Cook's Grand Slam Lifts Spiders Over Mount Saint Mary's

Sunday, February 28

Noon

University of Richmond

4-0

Mount St. Mary's (Md.)

0-4

Mount Saint Mary's

Richmond

Photo by: Spiders Athletics

Cook's Grand Slam Lifts Spiders Over Mount Saint Mary's

02/28/2021 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

RICHMOND, Va. – After falling behind early to the Mount Saint Mary's Mountaineers Sunday afternoon, the Spiders got some quality at bats to load the bases and a clutch home run from redshirt senior Justin Cook (Virginia Beach, Va.) to take the lead and complete the four-game sweep over The Mount. The sweep of an opponent at Pitt Field is the first since March 29-31 2019, a three-game Atlantic 10 series against George Mason.

"I'm really proud of the way this team fought this weekend." Head coach Tracy Woodson said, "To beat the same team four-straight games is really tough, and to do it the way we did shows how versatile this team can be. We had solid pitching performances from everyone on Friday. Yesterday, we had to battle back, played some small ball and got some clutch base hits. Today, we got to see how explosive our lineup could be when given the opportunity. Justin (Cook) has been an everyday guy for us for a couple years, but with the depth of this team, he didn't get in every game this weekend. He definitely made the most of his opportunities when he did get in and we're going to need that throughout the season."

Along with the grand slam, Cook drove in another run early in the game for five RBI in total, tying a career-high. He finished the afternoon 3-for-5 and scored a run. Dan Leckie (Suffield, Conn.) hit a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth and finished 1-for-3 with a walk, an RBI and scored twice. Drew Blakely (Galesburg, Mich.) added a hit and scored twice in the win. Alden Mathes (Broomall, Pa.) drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

Brenden Argomaniz (Claremont, Calif.) got the ball to start Sunday. The Orange Coast College product went 4.0 innings, scattering five hits and four earned runs to go with two strikeouts in his Spider debut. Jeremy Neff (West Palm Beach, Fla.) finished the game strong, giving up a run in the fifth but putting up zeros over the final four innings. He finished with 5.0 innings pitched, allowing three hits, and struck out six.

The Mount got on the board first with a grand slam in the top of the second inning.

Richmond got a run back in the bottom of the frame, Blakely got the rally going knocking a single to right center. After an Anthony Forte (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) walk, Cook singled through the left side to bring home Blakely and get Richmond on the board.

The Mount took advantage of a lead-off triple in the top of the fifth, bringing the run in on a sacrifice fly to extend the lead back to four. The Spiders got that run back in the bottom of the frame as Ciufo reached after being hit by a pitch and fly balls from Rinaldi and Mathes brought him in.

Richmond took the lead for good in the bottom of the sixth. Blakely again got it going, this time wearing a 2-1 pitch off the back. Leckie and Ciufo each worked full counts before walking to load the bases. After Mount Saint Mary's went to the bullpen, Cook sent the first pitch he saw from the new pitcher over the wall in center field to clear the bases and put the Spiders up 6-5. Leckie added an insurance run on his first Spider home run in the bottom of the eighth.

The Spider are back in action on Friday as they head to George Mason for a non-conference game with the Patriots at Spuhler Field. They'll return to Pitt Field for the next two games, playing VMI at 11 a.m. on the 6^th, and hosting Central Michigan on the 8^th.

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