University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
La Salle
Williams, Mergenthaler Lead Richmond's Comeback Win Over La Salle
04/29/2011 | Baseball
April 29, 2011
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND - For the 15th time this season, the Richmond baseball team won in comeback fashion with a 5-2 victory over La Salle in the opener of a key Atlantic 10 series Friday at Pitt Field. Bret Williams gave the Spiders eight strong innings and Mike Mergenthaler launched a two-run homer for the Spiders, who scored the game's final four runs.
The victory improved fifth-place Richmond to 21-18-2 overall, 8-5 in the A-10, while second-place La Salle slipped to 23-16, 10-6.
Trailing 2-1 entering the bottom of the sixth, Richmond got the rally going when Matt Zink walked and JB Gadd singled. With two outs, Chris Cowell ripped a double off the wall to score Zink as the tying run and Gadd came home as the go-ahead score with Billy Barber's single.
Williams did the rest as the sophomore lefty improved to 6-1 overall (3-1 in the A-10) and lowered his ERA 3.00, which leads the starting rotation. After allowing the Explorers to take a 2-1 lead in the fourth, Williams faced just two batters over the minimum over his final four innings of work. He scattered five hits and one walk over his eight innings with five strikeouts.
Junior Alex Maffett worked around two singles in the ninth inning to nail down his team leading fifth save.
Of Richmond's 15 come-from-behind triumphs this season, eight - including Friday's - have come when the Spiders have trailed in the fifth inning or later.
The 29th career home run from Mergenthaler gave the Spiders insurance in the eighth inning. Gadd reached on a fielder's choice ahead of Mergenthaler, who launched a towering two-run shot off La Salle starter Kevin Fuqua into the trees in deep left-center field.
Mergenthaler, who moved to eighth on Richmond's all-time RBI list (154), also picked up his conference-leading eighth outfield assist of the season as he gunned down Marc Schoch on a force-play at second base in the ninth inning.
Schoch's solo homer in the second inning allowed La Salle to take a 1-0 lead, but Richmond quickly answered in the bottom half with an RBI single from Bryan Conway that scored Barber.
Fuqua went the distance for the Explorers, but was pinned the loss (4-4) as he allowed nine hits, five runs with eight strikeouts.
The series continues Saturday at Pitt Field at 2 p.m.
