May 15, 2009

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Junior Matt Zielinski fired the third complete game of his career, leading the Richmond baseball team past La Salle, 9-3, Friday afternoon at Hank DeVincent Field in Philadelphia. Zielinski fanned seven and scattered seven hits in the victory.

Senior RF Ryan Metzroth finished the game four-for-five with an RBI and two runs scored, while sophomore 1B Mike Mergenthaler had three hit of the Spiders' 15 hits. Andrew Lowry's second triple of the season - a bases-clearing, three-run shot to left in the fourth inning - was the big blow.

The victory improved the Spiders to 22-24 overall, 11-15 in A-10 play. The Explorers slipped to 18-30, 7-18.

In the return to his hometown, the Southampton, Pa. native faced just three hitters over the minimum though five scoreless innings and the three runs he allowed were the first against him in three career starts in Philadelphia. He went seven scoreless innings to get the win at Saint Joseph's in 2007 and six scoreless frames at Temple in 2008. The lefty has allowed just 16 hits with 15 punch outs in those three starts (1.23 ERA).

Zielinski threw 121 pitches against the Explorers in his second win of the season (2-4). His other career complete games came in wins at Massachusetts in 2007 and at Dayton last season.

Richmond played small-ball to draw first blood and break the scoreless tie in the third inning. Phil Ruzbarsky walked, Lowry moved him over with a sacrifice bunt and Victor Croglio's single down the third-base line gave the Spiders a 1-0 lead.

With Zielinski dealing, the Spiders made it 2-0 in the fourth thanks to a Metzroth single. With the bases loaded later in the inning, Lowry's line drive to left dropped in front of Jon Gyles, rolled all the way to the wall and the sophomore cruised into third with his second triple of the season. All three runners scored, making the score 5-0.

Back-to-back doubles by Cameron Brown and Mergenthaler gave the Spiders a 6-0 advantage in the fifth.

Zielinski cruised through five scoreless innings, but the Explorers finally dented the scoreboard in the sixth when John Malloy got the inning started with the 200th hit of three-year career - a two-out single. Malloy scored thanks to Marc Schoch's double.

The Spiders tacked on insurance in the eighth when Metzroth came home on a double-play ground out, and two more crossed the dish in the ninth on Brown's sac fly and Billy Barber's RBI single.

La Salle picked up two more runs on two hits in the ninth.

Kevin Fuqua was knocked around for 12 hits and seven runs in seven innings and suffered the loss (4-5).

The teams conclude the three-game series and Richmond goes for the sweep Sunday at 1 p.m.