University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
George Washington
Trent's Gem Paces Spiders In Saturday Win Over GW, 7-6
04/17/2010 | Baseball
April 17, 2010
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND - Junior Matt Trent fired a seven-inning gem, Richmond held off a ninth-inning rally and led wire-to-wire in a 7-6 win over George Washington Saturday at Pitt Field. Mike Mergenthaler homered and Billy Barber extended his hitting streak to 22 games to pace the Spiders.
The victory improved Richmond to 17-16 overall and 4-7 in the Atlantic 10, while first-place GW slipped to 18-17, 8-3. The teams square off in the rubber match Sunday at 1 p.m.
Trent picked up his second-straight win (2-4) by fanning a career-high nine over seven innings of work. The junior allowed a first-inning solo homer, kept the Colonials scoreless over the next four innings and was aided by three key double plays turned by Richmond in the second, third and fourth innings.
The Spiders improved to 6-3 on Saturdays this year and have won three-straight Saturday tilts.
Richmond answered the Chris Luick solo homer in the first inning by scoring twice in the bottom half and never looking back. Barber wasted little time extending his A-10-leading and career-best hitting streak by singling through the left side to score Adam McConnell, who led off the game by reaching on a four-pitch walk. Cameron Brown followed with an RBI single after Barber swiped second.
With Trent rolling, Richmond padded its lead thanks to Mergenthaler's moonshot, and the sun. Mergenthaler's solo homer - his career-best eighth of the year - landed two rows deep in the Pitt Field parking lot and Evan Stehle followed with a two-RBI double that right-fielder Tyler McCarthy lost in the bright sun.
GW got one back in the sixth, but the Spiders got what proved to be much needed insurance with back-to-back RBI hits from Mergenthaler and Barber in the bottom half.
Mergenthaler, Barber and Stehle each had two of Richmond's nine hits.
After Trent allowed the first two Colonials to reach in the eighth, he turned the 7-2 lead over to his bullpen and junior Billy Falasco wrapped a groundout around two strikeouts to weasel out of trouble.
But the ninth inning got intriguing when Curtis Eward led off with a pinch-hit solo shot, and Falasco was pulled after two more Colonials reached with one out. Freshman lefty Shawn O'Neill worked a sacrifice fly from Luick in the only batter he faced and freshman Jolmi Minaya-Suriel watched Chris Holland lift a two-run homer to center that pulled GW within one.
A fly ball to deep center by Brendon Kelliher was the game's final out, securing the win for Trent and the first collegiate save for Minaya-Suriel. Joe Richardson yielded nine hits, seven runs in six innings and was tagged the loss (5-2).
Richmond played error-free ball for the sixth time this season and matched its season-high with three double plays turned.
