Ninth Inning Rally Falls Short Friday Night Against Saint Louis

Friday, May 17

Pitt Field

3 PM

University of Richmond

26-23-1, 12-8

Saint Louis

25-27, 12-10

Saint Louis

Richmond

Photo by: Keith Lucas

Ninth Inning Rally Falls Short Friday Night Against Saint Louis

05/17/2019 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

RICHMOND, Va. – After clinching a spot in the Atlantic 10 Tournament yesterday, Richmond baseball's comeback attempt came up short Friday night at Pitt Field against the visiting Saint Louis Billikens. The Spiders scored two run in the top of the ninth inning and brought the winning run to the plate, but couldn't find the knock it needed, falling 9-7. The Spiders fall to 26-23-1 and 12-8 in Atlantic 10 play. Saint Louie improves to 25-27 and 13-10 in league action.

Richmond used five pitchers in Friday's loss. Redshirt senior Brendan McGuigan (Austin, Texas) got the start, going 4.2 innings, allowing six earned runs and striking out seven hitters. Garrett Aylor (Austin Texas) was the first out of the bullpen, going 1.1 shutout innings. Dalton Light (Atlanta, Ga.) hurled a pair of scoreless innings before giving way to Brian Craven (Hingham, Mass.). Craven allowed a couple hits and three runs before handing the ball to Matt Olson (Mableton, Ga.) who got a strikeout and didn't allow an inherited runner to score in the ninth.

The Spider offense that was so good at going for extra bases on Thursday night was limited to just two extra-base hits in Friday's contest, a pair of doubles from Daniel Little (Nicholasville, Ky.) and Kyle Schmidt (Smithville, Texas). Little finished the day 3-for-3 with a double, an RBI, scored a run drew a walk. Schmidt added a 2-for-5 game, scoring a run and driving in a run. Johnny Hipsman (Chester, N.Y.) added the other multi-hit effort, going for two hits and scoring once.

The Spiders used some small ball to get on the board in the third inning. Little and A.J. Kloehn (Canton, Ohio) reached on bunt singles to put runners on the corners. Jordan Schulefand (Parkland, Fla.) dropped down a bunt single of his own to plate the first run of the afternoon. After a sacrifice bunt moved runners to second and third, and Tyler Plantier (Poway, Calif.) lifted a fly ball to right field deep enough to score Kloehn and put Richmond up 2-0.

Saint Louis got on the board in the next half inning, scoring two more runs. A lead-off hit batter and a walk put a couple runners on for Jake Garella who doubled down the third baseline to bring in a pair and tie the game at 2.

Richmond regained the lead in the fourth inning with a one-out rally. Hipsman singled and moved up when Justin Cook (Virginia Beach, Va.) drew a walk. Little got the barrel in front to drive a double to the gap in right center to put the Spiders in front. Kloehn followed with a fly ball to centerfield deep enough to score Cook and put the Spiders up 4-2.

The lead was short-lived as the Billikens took a two-run advantage on one swing in the fifth. With the bases loaded, Garella went the opposite way with an outside pitch to put Saint Louis up 6-4 after four and a half innings.

UR cut the lead down to one in the bottom of the sixth as a bases loaded wild pitch brought in Schmidt to cut the lead to 6-5.

Saint Louis added a couple insurance runs in the top of the ninth, getting a three-run home run from Ben Livorsi to extend the lead to 9-5.

Richmond rallied in the ninth inning as Sage Bruhl (Northbrook, Ill.) reached on an error to ignite the rally. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases and a wild pitch allowed Bruhl to score. Schmidt missed a home run by about three feet as his double with two runners on hit off the top of the wall, bringing in a run to cut the lead to 9-7. A strikeout and a ground out ended the inning with the tying run on second base.

The Spiders and Billikens close out the regular season tomorrow at noon at Pitt Field. Richmond will honor its 10 seniors in a ceremony prior to the rubber game of this three-game series.

-- UR --