Richmond loses to Tribe after ninth inning rally

A five-run first inning was not enough to lift the University of Richmond baseball team to its first win in four games as the Spiders fell to the College of William & Mary, 9-7.

Freshman Tadd Bower hit a home run to straight-away centerfield in the top of the ninth to give the Tribe the win. The home run came off of senior Brian Alas, who suffered his first loss of the year.

"One pitch caught too much of the plate," Alas said. "I let the team down today. But you got to get back on the horse."

Freshman Stephen Arcure added an insurance run with a single through the left side to make it a 9-7 game.

Junior Cameron Brown started the ninth for Richmond with a double and advanced to third on a passed ball. With two outs, freshman Ryan Mallory walked, bringing up freshman Robby Massar as the winning run, but he grounded out to third base to end the game.

One night after getting one-hit by William & Mary, the University of Richmond baseball team came out with hot hitting.

The Tribe scored a run in the top of the first, and Richmond responded with five runs in its first turn up. Freshman Adam McConnell hit a solo home run to start the inning.

Sophomore Mike Mergenthaler hit a two-run home run to give the Spiders a 3-1 lead. Freshman Robby Masser hit a two-run double to cap the scoring for Richmond in the first inning.

Richmond extended the lead to 6-1 in the second inning when senior Ryan Metzroth drove in McConnell on a sacrifice fly to right field.

"I think we got too comfortable," Richmond coach Mark McQueen said. ""We didn't focus as well as we should have once we got the lead. We need to keep putting the pressure on."

The Tribe chipped away at the lead over the next few innings before scoring two in the sixth inning to tie the game at six. The Tribe made the game 6-5 when Arcure scored on a throwing error by Bryan Conway and it was tied when senior Jeff Jones hit a RBI double off the left field wall.

Metzroth gave the lead back to Richmond in the next inning with a RBI single up the middle. Richmond had a chance to score more in that inning as the bases were loaded and there was one out. Mergenthaler grounded into a double play to end the rally for the Spiders.

Once again, the Tribe came back to tie the game in the top of the seventh. A groundout to the second baseman by freshman Chris Forsten brought home the tying run.

This is the fourth consecutive loss for Richmond, and the Spiders are now 13-9 on the year. William and Mary improved to 10-15.

Richmond now heads to the University of Saint Louis for a three-game weekend series.

"It's going to be a tough weekend," McQueen said. "But it's going to show us what we are made of."

Contact staff writer Andrew Prezioso at andrew.prezioso@richmond.edu