Spiders drop first of weekend series to Huskies, 15-10

The University of Richmond baseball team lost, 15-10, to Northeastern University today in the first of a three-game series this weekend.

"Clearly, pitching defense has been hurting us," Richmond first baseman Bryan Conway said. "We're giving them extra outs. We're confident we can get the outs." This problem showed up in the third and seventh innings.

In the top of the third inning, Richmond pitcher Jacob Mayers narrowly avoided a line drive. He gave up two home runs the next two at bats, giving the Huskies a 6-1 lead. Mayers fought back, giving up no runs in the next three innings.

In the seventh inning, pitching again fell apart for the Spiders. They replaced Mayers with sophomore Dylan Stoops, who quickly gave up two runs before he was replaced as well. Ray Harron took over for the rest of the game. By the end of the inning, the Huskies had scored nine runs.

Richmond coach Mark McQueen remains confident in his pitchers.

"We've been getting good starting pitching," McQueen said. He said Mayers had pulled his hamstring and that it would affect his playing.

"Our relievers need to come in and stop the bleeding," he said. "We can't give up the big innings like that."

Despite the loss, the Spiders seemed confident in their abilities to win the next two games.

Conway said, "We never gave up, and we scored a lot of runs."

The Spiders play Northeastern again tomorrow at 2 p.m.

Contact staff writer Brennen Lutz at brennen.lutz@richmond.edu