University of Richmond Athletics
Baseball Hosting VCU Thursday At Pitt Field
04/16/2009 | Baseball
April 16, 2009
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - The Richmond baseball team is back in action today at Pitt Field, hosting cross-town rival VCU at Pitt Field. First pitch is slated for 3:30 p.m. in what will be the Rams first visit to the West End since the 2006 season.
• The past weekend kicked off an eight-game homestand for the Spiders, that also includes today's game versus VCU, A-10 rival Duquesne this weekend and Commonwealth rival Old Dominion on April 22. The Spiders are home just four times after ODU.
• Saturday's game versus Duquesne is "Porter Vaughan Day" at Pitt Field. The late Porter Vaughan, who played for the Spiders, and then professionally with the Philadelphia Atheltics in the 1940s, will be recognized in a pregame ceremony.
• Richmond enters the week 14-15 overall and 4-8 in the A-10, but could make up ground over the next two weekends versus Duquesne and St. Bonaventure -- the combined record of those two clubs is 23-35 overall, 8-14 in the league. The Dukes are at Pitt Field this weekend starting Friday at 3 p.m. The Spiders are 5.5 games back of A-10 leader Temple and just 2.5 back of sixth place (the top six make the A-10 tournament).
• Inclement weather has washed out the last two Richmond-VCU tilts at Pitt Field in both the 2007 and 2008 season, so today's game marks the Rams first trek to UR since April 11, 2006. VCU leads the all-time series 39-33 and has won 10-straight over Richmond -- the Spiders' last win was March 13, 2004.
• Freshman 2B Adam McConnell batted a team-leading .588 (10-for-17) over Richmond's four games last week and climbed to the team lead with his .358 average on the season. He's swiped 16 bases in 21 attempts to rank second in the A-10. Senior RF Ryan Metzroth leads the team in RBI (27) and junior 3B Cameron Brown leads in home runs (6).
• A gem by sophomore RHP Anthony Cafagna (pictured) on Sunday helped lift the Spiders to an 8-4 win over Dayton in the series finale. Cafagna went a career-long 6.1 innings and scattered five hits with one walk and five Ks to earn his third win of the season (3-2), tying Josh Horn for the team lead in win (3-1).
