Baseball winning streak ends, team still positive

The University of Richmond baseball team's 11-game winning streak ended last week after losing to the George Mason Patriots.

Although the Patriots were able to walk off of Pitt Field victorious, that didn't change the mindset of the Spiders heading into this weekend's series against Princeton.

"We went into the Princeton series with a ton of confidence coming off the winning streak," redshirt junior Adam McConnell said. "But we also knew about their depth and the challenges we were up against."

Redshirt junior Matt Zink said: "I think after losing the George Mason game to end the streak, the team came out with a really positive attitude on Friday, and we were able to pick up the win. All teams go into a weekend series looking to win the series and take at least two out of three games, so obviously there was some disappointment there."

The Spiders lost to Princeton's top two pitchers on Saturday and Sunday, both of whom are considered professional prospects, but not for lack of offense.

The Spiders lost the games 21-14 and 15-9. The team has been held to fewer than six runs only twice this season, one of which was a 3-0 win over Quinnipiac.

"I'm not necessarily a believer in moral victories," Zink said, "but our offense is really hitting stride, and our team as a whole displayed some obvious promise over this past weekend."

The Spiders has been a streaky team so far this season as it lost its first three games, and then went on its 11-game winning streak.

But after the Princeton series, it dropped three of its last four. That hasn't affected its positive mentality though.

"The past four games have been relatively the same as those during the win streak," Zink said. "The attitude has always been positive and confident in the dugout and will continue to be.

"I think we just ran into a team that was coming off a tough series against the defending national champion in South Carolina All in all, Princeton was probably the most talented offensive team we have faced thus far and did just enough defensively to allow them to win those ballgames."

McConnell said: "We are still putting together consistent innings at the plate and throwing the ball well. We averaged 10 runs a game against Princeton against a few of the better arms in the country who held South Carolina to one and three runs.

"It's a long season, and there are going to be days when we don't have our best performances, but the teams that play their best most consistently are the ones that go deep into the postseason, and I know we'll bounce back in the coming weeks."

The Spiders will play a three-game series against Northeastern this weekend.

Contact reporter Matt Dunn at matt.dunn@richmond.edu