University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Charlotte
Cowell's Homer Ties Game In Eighth, But Charlotte Rallies For Series Win
05/22/2010 | Baseball
May 22, 2010
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND - Chris Cowell launched a game-tying three-run home run in the eighth inning, but Charlotte pushed a run across in the ninth to seal a 5-4 win over Richmond Saturday in the Spiders' 2010 regular-season finale at Pitt Field.
The victory also clinched the series for the 49ers, who improved to 37-15 overall and 20-7 in the Atlantic 10 and will be the league's top seed for the A-10 Baseball Championship that begins next weekend. Richmond finished the year 24-28, 10-17.
Junior Matt Trent gave the Spiders another quality start, striking out nine 49ers and allowed four runs and three walks over seven innings. He turned a 4-1 deficit over to his bullpen and Cowell's, game-tying three-run blast in the eighth inning took Trent off the hook for the loss.
Charlotte seized an early 2-0 lead in the first inning and stretched the advantage to 3-0 in the second before the Spiders scratched across a run in the third thanks to Mike Mergenthaler's RBI.
The score remained 3-1 until the seventh when Justin Wilson singled home Charlotte's fourth run.
Richmond got things going in the eighth when Cameron Brown walked to lead off the frame, followed by a Mergenthaler single. Charlotte turned to Bryan Hamilton and Cowell ripped the 0-2 offering over the left-field wall to tie the game at 4-4.
Cowell finished his sophomore season with a career-best 17 homers -- tied for the sixth on the Spiders' single-season list and the most by a Spider since Joe Mahoney's 17 in 2007.
But the 49ers had the final answer. Shane Brown led off the ninth with an infield single, stole second, moved to third on an error and scored the go-ahead run with a single from Corey Shaylor.
Jared Bard was tagged the loss for Richmond (3-2), while Hamilton blew his first save, but picked up the win (4-0).
On Senior Day, senior Victor Croglio had three of Richmond's nine hits, while Billy Barber went two-for-four and finished his junior season hitting .372 - Richmond's highest single-season average since Ben Zeskind batted .379 in 2006.
