturday's he homered off starter Cody Higgins in the game's second at-bat after hitting a round-tripper in the third inning Friday.
Tacked to the early lead, Marshall made quick work of the Buccaneers over the first six innings. He faced just three batters over the minimum through six, allowing three hits and setting CSU down in order in both the fifth and sixth frames.
The junior weaseled his way out trouble in the third with runners at the corners and one out. It appeared the Spiders had picked up the second out when Tyler Black rolled an infield ground ball. But the umpires conferenced and it was ruled that Black's bat was interfered with by catcher Evan Stehle's glove and Black was awarded first. Perry singled in the next at bat, but Marshall fanned Morian and got Steve Antolik to pop up and end the inning.
Richmond's three-run seventh inning all came with two outs as Coogan and Metzroth each singled ahead of Barber's line-drive home run over the fence in left field.
Coogan and Barber have helped Richmond snap an extended early-season home run drought. As a team, the Spiders pounded out six homers in the season-opening win against UNC-Wilmington but hit just one in the next nine games combined. Barber homered in back-to-back games versus George Mason and Princeton, and since the Spiders have hit at least one long ball in five of the last eight games.
The rubber match of the three-game series begins at 1 p.m. Sunday in Charleston. The game will be played off-campus at Collins Park, not CSU's on-campus field.
