University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Dayton
Richmond Baseball Strikes Early, But Dayton Rallies For 9-7 Win
04/26/2008 | Baseball
April 26, 2008
DAYTON, Ohio - Richmond allowed an early 5-0 lead to slip away and Dayton rallied with five unanswered runs to beat the Spiders, 9-7, Saturday afternoon in Dayton, Ohio. The loss evens the teams' critical three-game Atlantic 10 baseball series, with Sunday's rubber-match set for noon. Ryan Metzroth had two hits and two RBI for the Spiders.
Metzroth, Austin Reilly, Hank Coogan and Derek Boliek each had a pair of hits for the visitors, who pounded out 12 in the contest. But Dayton broke a 7-7 tie in the eighth, getting a pinch-hit RBI triple off the right-field wall from Jimmy Roesinger, who then scored on a wild pitch. Closer Burney Mitchem finished off the Spiders with four strikeouts over the final 2.2 shutout innings.
The Spiders fell to 16-23-2 overall, 7-9-1 in the A-10, while the Flyers improved to 25-17, 8-9.
Richmond unleashed a home-run flurry in the first inning and matched the number runs it scored in Friday's 5-0 win over Dayton. With runners at the corners, Metzroth got the scoring started thanks to his RBI ground out. Then in three consecutive at-bats, the Spiders went yard with Billy Barber's two-run bomb sailing over the fence in center, Mike Mergenthaler's solo homer to right and Reilly's solo shot to left.
The five runs in the first - all coming with two outs - were the most scored by the Spiders in an opening inning since striking for seven against Temple in a 15-6 win April 14, 2007. It also marked Richmond's first three-homer inning since tagging Towson in the sixth inning of last year's 15-2 win.
But UD starter Quinn Halselhorst settled in after the first, while the Flyers' offense got cranking. Jake Hoover launched a solo homer off Alex Hale that was part of a two-run second inning and UD pulled within a run in the fourth on the two-run double from Max Navalinski - his third RBI of the game.
Meztroth's second RBI of the game - a sac fly to score Coogan made the score 6-4 in the fifth, Hale fanned the side in the bottom of the frame and the Spiders pushed another run across in the sixth on White's RBI double down the right-field line.
Three runs by the Flyers in the sixth tied the score at 7-7. Jacob Spaeth and Kevin Miller each collected RBI singles in the inning as Dayton rallied for the equalizer off Hale, but two of the three runs were unearned after the Spiders committed their first two errors of the series early in the inning.
Hale fanned six in six innings of work, but gave up seven runs (five earned) on nine hits and turned the game over to Stephen Owens to start the seventh. Owens retired the first four batters he faced and Daniel Clark took over after a one-out single in the eighth.
Clark allowed the go-ahead triple from Roesinger, but the runner was Owens' responsibility and he was tagged the loss (2-4).
Sunday's finale is set for a noon ET start, with live coverage on Gametracker.
