After shocking No. 1 Florida State in the second game of a three-game series last weekend, one would imagine the Cavalier baseball team would be ready to destroy Richmond, a squad that entered yesterday's contest at Virginia with a seven-game losing streak.
However, the in-state rival Spiders bombarded the injury-plagued Cavaliers (15-18-1, 3-6 ACC) for 18 hits and a 16-8 upset at U.Va. Baseball Field yesterday.
Pitching woes seemed to mark the day for the Cavaliers, as they gave up 16 runs through the first five innings. After Richmond shelled the four previous hurlers, Virginia coach Dennis Womack resorted to letting infielder Eric Christensen take the mound. In two innings of work, Christensen gave up seven earned runs on six hits and four walks.
"Anytime you give up 16 runs in the first five innings and you are reduced down to pitching a middle infielder, who had not had a lot of bullpens, it is really disappointing," Womack said.
Virginia threw eight pitchers throughout the game, and only three lasted more than one inning. The Cavs made five pitching changes in the first five innings and three of those came in the third.
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The Spiders then went on to hammer Cav pitchers Poppert, Mark Hurrie, Greg Hansard and Christensen for 13 more runs.
Down 16-2 in the top of the seventh, the Cavaliers made a desperate run at the lead. Freshman catcher Andrew Riesenfeld started the rally with a single to right. An error and a walk loaded the bases for Virginia infielder Robbie Marvin, who cracked a two-run single to right to score Riesenfeld and Ryan Kalamaya. Marvin finished the day with a career-high four hits.
"We have some injuries, but hopefully we can have the attitude we did against Florida State because we came out three games against them and played all out," Marvin said. "But we can't just do that against the No. 1 team in the country. We have to do that against everyone, especially our in-state rivals."
Shortstop Tim LaVigne followed Marvin's single with a three-run triple. Freshman right fielder Ben Himes capped the six-run inning for the Cavaliers with an RBI single that cut the Spider lead to 16-8.
In the top of the sixth, Virginia found an answer to the powerful Richmond offense with the pitching of Dan Street. Working as a set-up man for closer Tim LaVigne, Street pitched two scoreless innings. Lavigne was then able to come into the game and blank the Spiders in the final two frames, but the Virginia offense could not make up the eight-run deficit.
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